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Tag: Ese

  • BBNaija housemates face second mock eviction

    BBNaija housemates face second mock eviction

    …As Jon, Ese make smooth exit

    The tension was not too intense in this week’s supposed ejection from the Big Brother Naija show, as no particular housemates were marked for possible eviction. Even when Bally and Ese were called out by Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, the others housemates were hopeful about their return. “Guys you’re coming back. It’s a lie…,” said Uriel, even as others nodded their heads in agreement.

    No real eviction took place because Biggie had cancelled the nominations after some housemates broke the rules by conspiring against others for nomination. It was the same positive feeling when Bisola and Jon were sent to the arena.

    The twist ended with a fantastic game and holiday for two in Paradise. It happened that only the two fake housemates- Ese and Jon – were out via an easy exit that left no room for suspicion.

    Recall that Bally and Bisola had immunity from their previous tasks in the house.

    While Bally had discovered the green card which he held on to in the last two weeks, Bisola’s immunity came via last week’s eviction show game that had her playing alongside Bassey and TBoss. Bisola got her question correctly and was immuned from nomination. Bassey got his question correctly too, and enjoyed a traditional dish of his choice. TBoss however missed her question and had to wash the dishes for the entire week.

    As Jon and Ese made their ways out of the holding room, Bisola, who had bonded well with, especially the latter, got emotional, while Bally looked confused.

    For the other eight housemates, Ebuka called them to the arena for a nomination game. There were 30 envelopes on the table from which housemates were asked to pick one. They were all unlucky, and are up for possible eviction next week: Bassey, TBoss, Efe, Marvis, Debbie-Rise, Kemen,  ThinTallTony and Uriel. However, only the would-be Head of House, after tomorrow’s task will be immuned for possible eviction. Unlike before, Biggie has ruled that the Head of House’s power cannot save or replace any housemate.

    While Jon and Ese joined Ebuka on stage, the host described them both as the ‘best fake housemates’ in the history of the show.

    Jon said that the fact that the game looked like he was there to take over from Miyonse, who had been evicted earlier, made it difficult for him to hatch his plan against TBoss.

    Blindfolded, Bally and Bisola were led to their surprised vacation abode by two ninjas. Biggie said they will be in that juicy isolation for a couple of days.

    On who might win the show, he said, “I used to think it would be Efe, but now it looks like it might be ThinTallTony.”

    For Ese: “I think it’s between ThinTallTony and Bisola,” she said.

    Just before the mock eviction show, Nigerian songstress, Emma Chukwugoziam Obi, aka Emma Nyra sang her popular dance hall/reggae influenced song, ‘Drop It’. Her performance was followed after a short interval, by that of the earlier advertised sonorous singer, Simi, who serenaded the crowd with ‘Love Don’t Care. When she returned for her second performance, Simi took the show higher with her mid-tempo afro pop song, ‘Jamb Question’.

    The next eviction show holds on Sunday, March 5. And viewers in Nigeria are expected to text the word “Vote” followed by their preferred housemate’s name to 32052. While for the rest of Africa, fans are told to follow the AfricaMagictv official account on WeChat and click on the menu option ‘BBNaija’ and select their preferred housemate. Voting will open at 21h00 WAT on Monday, February 27 and will close at 20h00 WAT on Saturday, March 4, 2017.

    Sponsored by online retail store, PayPorte, the show is aired 24/7 in 45 countries from Nigeria through East, West and Southern Africa on all DStv packages on channel 198 and GOtv channel 29.

  • #BBNaija: Day 30, Housemates battle fear, superstition, phobia

    #BBNaija: Day 30, Housemates battle fear, superstition, phobia

    Following cancellation of the week-five nominations for eviction, Big Brother, also known as `Biggie’ and owner of the #BBNaija house, introduced superstitions and phobia as the theme for the task for the housemates.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that little did the housemates know that Biggie would add a twist to the task by asking them to eat “irregular” food in order for him not to reveal those secrets.

    Before the commencement of the eating task, Biggie warned the Housemates that should they opt not to eat what was on their plate, they would be at his mercy and he could choose to reveal their secrets.

    Consequently, to avoid being exposed, the housemates took turns to eat in a true fear factor style the plates of food containing spaghetti, mince meat, chicken and beef containing blood.

    Marvis, Jon, Efe, Ese, Kemen and Bisola took turns to eat the “disgusting” meals prepared for them.

    Efe chews Biggie’s “meal”

    Bassey would rather eat the food than have his secret in the open, Debie-Rise contemplated her secret and followed Bassey to eat at the table.

    Uriel could not watch Marvis chowed down her food to keeping her secret safe.

    When Efe struggled to finish his food, Biggie told him to take a sip of water and continue stressing that “Efe’s secret is safe.’’

    Kemen, Head of the House (HoH) also opted to keep his secret safe and chewed down his food while Bisola prayed for strength as she struggled to keep her food down.

    All the #BBNaija housemates struggled with the challenge except for ThinTallTony who ate his meal with pleasure to the extent of licking his plate clean.

    When all the Housemates had completed the challenge, Kemen appealed to Biggie to give TBoss who threw up earlier another chance.

    After much consideration from Biggie, the request was granted.

    TBoss went through the challenge with tears in her eyes, gagging and drinking water at every chance she could get.

    Cheering her on was ThinTallTony. She completed the challenge eventually and Biggie congratulated the Housemates for completing the challenge.(NAN)

  • Ese , Yinusa and the tragedy of a divided nation

    We may not have been together if not for the 1914 amalgamation. But since the artificial wedding took place over a century ago, it is quite surprising how and why we remain divided in the face of various integration plans and programs to keep us united.

    Few weeks ago when the Ese Oruru saga broke out, it again showed to the world how divided a nation amalgamated over a hundred years ago is. The Ese Oruru saga, prove once again that we have only been struggling to live in harmony with one another and always looking for the slightest opportunity to go against each other.

    Worse as our division is, we are not only divided along regional or ethnical line, but we are so divided along numerous lines and that only calls for concerns for a nation dreaming of development and prosperity. One wonders how we have managed to stay together as a nation in the midst of these divisions all these years.

    The Ese Oruru saga was a crime committed by one man, but instead for the culprits to be condemned and cautioned, the criticism and blame came on his region, his religion and his people. A fallacy that was borne out of bigotry and hate.

    While a few people directly condemned the criminal act committed by one Mr. Yinusa Dahiru, who is alleged to have abducted Ese, forcefully converted her to Islam, possibly hypnotized her and assaulted her sexually, a huge number of people took advantage of Mr. Yinusa`s action and descended mercilessly on his region and religion. Hence, the northern region came under attack alongside the Islamic religion.

    It is my belief that no religion supports violence. People are violent but hide under the guise of one form of religion, region or the others to justify their criminality. But a nation divided along these lines will not consider it that way. It will rather take advantage of the act and attack the whole region or religion involved.

    A country that is so desirous of making any form of progress in this tough and competiveness world cannot stay divided and expect any form of progress. The point is; a divided nation will continue to grasp for development and prosperity in the face of abundant opportunities.

    We cannot as a nation hope to achieve the founding dreams and aspirations of our founding fathers while we stay divided. Not possible! If we must achieve greatness, we can only achieve it together.

    Change comes with numerous responsibility- one of which is to be united. No divided nation has attained that which they wish and dream of.

    Either child marriage, abduction, baby factories, rituals, vandalism and the likes, a crime is a crime- we must stay united to condemn it outrightly without tagging any region or religion.

    There is no justification for doing the wrong thing and perpetrating evil. Evil is evil. It has no other name but evil. People choose to do evil and sort for justification for it. Those who do evil should be seen as evil and not their religion or region.

    Men will always want to justify is criminality, but it does not make evil less evil. Don`t conform to that! If evil is perpetrated by someone in the North/South/Middle-Belt by Christian/Muslim/Pagan, condemn it. Evil has no religion or region!

    You can not condemn the whole north or a particular religion because of Ese saga and other related crimes. Likewise can you not condemn the whole south or a particular religion for baby factories, vandalism, and other related evils.

    When you condemn a crime, do not do it with an intention to sway a religion/region- that also is evil. Just condemn it outrightly!

    If one from or not from your religion or region derives pleasure in crime, condemn it. Not his/her religion or region.  If we unanimously condemn evil irrespective of who is involved and not tag it, in no time far from now, we would have a saner society. But if those in the North/South/Middle-Belt, Christian/Muslim/Pagan keep defending the evil perpetrated by one of their own, we would continue to live in a society where evil works and reigns. At the end, when evil reigns, the people suffer!

    God Bless Nigeria.

    – Ogundana Michael Rotimi is a Nigerian Biochemist, Socio-economic & Political Commentator, and Public Speaker. He tweets @MickeySunny.

  • Ese, Yunusa and the vulnerable

    Ese, Yunusa and the vulnerable

    ON the day he was arraigned in court in Bayelsa, the man accused of abducting the then 13-year-old Ese Oruru exuded calmness and confidence. No one knows whether the composure of the accused, Inuwa Dahiru, more popularly called Yunusa or Yinusa, was prompted by what he believes to be his innocence or whether he simply couldn’t grasp the weight of the crimes alleged against him. Or perhaps he was too young and idealistic to care. When the story of the abduction and forced conversion of Miss Oruru first broke, the impression noised in many quarters was that Mallam Dahiru was probably in his 30s taking paedophilic advantage of a very young, devout and impressionable southern Christian girl just clocking teenage. Soon, the alleged abductor, whose photograph was yet to be published anywhere, was made out as a 28-year-old man. Eventually, when one newspaper spoke with his father, the elderly Dahiru revealed that his son was 25 years old. Shortly before the suspect was dragged to Abuja for interrogation, some newspapers disclosed that he was actually 22 years old. Then finally, on his charge sheet, the prosecuting authorities managed to transform him, according to a newspaper report, into an 18-year-old teenager.
    Nothing exemplifies the exasperating complexity of this controversial case as the manner in which Mallam Dahiru became progressively younger in the space of a few weeks. One or two newspapers had late last year presented the news as a case of elopement involving an older Hausa trader, who was also a tricycle operator, and a younger and outgoing Urhobo girl living in Yenagoa with her parents. At the time, whatever crime was insinuated into the escapade was believed to be mitigated by the adventurous willingness of the two so-called lovebirds to travel to Kano for an idyllic existence. The police, however, faced a conundrum separating the wheat from the chaff. But by late February, the story had become a definitive one of abduction, clash of cultures and religious bigotry in which the police and Kano’s emirate and religious authorities were complicit. The matter was compounded by pussyfooting police hierarchies, from the Bayelsa Command to the Kano Command, and disapprovingly thence to the Police Headquarters in Abuja.
    Though there were too many missing pieces in the story when it took on force in February, the news nonetheless went viral locally and internationally, lathered by emotive reactions all round, from what was alleged to be a complicit Kano Emirate authority, specifically the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, to what police authorities in Abuja feared were dithering Kano Police officers, and finally to the state’s religious authorities, the Sharia Commission, and the religious police, the Hisbah. It was tough for a dispassionate analysts to navigate the treacherous waters of the alleged abduction. Indeed, it was safer for everyone who mulled over the story to simply conclude that the accused, Mallam Dahiru, being true to the northern type, forcibly took Miss Oruru from her parents, perhaps through hypnosis or other superstitious means, converted her against her will to Islam with the connivance of typically northern Jihadists, had carnal knowledge of an underage girl, and put her in the family way.
    But by the time the legal fireworks will have settled, the abduction story may quake with doubt, as Mallam Dahiru himself hinted on the day he was charged in court. Miss Oruru’s stories, including how she got to Kano, and her relationship with the suspect, will indeed be put to the test, destabilised by its numerous gaps. What will not be threatened, irrespective of how old those involved in the saga are, is that the young girl left Bayelsa without parental consent, and the sex between the two, whether it was consensual and predated the alleged abduction, as Mallam Dahiru argued, or was coerced as the victim’s mother suggested, was between an older man and a minor. In the weeks ahead more light will be shed on the story and the public’s mood will doubtless fluctuate as the story ebbs and flows between facts and fiction.
    The story and the ensuing court case will once again offer Nigeria the opportunity to grapple with the dark areas of national life which it has preferred to downplay for decades. If the country’s leaders appreciate the complexity of the issues involved, they will see it as an opportunity to take another look at the political, cultural and religious fissures distorting development and jeopardising ethnic and religious amity in the country. The fissures are indeed worrisome, and the periodic eruptions they have triggered over the decades should instruct Nigerians that living in denial is not an option. For instance, when the Kano State Shariah Commission orchestrated the sequestration and conversion of Miss Oruru to Islam despite her age, they easily played into the hands of those who suggest that at bottom some northern public officials unthinkingly harbour destructive jihadist instincts, which they are eager to indulge in in flagrant disregard to the country’s constitution and without a care as to its disruptive, divisive and incendiary potential.
    Those who masterminded the said conversion also give the impression they are a law unto themselves and, if Kano State Government’s denial of knowledge of the Oruru case is to be believed, do not report to anyone. It may be time to set out exactly how local laws and edicts relate to the constitution in a secular society, and what level of deference to traditional and religious authorities law enforcement agents can demonstrate.
    Even if parental control was lax in the Oruru case, as many commentators have argued, and the Child Rights Act is yet to be domesticated in many states, especially in the North, it may be time to examine afresh the difficult and complex attitude in these parts toward sex. That attitude, to put it mildly, is deeply troubling. Except Mallam Dahiru’s age can be truly established to be 18 as claimed in the charge sheet and by his lawyer, thereby narrowing the psychological and physiological divide between Miss Oruru and the accused, sex with minors is rather more pervasive than many care to acknowledge. Former Zamfara State governor, Ahmed Sani, idiosyncratically lent political and religious weight to the disturbing trend of viewing sex as an epicurean pastime, with the procurer of sex almost completely detached from the object of sex, akin to what obtains in the animal kingdom. The way the world views sexual preferences is morphing considerably; who can tell whether in time paedophilia would not become lawful just as gay relationships, marijuana use, and other habits the world frowned at many decades ago have managed to compel the obliteration of barriers?
    Not only will there never be a consensus on the topic of sex as far as many religions and cultures are concerned, with spatial differences manifesting in disturbing hues, the issues of divorce, rape, marriage — whether monogamy, polygamy, polyandry or gay union — will, with the aid of technological advancement, increasingly elicit fundamental changes in the people’s attitude to sex in ways never anticipated. Younger people have access to pornographic media unlike at any other time in human history, and are in consequence altering their behaviour, if not their biology, along clearly hedonistic lines. Crazy selfies, sexting, not to talk of lowering the age of consent, for which the laws and sometimes religions may be compelled to play ignoble catch-up, have been thrown into the dangerous mix. Mallam Dahiru suggests he had had sex with Miss Oruru even before they travelled to Kano. It is not yet clear whether the victim will be put in the dock, nor how it will established the accused is telling the truth. However, teen and even pre-teen sex, including child grooming for sex, are more rampant than many believe. The whole thing is a crazy obsession.
    The constitution and the laws of the land can to some extent help Nigeria make sense of the problems associated with sexual and amorous relationships, notwithstanding the cultural differences between the North and South of Nigeria. But they will in the long run prove ineffective in regulating sexual preferences, including lowering the age limit of sexual experience. The problem is uniquely human. With the ubiquitous availability of mobile and explicit images on various media platforms, the availability of a whole pharmacy of drugs and aphrodisiacs employed to push sex beyond unimaginable frontiers and inhibitions, and a cornucopia of shifting attitudes to sex — lawful or not — unmitigated by ethics of any kind or origin, there will be more stories like that of Mallam Dahiru and Miss Oruru, if not worse. It is not for nothing that the oldest profession in the world is prostitution in which both man and woman — not just woman, as is often portrayed — are customers.
    The Ese-Yunusa abduction trial will likely peter out into fatuity, of course after some salacious details have been revealed. Perhaps the SUV, and the identities of the accompanying two police escorts, which ferried Miss Oruru to the emir’s palace when the case was listed for hearing would be unearthed. A few policemen will be punished for dereliction of duty, and perhaps Kano State may be also be forced to re-examine the relationship between some of its statutory bodies and the constitution even in a defective federalist set up. But neither the abduction/elopement story — depending of course on what the courts find out — nor the trial itself will have any consequence on ossified and prevalent social attitudes and cultural and religious stereotypes.
    There will be intensified calls and demand for greater activism to persuade more states to domesticate the Child Rights Act, and the laws on marital relationship, rape and domestic violence may be strengthened. Even then, Nigerians may have to moderate their optimism, for as everyone knows, the country’s problem is not so much the absence of laws as the incompetence and lack of will in enforcing them. Until the country can make up its mind what kind of society it really wants to be, competently define its personality, which is at the moment seemingly bipolar, and cast in granite the rights and obligations of citizens even within the purview of their cultural differences and antagonisms, little will be gained by any effort to redress grave moral wrongs.

  •  The other Ese Orurus

    It took the case of Ese Oruru to open our eyes to the sordid act going on in some parts of the country. It is something that many will never believe can happen in our country. But, it did and from the look of things, it has been going on for years. The affected families could not talk because the system stilled their voices. The best they could do was to blow ‘’muted trumpet’’. Where they lodged complaints, they were denied fair hearing – at police stations, emirs’ palaces and Sharia commissions.

    The families were alone, all alone. Some are still alone today despite the public outcry over Ese’s case. Ese is lucky; she has since been reunited with her family after a seven-month sojourn in another land. She was allegedly abducted from Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, taken to Kano, converted to Islam and married by his suspected abductor, Yunusa Dahiru popularly known as Yellow. Yellow was a regular face at Ese’s mother’s canteen where he and his friends hanged out.

    It is not impossible that he might have developed interest in the  girl there. But as a much older person, he should have known that Ese, who was then 13, is not ripe for an affair. But he was overwhelmed by what he wanted to eat. Using guile and subtlety, he tricked the girl out of Yenagoa and took her to his Tofa hometown in Kano State. His parents rather than ask him how he came about the girl when they were not married kept quite. They were happy that their son has brought a ‘wife’ home. Just like that; is that how to marry? If Ese were to be their daughter would they have been happy if a man took her away like that?

    Yellow, who appeared in court on Tuesday, is claiming that he and Ese are in love. Well, at 18 since that is the age he is claiming, he may know the meaning of love. Besides, he is street wise since he has been fending for himself out there in Bayelsa far from his Kano home state, where his parents live. Ese cannot be said to be as smart as Yunusa and as such she can easily fall prey to his antics. She may have been attracted to fine boy Yellow without knowing what she was getting herself into. Can that be said to be love? This is why parents, especially mothers, should keep an eye on their daughters. I believe that Ese’s mother should also share in the blame of what happened to her child. Yellow has even indicted her with his claim that she was aware of his affair with Ese

    We cannot run away from the religious, ethnic and cultural dimensions of this abduction saga. The culture of Bayelsa and Kano is different. Bayelsa is predominantly a Christian state; Kano is mostly populated by Muslims. In the former, minors are not given out early in marriage; in the latter it is the norm to get girls married at a tender age.  Former Zamfara Governor Ahmed Sani Yarima, who introduced penal Sharia law in his state in 2000, showed the world that there is nothing wrong in marrying a minor when he took a 13-year-old Egyptian girl for wife over five years ago. His action generated controversy, but he got away with it.

    He knew that he could not have tried that nonsense in Egypt without paying dearly for it. This was why he brought the girl, whose father is his driver, to Nigeria to consummate the marriage. Yellow was only following the footstep of northern leaders like Yarima, but unlike his role model he lacks the resources to satisfy his lust. Only few northerners will see something wrong in what Yellow did because majority of them are involved in the practice. So, why won’t Yellow’s father defend his son and declare that ‘’Ese is in love with my son”. Love? What does a 13-year-old girl know about love?

    Ese epitomises other girls who have suffered similar fate and are being held against their parents wish in Kaduna, Bauchi and Zamfara states. 16-year-old Ifeoma Nichodemus was abducted in Zaria, Kaduna State, in May 2014 by a neighbour, simply named Abdullahi. She has been renamed Aisha. Blessing Gopep, 13,  was abducted in August 2015 by two men, simply named Iliya and Umaru in Bauchi. She now bears Mariam. Linda Christopher, 16, was abducted by a man named Shagari in November 2015 in Bauchi. She is now known as Aisha. 13-year-old Progress Jacob was abducted last January by one Musa in Bauchi. She has been renamed Aishat. Lucy Ejeh was abducted at 15 in October 2009 by one Awaisu in Zamfara. She has been renamed Lewusa. Now 20, Lucy has spent five years in a strange territory without her parents’ consent.

    These are the cases we know of because the families have been emboldened to come out following Ese’s case. Many more may still be out there that we do not know about because their families may be shy to come out and tell their stories. These girls deserve their freedom too, just as Ese and 15-year-old Patience Paul, who has been let go in Sokoto after being held for six months. This thing did not just start today. According to Kano State Chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Chairman Bishop Ransome Bello, it has become a ‘’regular occurrence’’ that Christian leaders have resigned to fate.

    It is sad that a thing like this is happening in our country and right under the noses of some of our leaders, who are now feigning ignorance. If the media had not latched on to the Ese case, it is possible that she may still be in Yellow’s home today.

    There is no other name to call this practice than indecent, barbaric and bad. No religion supports the abduction of a minor for marriage because marriage is a union of two consenting people. Northerners may be in support of this indecent practice because it favours the region in the sense that its boys are winning more converts into Islam. But how will they feel if their girls should start to abduct boys of other faith and bring them home for marriage? Will they accept such boys as their in-laws and allow them to stay in the family home? In this wise, I know that what is sauce for the goose will not be sauce for the gander.

    If they cannot bear to see their girls bring those they refer to as kafir home for marriage, why then are they comfortable with their boys doing to others what they would not want done to them?  The  media has not done anything bad in its handling of this matter because there is no way it could have done its job without stepping on powerful toes;  the toes, that is, of those that did not want the story out.  The fact is the North must rise as one to stop this indecent practice of snatching little girls and forcefully converting them to Islam before marriage. Force, the Yoruba say, is not applicable in buying and selling

  • Ese: The new face of slavery

    Ese: The new face of slavery

    The story of Ese Oruru, the hapless Ijaw girl from Bayelsa State who was recently rescued from the claws of a paedophile, Yunusa Dahiru, aka Yellow, is typical of a running episode in a soap opera. The intensity of the discourse generated by this unfortunate incident is bound to reverberate for a long time to come.

    Ever since Ese’s case became a national topic, so many hitherto hidden atrocities committed against the girl-child in Nigeria are gradually coming to the fore. Many parents whose children had suffered similar fate as Ese have become rather emboldened to come forward to make their ordeal public. By the last count, no fewer than five other little girls had been identified by their parents as having been abducted, forcefully converted to Islam and forcibly married by their captors without any recourse to their families. Incidentally, those involved in this shameful act are from the same part of the country and they belong to the same faith.

    Surprisingly, all these abductions have followed the same pattern, the same methodology. Like in a bad dream, the children are suddenly whisked away by the predators into some sort of hiding where they are summarily converted into Islam with a change of name in which the victims have no say, and then they are converted to wives of the adventurous paedophiles. Quite unfortunately too, these dastardly acts are usually wholly supported by the abductors’ families and Muslim clerics. The argument often put up by the clerics is that such arrangement is sanctioned by Islamic Sharia law. This is a puerile argument that has no basis in Islamic law. It is apparent that these so-called clerics are crooks themselves. All they do is to interpret Islamic laws to suit their evil intentions and purposes. These are the people who create doubt and suspicion in the minds of non-Muslims who view their actions as purely evil and criminal.

    In actual fact, what the Muslim holy book, the Quran, stipulates is that any marriage to be consummated under Islamic law must have a guidance. This also includes a situation where the bride is even a slave. The same thing applies to the procedure or process of converting a person to Islam. In this case, it is expressly stated that nobody should be compelled to become a Muslim. It must be of his or her own personal volition or conviction, not through any threat, intimidation or hypnotism as was evident in the case of Ese and the others who are now still languishing in the den of their captors.

    The sad thing about all these cases of abductions is that these criminals are just exploiting the weaknesses in our public institutions to perpetrate their nefarious acts. In Ese’s case, despite the spirited fight put up by the girl’s parents, particularly her mother, to retrieve her from her abductor, she consistently ran into a stonewall. First, the police were not that forthcoming and the Sharia Commission, set up by the Kano government to adjudicate in such matters, was transparently complicit in the crime by offering protection for Yunusa. Even the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi 11, appears to have treated the issue with levity in a most unbecoming manner for such a well-learned, well-exposed and fire-spitting monarch. What the commission members did was an affront to the Emir’s authority. It isn’t funny at all.

    And come to think of it too, if a person at the level of an Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIGP, cannot solve a simple issue as that of Ese, what other knotty issue can such a high-ranking officer solve? Ese’s case lingered on for the whole of six months largely because the police that was constitutionally empowered to solve the issue by whatever means within the law, was found wanting. Their officers merely pandered to the whims and caprices of both the Emir and the Sharia Commission that apparently had no legal basis under the Nigerian law to either interfere or obstruct the police in the performance of their constitutional role of maintaining law and order.

    The questions now are: Why are these northern rascals going after mostly little southern Christian girls? Is there a shortage of women in the north? Is there anything particularly attractive in southern Christian girls that these rascals cannot resist? I could go on and on. I think poverty plays a major role in these cases of abduction. In the case of Ese, the mother sells food in Opolo area of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital. Yunusa and his friends who are mostly tricycle riders and labourers, are her customers. It is this relationship that engendered the familiarity between Yunusa and Ese. It was that familiarity that Yunusa exploited to satisfy his amorous predilection by abducting Ese.

    There might not be a shortage of women or girls in the north but it might be quite an adventure for men from that side to want to go outside their natural habitat to look for suitors. And don’t forget that marriage to underage girls in that part of the country is a norm, a very worrisome one at that. That is why you have debilitating cases of VVF, that is, Vesico-Vaginal Fistula which is very rampant in the northern part of Nigeria. This is an abnormal fistulous tract extending between the bladder (or vesico) and the vagina that allows the continuous involuntary discharge of urine into the vaginal vault. This abnormal medical condition has ruined the lives of thousands of female children in that part of the country because of their premature exposure to sex and child birth.

    Unfortunately, there is no legislation against this evil practice and so it has been allowed to fester. It has assumed the status of an epidemic of a disturbing proportion as hospitals in that part of the country handle countless cases of this self-inflicted ailment year in, year out. Perhaps, not satisfied with the havoc they have so far wreaked on female children in the north, now, the paedophiles are making incursions into the southern parts of the country.

    One thing is that lack of adequate parental control could be another factor aiding this unwholesome child abduction practice. Apart from financial inducements involved, some parents run after their daily bread without caring a hoot about what happens to their children or wards. Even those of them who sell food and other daily needs, sometimes use their female children as baits to either lure or attract patronage to their businesses. Like it is said, familiarity breeds contempt. That is how most of these female children get enticed and entrapped by these predators. The worse thing is that the paedophiles too, have no iota of parental control. They are simply loose cannons.

    Forget about all the talk that Ese’s mother had been nice to Yunusa and that Yunusa only turned around to bite the finger that fed him. What Yunusa did is not something that could be accomplished in a day. It takes a lot of planning and strategising to carry out. He was only clever enough to have successfully concealed his evil intention before he finally struck. After all, it was Shakespeare who said: “There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face”.

    As things are now, it is evident that a new form of crime and criminality is on the upward swing in the society. It is the new face of slavery. There is the need for appropriate measure to check the rising cases of abduction of these innocent girls for the purpose of forceful conversion to another religion and forceful marriage without the consent and approval of their parents. If this trend is not properly checked, it is capable of leading to a major religious and ethnic conflagration in the country. Time is of the essence!

     

  • Ese: odyssey of a nation

    Ese: odyssey of a nation

    The story of Ese Rita Oruru, 14, appears the odyssey of a minor whose youth faces sunset at dawn.

    If indeed she is five months pregnant, she would be only a child, in her womb, carrying another!  That has life-long implications — and complications.

    However, Ese is only a metaphor for a nation at war with itself, but living in denial: permissive youth, distracted families, dysfunctional homes and subverted institutions.  The result: subverted mores, laws and processes.

    Even closer, you see the traditional fault lines: Muslim vs Christian and North vs South; each guarding its turf, and spewing deep distrusts, biases and prejudices.  That unleashes a fierce but mutual cultural antipathy.

    In that moral netherworld, the natural (and rational) sense of universal good or bad is lost.  Evil is never evil without stupid justifications.  Good is never good without asinine reservations.  There is nary a sense of national outrage, no matter how outrageous the crime.

    It is a national and collective tragedy.

    What are the facts here?  Yunusa Dahiru aka Yellow, 25, took Ese Oruru, 13, from her Opolo, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, home to Tofar-Danga, in Kura local government, Kano State.  When the story climaxed, Ese had not only been converted to Islam, she had landed a pregnancy, at a mere 14 years!

    A unanimous Nigerian outrage should have greeted Yellow’s misconduct, which clearly landed Ese in yellow peril — and there is outrage, all right.

    But that anger is modulated by regional biases: moderated to protect, from ridicule, the northern ethos, no matter how skewed; or over-flared, to express southern ire, to the point of cultural and religious profiling.

    However, religious profiling also introduced a cross regional inanity: the imperative to defend your faith, no matter what, under mass attack.  That would explain the rather ridiculous intervention, with all due respect to the scholar, by Prof. Ishaq Akintola, director of Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC).

    He claims Islam has no age barrier in marriage — a right claim, experts in Islamic jurisprudence say, but in a wrong context.  In the context of the Ese saga, does it then mean a 13-year-old can be married off, even with the consent of her parents?

    To the extent that all foreign faiths, including Christianity and Islam, are cultural imperialism, there is always going to be controversies over the right Islamic position.  But when a foreign culture is hazy, what is the position in Prof. Akintola’s native Yoruba?

    It is clear, however, that the good professor just cracked under a felt anti-Islam blitz.  He had earlier told Punch that Ese’s purported conversion to Islam was a nullity, since a minor couldn’t be converted from the faith of his or her parents.

    But back to reportage and North-South bias, taking Daily Trust (North) and The Sun (South) as examples.

    Daily Trust’s March 6 story: “Ese & Yunusa affair: the untold story” gave the impression Yunusa and Ese were some love-struck Romeo and Juliet, that eloped to marry, shunning opposition from their respective parents.

    But the very supposition, that a 13-year-old can “elope” with a 25-year old, is galling.  That would appear a clear deodorisation of clear crime; and suggests some social permissiveness, which the newspaper may not be proud of, but felt obliged to rationalise.

    That was unfortunate because even if Ese really “eloped”, in the eyes of the law, she did not know what she was doing.  So, it was the lawful duty of the adult, Yunusa, to caution and redirect her.

    Besides, why did he take the girl to Kano and not remain in Yenagoa?  A damning motive that suggests Kano offered a more socially permissive milieu to whatever he planned to do?

    On the other hand, The Sun of March 7 interviews  with Ese and mum: “I don’t know how I got to Kano” (Ese) and “Irate youths almost killed me at emir’s palace” (mum), gave the impression Ese’s parents were victims of daughter’s kidnap by a total and unconscionable stranger.  Facts don’t support that.

    For starters, even from The Sun interviews, how come Mrs Oruru quickly connected her daughter’s disappearance with Yunusa’s, if Ese’s family and Yunusa did not have some prior relationship?

    From the Trust story, it turned out Yunusa had known the family for no less than 10 years.  So, in all of those years, how much did the Orurus monitor Ese’s relations to male customers at her mum’s eatery, to ensure the minor didn’t get in harm’s way?

    Still on parents’ negligence, Yunusa’s parents would appear even more indicted.  Yunusa’s father really sounded ridiculous to everyone but himself, when he claimed Ese followed his son willingly, so the Police should release Yunusa.

    Besides, aside from formalising Ese’s purported conversion, what else did Yunusa’s father do to sway his son from his illegal action?

    O, the purported conversion!  There is certainly something grimly cynical about trotting an under-aged girl to a Chief Imam, invest her in a new robe, gift her a new name, and declare her a Muslim, newly minted!

    And it is extremely provocative for fellow Nigerians, of different faiths, to helplessly suffer the capture of their children and wards, because they are locked up in emirs’ palaces, as trophies of forced conversions and worse: forced marriages.

    Ese’s is only one of hundreds of such crimes, though mercifully, she was not forcefully married before her seven-month odyssey ended.

    Such brazenness drives the southern profiling of the North, an unfortunate profiling that labels that region as some paedophiles’ haven, in which every single being is guilty.  That cannot be.  But that is why northern governments should deal with their deviants — and be clearly seen to do so.

    Back to the Trust story, one is rather impressed at the robustness of northern traditional institutions, at the centre of which is the Emir’s Palace: the office of the district head, the Hisbah Board, the Shari’ah  Commission, leading all the way to the Emir’s Palace.

    That the palace voided Ese’s purported conversion, on her procured age of 18, underscores robust checks-and-balances, that result in self-correction.

    Unfortunately however, there would appear wilful human subversion of processes, as those institutions are robust.  A serious case is Ese’s pregnancy.  If indeed she was under the care of  one Muquaddas Kura, an aide of the Kura district head, who got her pregnant under his roof?

    Again, the Kano government (and by extension, other northern governments) should weed off such wilful subversions, to eliminate charges of institutional cover-ups.

    But for those subversions, Ese would perhaps have been set free in a week or two, and thus forestall the pregnancy she now carries.  So, all those involved in that subversion and cover-up, from the Emirate Council to the Police, should be fished out, prosecuted and punished.

    By the way, why hasn’t anyone spoken to Yunusa?  Why is he quoted through secondary sources, when he is alive to state his own side?

    After all said and done, Ese is pregnant, a mere child carrying a child.  Beyond the tempest of blame and counter-blame, this national shame won’t not be over until she is well taken care of; and her future rehabilitated.

  • Ese: don’t mix criminality with religion, say Soyinka, Falana

    Ese: don’t mix criminality with religion, say Soyinka, Falana

    Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka and activist-lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) yesterday condemned the Federal Government’s failure to prosecute Senator Ahmed Yerima who allegedly married an Egyptian girl of 13.

    Soyinka said failure to punish such acts embolden others to engage in them.

    He also faulted attempts to justify Ese Oruru’s abduction and conversion to Islam.

    At a joint briefing in Lagos, Soyinka and Falana said Ese’s abduction was an act of criminality that must not go unpunished.

    Soyinka disagreed with a professor of Islamic Eschatology and Director of Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Ishaq Akintola, who claimed that Islam has no age barrier in marriage.

    “I want to ask him (Akintola), who invoked religion in the first place? What everybody was screaming was that this was a crime, a criminal act. Who brought religion into a purely criminal act? People should be very careful when they speak. They should take care not to worsen an already inexcusable situation by dragging religion into it,” Soyinka said.

    According to the Nobel laureate, specialists in human physiology had declared that at a certain age, a girl-child is not fit for sexual intercourse with “a grizzled, horny adult”.

    “So, who exactly brings religion into issues of governance, of constitution, of law? We’re saying that there’s something higher than the protocols of any religion, and has to be higher simply because those who inhabit this border called Nigeria belong to more than one religion.

    “There has to be a commonality which directs our conduct, which organises our lives. As inadequate as it is, it is the Constitution.

    “For me – I don’t know about you – the welfare of a child is even more important than money that is stolen. You can always retrieve the money, but when you damage a child with a fistula, which ruins a child for life, if you believe in God, you’re committing a crime against God.

    “If you steal money, you commit crime against the circular society, but when you damage a child because of your own depravity, you ruin that child for life, you traumatise that child, so don’t come and tell me that you’re religious and pious.”

    Soyinka noted that during the Yerima child-marriage saga, scholars highlighted tenets from the Quran which proved Yerima wrong.

    “A governor, now senator, boasts that he has a right to marry and consummated a marriage with a 13-year-old, when it’s proven that he actually paid the father who was a driver in Egypt, and we screamed at the time that this was a crime, not only in Nigeria but in a Moslem country – Egypt; that this was cross-border sex trafficking, in addition to flouting the laws of this nation and Egypt.

    “He took the girl from school and then announces his right to consummate the marriage – that his religion permitted him to do so,” Soyinka said.

    According to him, acts of impunity inevitably lead to problems such as Boko Haram.

    “When you invoke religion, there are others who will say: ‘O, you say you are pious, but I am holier than you, therefore I can interpret that same source the way I want to authorise me to kill you, your wife, your brothers, your family; because I say you’re not holy enough and I can prove it.’ That is what happens when we allow people to get away with impunity based on religion.

    “So, let’s take religion out of this. We’re talking about pure criminality and it is my demand, and will always remain my demand, that until you make an example of people like Yerima, there will be thousands of Yunusa, the man who abducted Ese,” Soyinka said.

    Soyinka said demanding justice for Ese does not mean being against Islam.

    “I sympathise with his (Akintola’s) feeling that his religion is under siege. But he should look for other reasons. He shouldn’t try and suggest that people hate Islam. Don’t say that people are Islamophobic. That’s rubbish.

    “We’re against crimes, defined by the Constitution, the legal structure that bind us all together, and we say leave religion out of it. Any religious practice involves a continuous debate. But when we’re talking about crime please don’t diffuse the subject. When we say Yerima should be prosecuted, don’t diffuse it,” Soyinka said.

    He also faulted the idea that it is culturally acceptable to marry under-age girls. According to him, culture changes.

    “Culture is not static. It’s dynamic. It constantly evolves. There are hard-core materials in any culture, but culture itself, especially the practice, in view of greater knowledge, discoveries, even as a result of learning from other cultures, we adopt what we have always considered sacrosanct, because at the bottom of it all, at the heart of it all, culture is about human beings, about humanity.

    “There’s no culture without humanity. It’s human beings who create culture and who are guided by it and who adapt them.

    “So, when I read anything which suggests that a culture is sacrosanct, I just wonder on what planet they are living, because history contradicts this absolutely.”

    Falana said under Section 38 (2) of the 1999 Constitution, no child of school age should be forced to convert to another religion other than his parents’.

    The section says: “No person attending any place of education shall be required to receive religious instruction or to take part in or attend any religious ceremony or observance if such instruction ceremony or observance relates to a religion other than his own, or religion not approved by his parent or guardian.”

    Falana said Ese was attending a school in Bayelsa State when Yunusa allegedly abducted her to Kano State and forcefully converted her to Islam without her parents’ approval.

    “That is a violation of Section 38 of the Constitution,” Falana said.

    Falana noted that Yunusa’s father had spoken out that he warned his son not to bring Ese to Kano, adding that when the Emir learned of it, he directed security agencies to intervene.

    “There is a United Nations convention for the rights of the child. Nigeria as a UN member ratified the convention and domesticated the law in 2003. Since 2003, we have had the Child’s Right Act. Under Section 15 of the Act, every child in Nigeria shall be educated at the expense of the state from primary to junior secondary school.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, in 2004, we also enacted the Compulsory Universal Basic Education Act that has also imposed a duty on the state to ensure that every child is educated from primary to junior secondary school.

    “In fact, under that law, it is a criminal offence not to allow your child to be educated. What Yunusa has done by taking that girl from her school in Yenegoa is a violation of that law.

    “About 24 states have adopted the Child’s Right Act, and under the law, which is applicable in Bayelsa State, what Yunusa did is purely criminal – kidnapping, forced marriage, rape, sexual assault on a girl who was 13 last year. Now she has been put in a family way. You can imagine the danger to the health of that girl.

    “That is why all Nigerians must rise to retrieve all under-age children that have been forced into illegal marriages. We need a national movement against child marriage in our country,” Falana said.

  • Moves to rehabilitate Ese begin

    Moves to rehabilitate Ese begin

    The 14-year-old Ese Oruru is faced with a battle to overcome the psychological and spiritual trauma she suffered in the hands of Yinusa Dahiru and her eight-month sojourn in Kano State.

    It was gathered that she was seriously battered psychologically and that it would take long period of therapies to return her to her former state.

    The Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Kindling Hope Across Nations Initiative (KHAN) and the Child Protection Network (CPN)  which blew the whistle on the abduction of Ese are now shopping for organisations that could rehabilitate her.

    The Executive Director, KHAN, Mr. Kezito Andah, said rehabilitation which he described as the second phase of justice for Ese, was as important as the securing her release from her abductors.

    Andah, who is also the Secretary of CPN, said they were looking for spirited organisations, individuals and governments that would drive the project of Ese’s restitution.

    He said though some organisations had shown interest in the first phase, but nothing concrete had been established.

    He, however, said that the Bayelsa State government led by Governor Seriake Dickson, was the only institution that had promised to rehabilitate Ese.

    He said: “A lot of work still needs to be done to rehabilitate and reintegrate her. That is the work that remains to be done.

    “The governor has pledged to assist in her rehabilitation and we also have some offers. We have nothing concrete yet. So, I would not like to speak on specifics until we know for sure.

    “We are bothered about the health status of Ese. The person who left here is different from the person we brought back. They renamed her Aisha but the person who left here is Oruru.

    “We still have a lot of work to do to return her back close to what she was before now. We are not just concerned about her physical health, we are also worried about her mental and spiritual health and we will continue to see how we can support the family and Ese to overcome these challenges.”

    Andah further said the they would not abandon the pursuit of prosecution for all the persons involved in the abduction, conversion to Islam and forceful marriage of the minor.

    He said it was unfortunate that the Emirate Council had not deemed it fit to apologise to Ese’s family over unsatisfactory role it played in the incident.

    He said: “We are seeking apology  not just from Yinusa who is an easy scape goat but also from the Kano Emirate Council which failed us massively and the Kano State Police Command which also failed that girl and failed the nation.

  • Ese: Reps to ensure review domestication of Child Rights Act in states

    Bayelsa State caucus in the House of Representatives has said the full weight of the law must be applied on all those involved in the abduction14- year- old Ese Oruru from Bayelsa State.

    Diri Duoye, Sodaguno Festus-Omoni and Fred Agbedi said they are determined to work with other lawmakers and stakeholders in the review and domestication of the Child Rights Act.

    They condemned the action of the abductor, Yunusa  and his accomplices, saying the full weight of the law must be applied on all those involved in the abduction.

    According to Diri Duoye, the caucus was not aware of the case until it was brought to public knowledge  by the media and Civil Society Organizations (CSO) but  swung into action that culminated in the eventual  release of the girl to her parents by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase.

    He said: “We just came back from the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase.

    “We were still in his office when it was confirmed to him (IGP) over the phone that his men have arrived at the Nnamdi Azikwe  International Airport,  Abuja with the girl and her parents on their way to Bayelsa.

    “We were told by the IGP that the abductor is already in police custody.We condemn the kidnap and seek for justice for all those connected with it”.