THE
ESE ORURU CONUNDRUM; AND WHY NO ONE IS
REALLY TO BLAME
On the 2nd of March while Ese
Oruru was being united with her family, a lady friend of mine whom I was
following the case on TV with said to me, “you know this case is overblown”. It
spiked an argument between us that lasted over three hours but much later I
began to see sense in her stance.
I began to notice women at the age of
thirteen, but then no lady was paying particular attention. I was in JSS 3 and
the topic of discussion among my peers was basically how to woo girls. Later
I got to realize that girls also felt the same way, that we were not alone.
Maybe it was because of the hormones estrogen and testosterone coursing through
our veins.
Since the past weeks, the media has been awash with the news of how fourteen Ese
Oruru was kidnapped from her parents’ home in Yenegoa, taken to Kano, converted
to Islam, married against her will and renamed. The argument far has been on if
Ese did the above mentioned in her own volition or under duress. We also argue
about the parenting skills of her parents and their stance on the case. Just
like every other story, there are always different sides to it.
Yinusa Dahiru is a Muslim boy from Kano state, he has no record of
any form of western education besides the Almajiri school he attended. He was
taught Islamic laws which consider a girl
of 12 years ripe enough for marriage. Yinusa found a bride in the Oruru family where he is no stranger but
knowing that his request for marriage would be bluntly turned down, decided to
elope with Ese whose raging hormones tell her that she has found her prince charming
and needed no vampire compulsion to go along with the plan. Who then should we
blame, Ese, Yinusa or her parents? I have an idea.
The Nigerian law states that sexual
relations with anyone below the age of eighteen is
considered statutory rape and punishable by the law. Yet, this same country has
about 55% of her citizenry practicing the Islamic religion where child marriage
is not a crime. Now, how do you reconcile, a religious law contradicting a
state law which it is under? And we do
know that people tend to more patriotic and defensive to their religion in this
part of the world compared to their nation. No wonder Yinusa’s mother started to complain that her house has been turned
into a sort of Mecca for no reason. Would you blame the woman? No you won’t. She probably has watched the sons of her friends get married to pretty underage
girls and live happily and then suddenly when it’s her turn, it becomes a
national problem. A crime has been committed and Yinusa is in custody awaiting
trials while a certain Nigerian lawmaker has a 12 years old bride from Egypt
and up till date no one has much as served him
papers. The senator who knows the law defaults and goes Scot free while an Almajiri
boy who does not even understand fully why he is being punished has a case
makes national news. Hmm, what an irony!
Who is Ese Oruru? Ese is more than a 100
million Nigerians. Not just the teenagers but the adults and the aged people as
well. My maternal grandmother got married at the age of fourteen, I remember my
primary five teacher, who was a pensioner then, tell us she married at the age
of 12. I dreamt of women at the age of 13 but I had to wait three more years
before I had my first contact and it was with a much older lady. I enjoyed it
and I do not want her behind bars for any reason because she slept with a boy
less than 18 years of age; a law I never even knew existed until I was in my 2nd
year in the university. Look at some of our celebrities, Genevieve Nnaji and
Clarion Chukwurah got pregnant before they were eighteen. Have the men who put
them in the family way been indicted? Especially in the case of Chukwurah who
was with a popular Nigerian musician Sir Shina Peters. The answer is no. So
what is all the fuss about? Truth be told, a greater percentage of Nigerians,
whether Christians or Muslims, where either deflowered as a minor or has
deflowered a minor.
Many countries of the world have the age
limit set at 16 years, some European countries even have theirs set at 14
years. Nigeria should review their laws but before this is done there should
first of all be a continuous sensitization programs in both primary and
secondary schools teaching them the laws guiding their sexuality, as I can say
with utmost certainty that 99% of them are ignorant of this. Then Nigeria
should also find a way to reconcile their constitution with some of their
religious practices.
This is not a plea to exculpate Yinusa
Dahiru. Ignorance of the law is said after all not to be an excuse, and he
acted irresponsibly by eloping with a minor without parental consent. For that
he should be punished. I do believe that no one is really to blame and that this case is being overblown because it just happened to be the one out of millions,
so I pray them to taper justice with
mercy.
Dubem
Val
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