What!!! See the Nigerian Law That Permits a Husband to Beat His Wife

Posted by Victor on Sat 13th Feb, 2016 - tori.ng

Do you know there's a Nigerian law that permits a husband to beat his wife? Fortunately, civil rights groups are already pressuring the National Assembly to repeal it.

It will amaze a lot of Nigerians to know that there is a Nigerian law which allows for a man to assault his wife.

This law is specifically found in the Penal Code, specifically in Section 55 which provides that a man could beat his wife, so far it does not result to ‎”grievous bodily harm”.

Specifically, section 55 states that, “Nothing is an offence which does not amount to the infliction of grievous hurt upon any person and which is done- (a) by a parent or guardian for the purpose of correcting his child or ward such child or ward being under eighteen years of age; “(b) by a schoolmaster for the purpose of correcting his child under eighteen years of age entrusted to his charge; or (c) by a master for the purpose of correcting a child servant or apprentice such servant or apprentice being under eighteen years of age; or (d) by a husband for the purpose of correcting his wife such husband and wife being subject to any native law or custom in which such correction is recognised as lawful”.

A coalition of over sixty Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, has urged the National Assembly to repeal section 55 of the Penal Code. The group made the call at an interactive session with both the Senate Committee on Diaspora & Non-Governmental Organisations and the House of Representatives Committee on Civil Society & Development Partners, in Abuja.

‎Speaking on behalf of the CSOs, the Executive Director of Centre LSD, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, insisted that there are many laws in Nigeriathat needs to be changed. He regretted that under the aforementioned section, ‎bodily harm was defined as a harm that could lead to someone being hospitalised for at least 21 days.

“The ugly implication here is that ‎when the victim is hospitalised for 20 days; the law does not regard the case as one that resulted to grievous bodily harm. Besides, what happens to those that were not taken to the hospital?

“We as CSOs are therefore using this ‎platform to beg that you people must not leave the parliament and allow that law to remain”. ‎

Besides, Igbuzor, tasked the 8th session of the NASS to handle their oversight functions with sincerity, saying “If the legislature were doing there oversight properly, these monumental corruption we are discovering today would not have taken place”.

In her opening address, the Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Rose Oko, said she would relate the demand of the CSOs to the NASS.