DEAR Aunty Temilolu, I love your write-ups. I am always so blessed. It keeps me on the track and makes my determination intact. Kudos!
Tosin Adebayo
Dear ma,
I’d like to commend your work in God’s vineyard. I am a fan of your column. In an age where chastity is struggling to hold down its feet you have been an encourager, giving hope to those who have made mistakes in the past to rise up and hold on to God’s standard. May God continue to bless you.
Mr. Sunkanmi
My darling, precious, glorious, dignified, world-famous and heavenly celebrated Nigerian sisters,
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ” 2 Timothy 3:3-4(NIV)
Unfortunately, we are all surrounded by the above definition of people in our families, at school, our work place, in church and at practically every point of socialisation. Even your closest friend is likely to have one of such traits. So, babe, how do you intend to deal with such people without getting into trouble and triumph over them? Are you going to deal with them with your peacock struts, your swagger, your false eye lashes, your expensive hair extension, your uncountable instagram and face book posts or your endless surfing on the internet? You had better wake up to reality otherwise those mentioned above could be used by the devil to turn your beautiful life to a nightmare. Perhaps this is one of the reasons we’ve been told to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) because we are surrounded by so much evil and constantly need God on our side. Not only should we make praying a life style, we should also learn to engage in purposeful fasting. Fasting may seem hard at first but it makes life much easier especially if you have a great destiny which would naturally attract so many challenges.
During a fast, you deliberately let go of that which binds you to this physical world–food–in order to receive all your sustenance from the spiritual world. You determine that for a period of time you will deny your physical cravings to focus on your spiritual cravings.
Fasting sharpens our spiritual senses so that we can tap into our divine source and gives us spiritual power. It helps us achieve things that are difficult in the physical. It is a super arsenal which enables us wrestle easily and conquer spiritualities, powers of darkness and wickedness in high places which we are told in the scriptures we have to deal with. It empowers us to shun worldliness and concentrate more on heavenly things. It allows the spirit of God to permeate through us. It helps to get rid of evil spirits we may be surrounded by or bombarded with. It breaks one away from destructive habits such as masturbation and all forms of ungodly sex, smoking, etc. It dispels anger, envy, bitterness, depression, inferiority complex; low self-esteem and all such that’s making life unenjoyable for you. It ignites the fire of God in us and opens our spiritual ears and understanding. It shows us great visions and dreams of things to come. It empowers us not only to stay away from sin but makes us hate it. Its benefits are too numerous.
Reasons you should be a prayer warrior
To discover your life’s original trajectory
I tell you the best time to acquaint yourself with God and have a personal relationship with Him is when you are very young but already have an understanding of what friendship is and who a best friend is. God should be your best friend. Your parents ought to lay a solid foundation for this by making you God-conscious and praying with you day and night asides taking you to church. Whether this foundation was properly laid or not, it’s not too late for you to cultivate a habit of praying possibly at every spare time you have. You need to talk to God continuously so His spirit can direct your footsteps to His divine agenda for you. A lot of youth have been satanically diverted from the path of their glorious destiny. Some get into the university and study courses which would never benefit them, some are in the wrong location and so many end up with the wrong spouses. No matter your unfavourable circumstance right now, prayer changes everything and could bring you what no one in your entire generation has ever enjoyed!
There are more reasons to be a prayer warrior coming your way next week.
Please note – a prayer warrior could be more powerful than the greatest prophets because it is tragic if one can see wonderful visions and cannot pray them to manifestation! May your life align with God’s divine agenda in Jesus mighty name. Amen!
To be continued.
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The Federal Government will dialogue with bonafide leaders of Boko Haram to bring back the abducted Chibok girls, President Muhammadu Buhari has said.
The “degraded” sect recently made an overture to the government for a swap of some of the girls with its detained fighters, in a video posted on Youtube.
In the video, the sect claimed that some of the girls had been married off and others killed in air raids. Following the release of the video, the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaigners renewed their pressure on the government to push for the girls’ release.
It accused the Federal Government of lack of commitment and sincerity towards finding the girls. The group vowed to march on the Presidential Villa every 72 hours.
In an interview with reporters on the sideline of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) in Nairobi, Kenya at the weekend, President Buhari said the government was ready to dialogue with bonafide leaders of the group who know the whereabouts of the girls.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, quoted Buhari as saying: ‘‘I have made a couple of comments on the Chibok girls and it seems to me that much of it has been politicised.
‘‘What we said is that the government which I preside over is prepared to talk to bonafide leaders of Boko Haram.
‘‘If they do not want to talk to us directly, let them pick an internationally recognised Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), convince them that they are holding the girls and that they want Nigeria to release a number of Boko Haram leaders in detention, which they are supposed to know.
‘‘If they do it through the ‘modified leadership’ of Boko Haram and they talk with an internationally recognised NGO, then Nigeria will be prepared to discuss for their release,’’ he said.
Buhari however warned that the Federal Government will not waste time and resources with “doubtful sources’’ claiming to know the whereabouts of the girls.
‘‘We want those girls out and safe. The faster we can recover them and hand them over to their parents, the better for us.’’ he added
The President maintained that the terror group, which pledged allegiance to ISIS, had been largely decimated by the gallant Nigerian military with the support of neighbours from Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin.
He said: ‘‘Some of the information about the division in Boko Haram is already in the press and I have read in the papers about the conflict in their leadership.
‘‘The person known in Nigeria as their leader, we understand was edged out and the Nigerian members of Boko Haram started turning themselves to the Nigerian military.
‘‘We learnt that in an air strike by the Nigeria Air Force he was wounded. Indeed their top hierarchy and lower cadre have a problem and we know this because when we came into power, they were holding 14 out of the 774 local governments in Nigeria. But now they are not holding any territory and they have split to small groups attacking soft targets.”
On the militancy in the Niger Delta, the President said the Federal Government was open to dialogue to resolve all contending issues in the area.
‘‘We do not believe that they (the militants) have announced ceasefire. We are trying to understand them more. Who are their leaders and which areas do they operate and other relevant issues,’’ he said.
Thirty-four teenage girls left the ninth W.TEC Girls Technology Camp penultimate week feeling confident about applying technology to solve various problems.
The girls, drawn from both public and private secondary schools in Lagos and other states, learnt to program, build mobile Apps, animate, create games, and take and edit photos using software applications like Scratch, MIT App Inventor, Alice and others.
They also learnt about business plan development, online branding, and self defense, and went on excursion to Swift Technologies, which provided broadband internet access for the duration of the two-week camp at Laureates College, Mafoluku.
On graduation day penultimate Saturday, the girls happily showcased what they had learnt to their parents and guests. Those whose work was outstanding were rewarded with group and individual prizes for their effort.
The duo of Hafsoh Badirudeen and Mistura Sanni gladly showed off their Mobile Quiz App to this reporter which they developed using the MIT App Inventor in collaboration with three others, Ekundayo Oluwaseyi, Chidinma Nwosu, and Mariam Awotubo.
The quiz game posts Current Affairs questions, which the player must answer correctly to progress on the game. Their app won the Mobile App Development award.
Hafsoh and Mistura said they compiled the questions from their school curriculum.
Emmanuella Okongwu of Orile Girls Grammar School was the first runner up in the individual Mobile App Development category for her application called Talking Tom, which pronounces words typed into it; while Esther Odunsi of Girls’ Senior Academy, Lagos, won the main prize for her painting App. Chidinma Ogbuagu was recognised for developing a photograph-editing app; while Mercy Eze won the award for Scratch Programming for her brick break game, which was lauded for moving in all directions.
Character Prizes went to Sayo Ogunbekun (Miss Purposeful); Chisom Cephas (Miss Capable); Mercy Eze (Miss Blossom); Amidat Amusa (Miss Humour); Miss Juliet Agbate (Miss Congeniality); Adeyemi Omotade (Miss Courageous); Ayobami Ogunfemi (Miss Leadership); and Atinuke Chinemerem-Isreal (Miss Prim & Proper).
Atinuke also won the overall Miss W.TEC prize for being an all-rounder in all aspects of camp life.
W.TEC Programme Manager, Ms Modupe Darabidan, said about 90 per cent of the girls enjoyed scholarships from various sources to attend the camp which cost N50,000 per participant.
“We picked 10 of the girls from our W.TEC After School Academy; the FGGC Sagamu Alumni Association sponsored three girls; four girls were sponsored by the Ovie Brume Foundation; while the Braveheart Initiative from Delta State sent us one of the girls. Laureates College also sponsored four girls. These were apart from some parents who called to tell us they wanted their wards at the camp but could not afford it and we took them. Last year, 90 per cent paid for the camp but the reverse was the case this year,” she said.
Mrs Oreoluwa Lesi, Executive Director, W.TEC, said the aim of the programme is to bridge the gender gap in the use of technology. She said the camp was borne out of research that fewer women use technology and earn money from it than men.
“What we are trying to do is to introduce technology to them in a fun and entertaining way. I was doing my Masters and I found that research showed that there is a big gender gap between men and women. We started with a one-week camp and that was not enough so we increased it to two weeks. Two weeks is enough to give the girls an introduction but it is only scratching the surface. As they go, they need to have access to computers and mobile devices so they can continue to develop.
“We started the W.TEC Academy two years ago because we know the two-week camp is not enough. We run weekly technology camps in 10 public schools. They learn all that is taught in the camp for one academic year. Sixty percent of the girls said they were influenced to study technology-related courses. For those not planning to study technology courses, they are now informed on how to use technology,” she said.
Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed said yesterday that “the Federal Government is doing everything possible to secure the release of the Chibok girls and put an end to the horrible saga of their abduction.”
Reacting to the Boko Haram video of some of the girls, the minister said: ‘’We are on top of the situation. But we are being extremely careful because the situation has been compounded by the split in the leadership of Boko Haram. We are also being guided by the need to ensure the safety of the girls.
‘’Since this is not the first time we have been contacted over the issue, we want to be doubly sure that those we are in touch with are who they claim to be.’’
He expressed the hope that the latest development will signal the beginning of the end of the nightmare to which the girls, their families and indeed all Nigerians have been subjected since the unfortunate abduction.
DEAR Aunty Temiloluwa, I am always elated reading the Girls Club column and pray God strengthens you more. I have always had the passion for fighting for people’s rights, especially girls and making strong impacts that cannot be forgotten in my generation. Although, I am a disciplined girl especially through my upbringing, your column has made me more disciplined and focused to remain chaste no matter what. The great lessons you teach mean you are disciplined and I admire you. Thanks so much.
Oyinloluwa Adediji
Dear Aunty Temilolu,
I can’t remember the exact age I lost my virginity. So many people took advantage of me when I was very small. Though I can only remember four and all of them are my uncles. The most painful part of my story is they took advantage of me more than once. I remember one of them who had his way 7, 8 times. I didn’t realize what they had done to me till I was age 10. And I have not told anyone since. Years after, I have not had sex because if I had my way, I would remain a virgin till my wedding night. When my mates brag about being virgins, I feel bad and cry whenever I am alone. I hate every member of my family because of this. I hate men and boys. I feel I will have complications giving birth and I feel I am “over-loose.” (Sobs). I can’t express myself through the phone and would love to talk to you. I need someone to talk to please. Thanks.
17
My darling, precious, glorious, dignified, world-famous and heavenly celebrated Nigerian sisters,
When you have tomorrow to think about and a most beautiful future ahead of you, why do you have to keep remembering that horrible past? You may have just experienced one of the paths you had to tread in order to get to your glorious destination.
Oprah Winfrey-billionaire T.V.mogul, one time most influential woman in the world and the greatest blackphilanthropist in American history, was molested by her cousin, uncle, and a family friend starting from when she was 9 and impregnated at 14. Joyce Meyer, a minister of God who has one of the largest ministries in history was continuously sexually-abused by her father from childhood till she left home at 18 yet they are 2 of planet earth’s most influential women today. Though one must bear in mind that they are in a more enabling environment where they could heal and pursue their lofty dreams than our environment here. But with God all things are possible. You can get over this as fast as you want provided you can fight for your destiny first by going through some deliverance sessions which if properly done would cleanse you of any curses that may be upon you as a result of your uncles’ incestuous act. Deliverance prayers would also ignite your spirit man with the fire of God and help you discover all God has destined you become in life. Then you can pursue your beautiful destiny.
Perhaps without the horror you were exposed to as a child, you would never run after God and discover the wonderful person you are destined to be and get catapulted to greatness. If you don’t forget the past, you will be very unhappy and you may also have the impression that life is horrible, but hey!!! life is beautiful. Always lean on the power of God who raises the poor out of the dust, the needy out of the dunghill and makes them princes of their people. In fact, if you want to get back at life for kicking you in the teeth, the best way to go about it is to surrender your spirit to God and carry Him on your head. Not only will your life that has been swimming in black pits of despair come out shinning like a sun out of the azure blue sky, you could also be a champion of girls’ rights all over the world. Whoa!
Girls, the world is a very unfair place and no one owes us happiness. We have to find it ourselves and guard it jealously. Please don’t waste your energy and emotions brooding on the past. We need to think positively to have a change in our circumstance no matter how long it has been. Always meditate on exactly how you want life to be and pray about it. God’s thoughts towards us are good and He promises to give us an expected end and-that is what we hope for. And I assure you He’ll send good boys/men your way. Make the most of your situation by looking after the girls around you, ensuring they don’t experience what you went through and life which once rubbished you would someday salute you, reward and celebrate you for the world to see. Now, here’s a hug from
The top three prizes in the 13th Mike Okonkwo National Essay competition for Secondary school pupils will be going to females next month.
Fadilah Saliu-Ahmed of Zamani College, Kaduna scored 75 percent in the first and second stage examination. She beat Barakat Adebayo of Roshallom International School, Egbeda and Wuraola Adeoye of Fountain Height Secondary School, Surulere, both in Lagos, to second and third places.
She will be presented with N100,000, a laptop, plaque, as well as three computers and a printer for her school during the Okonkwo Annual Lecture holding at the MUSON Centre on September 1.
Barakat will getN75,000, a plaque and two computers and a printer for her school; while Wuraola gets N50,000, plaque and a computer.
They submitted entries on: “The State of Nigeria Nation: Redefining Our Values”, which is also the theme of the lecture in the first stage.
For the second stage written at the headquarters of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM) in Lagos, they wrote on “Adopting and Practicing Tolerance as a Core Value in Nigeria” with four other finalists.
The chief examiner of the competition, Prof Akachi Ezeigbo described Fadilah as a natural as she wrote in a way that expressed her understanding of grammatical laws.
Prof Ezeigbo said: “She wrote with tact in a natural and effortless way. Her expressive ability and the application of necessary grammatically disposition clinched her the prize.
She added that stricter measures were employed this year to avoid issues such as collaborating and plagiarism.
“We had 846 entries this year. The organisers introduced a filtering procedure and quality enhancement mechanisms, which ensured that only good and judgeable essays got to the Judges for assessment. The formation of an alumni association is becoming an increasing possibility. This year, incidences of copying, collaboration and plagiarisms that regularly characterize the exercise in preceding years have reduced significantly”.
Consolation prize of N20,000 will be given to fourth placed Oluchi Onyenso of Corona Secondary School, Agbara; Moradeyo Olaitan of Fountain Height Secondary School (fifth); Nathaniel Brown of Ritman College, Akwa-Ibom (sixth); and Ibe Solomon (seventh) of Township Comprehensive Secondary School, Imo State.
The Mike Okonkwo Essay Competition was initiated in 2004, as part of activities to celebrate the birthday of the Presiding Bishop of TREM, Dr. Mike Okonkwo (MFR) and to contribute to the development of the education sector.
Interestingly, there are people who think the publicised May 17 rescue of one of the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists may well be a stunt to credit the President Muhammadu Buhari administration with an important achievement ahead of its first anniversary on May 29. These doubters provide a significant sign of the government’s public rating close to a year after the wind of change that blew the Goodluck Jonathan administration out of power.
This thinking that the Buhari government may have stage-managed the report of teenager Amina Ali’s return amounts to not only a discredit to the government’s credibility, but also a dishonour to Buhari’s advertised integrity. It is food for thought that things have come to such a pass, considering the high public optimism that greeted Buhari’s ascendancy.
It is clarifying that news of Amina’s rescue was corroborated by Chibok Girls Parents Association Chairman Yakubu Nkeki, and the spokesperson of the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) advocacy group, Sesugh Akume.
It is enlightening that Presidential Villa watcher Olalekan Adetayo in a report captured what he called “A presidential treatment for a rescued captive”: “A presidential jet was sent to Borno State to bring her. She came with her mother, her brother and her baby. She arrived the Villa in a convoy of vehicles under tight security. She was driven straight to the forecourt of the President’s office through the Service Chiefs’ Gate. Only privileged few persons are driven through the gate that is reserved for the high and mighty.”
Adetayo also reported: “Amina… was accompanied by the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima; the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali; the National Security Adviser, Babangana Monguno; and the Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonishakin, among other top government officials.”
Buhari perhaps needed the photo opportunity more than Amina. Pictures of the President carrying Safiya, Amina’s baby girl, helped to project a powerful message about state capacity. It is noteworthy that the latest official information indicated that the military had recaptured 20 villages from the Islamist terrorists in 22 days under Operation Crackdown, and had rescued 150 civilians, including Amina.
Although Buhari spoke with reassuring optimism on the possibility of bringing back the schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, Borno State, over two years ago, there is no question that it will take more than positive thinking and expression of hope to get the girls back. “Amina’s rescue gives us new hope and offers a unique opportunity to vital information,” Buhari said. Borno State Governor Shettima sang the same tune, saying, “… 218 girls are not accounted for, but a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, the recovery of Amina Ali, is a sign of greater things to come…”
Apart from Amina’s case, the question concerning the fate of the victims of the outrageous kidnap of April 14, 2014, remains tragically unanswered. Out of the 276 seized students of the Girls Senior Secondary School, Chibok, 57 managed to escape. It is a cause for concern that only Amina has been rescued out of the remaining 219 girls, despite an international campaign that resonated across the world, involving United States First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.
Lamentably, the strident demand for action, particularly political action by the political authorities, which was formulated as #BringBackOurGirls, has not yielded any significant progress in locating and returning the girls. This amounts to governmental failure.
Indeed, the unresolved kidnappings call for political will and fresh creative approaches. As things stand, there is a seeming paralysis that hinders the desired action to get the girls back. In this matter, the government of the day must demonstrate that it is conscious of its institutional and moral responsibilities.
Notwithstanding initial footdragging by the Jonathan administration that was in power when the terrorists struck in Chibok, and the associated complications, President Buhari must rise to the challenge.
It is heart-warming that Buhari said: “Although we cannot do anything to reverse the horrors of her past, the Federal Government can and will do everything possible to ensure that the rest of her life takes a completely different course. Amina will get the best care that the Nigerian government can afford. We will ensure that she gets the best medical, emotional and whatever care that she requires to get full recovery and be integrated into the society.” This is a promise that must be kept.
Importantly, the occasion also yielded what may be considered as a policy position on girl-child education. It was positive that Buhari made a fundamental assertion: “The continuation of Amina’s education so abruptly disrupted will definitely be a priority of the Federal Government. Amina must be able to go back to school. Nobody in Nigeria should be put through the brutality of forced marriage. Every girl has a right to education and their choice of life.” Buhari should take a further step on this issue by officially intensifying the promotion of girl-child education and discouraging forced marriage across the country.
This is where Mohammed Hayatu comes in. He is the suspected Boko Haram terrorist who was found with Amina and who claimed to be her husband. Lagos activist lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) was helpful in defining Hayatu’s status. Falana argued: “The captured terrorist who was arrested with Amina is not her husband but an abductor and a rapist. The media should therefore desist from further referring to the criminal suspect as the husband of the girl…The Attorney-General of Borno State should proceed to charge the terrorist with abduction and slavery, torture and rape without any further delay.”
It is a thought-provoking irony that Baby Safiya bears a name that is contradicted by the circumstances of her birth. Safiya is a Muslim name meaning “pure”. The terrorism that resulted in Amina’s abduction and her subsequent violation by an alleged member of a violent group was not a reflection of purity. It is equally important to protect this baby from possible stigma, and help her to rise above the unfortunate context of her birth.
The celebration of Amina’s rescue and return is not inappropriate. But the other Chibok girls still missing deserve to be brought back too.
An NGO, Jigawa Women Network for Access to Justice (JIWNAJ), on Sunday advised parents of rape victims not to forgive men who rape their children.
The Chairlady of the organisation, Hajiya Uwani Yunusa, gave the advice in Dutse on Sunday in an interview with newsmen.
She further urged parents of such victims to always report such incidents to the appropriate authorities in their respective communities.
Yunusa also warned parents not to wash the genitals of their raped girls until the matter was reported to the police.
She pointed out that this would enable the police to establish evidence when they take the victim to the hospital for confirmation.
“ Some parents are being convinced to forgive people who rape their daughters through reconciliation or dispute and conflict resolution in their communities.
“Parents should always open up and report such cases to the police for appropriate actions to be taken against such suspects.
“You should also not immediately wash the private part of the victim, you should wait until when the case is reported to the police and evidence taken, “ she said.
Yunusa also warned parents, particularly mothers, to always monitor the movements of their female children in order to protect them.
“I am calling on parents, especially mothers, to do their best as God-given duty to protect their children from this recurrent ugly incident.
“You should also desist from sending girl children on street hawking as they mostly fall victims of rape, “ she said. (NAN)
Time’s famous therapy has failed to heal the Chibok wound. The schoolgirls, all 276 of them, were reportedly busy prepping for their exam on April 14, 2014 when Boko Haram insurgents showed up in their school in Chibok village, Borno State and took them away. En route to captivity, 57 managed to escape, we heard, leaving 219 with the abductors till today. It was two years on Thursday since that grim event.
Usually, good old time has a way of sucking off grief and pain in the human system after a period, making it possible for estranged lovers, say, to make up, look each other in the eye and say I forgive you. A cheated businessman grits his teeth and says, Well, I can’t live the rest of my life brooding over that crook. A robbery victim, like the biblical Esau, with murder in his eyes, finally learns the wisdom of forgiveness.
Time does wonders.
But in Chibok, its magic may well have disappeared or, at the least, been dulled. On the gloomy anniversary of the abduction, grief surged through mothers’ plagued bodies afresh, clouding their eyes and, I guess, their minds as well. One woman grabbed her head with both hands, moving her upper body in a split second downward jerk. It was a gesture with a clear message, one of something too hard to bear.
The women were before a computer screen on which was being shown a video recording of some 15 hijab-clad girls believed to be among those abducted two years before.
It was a CNN master report, a scoop, in industry language. The women peered intently. One pointed to one image, as though saying, That’s her, alright. Another reached out and touched the screen, appearing to draw momentary comfort from virtual contact with her beloved daughter.
That footage has been beamed to the world in what has been dubbed the hope of life, almost in the same manner as the image of such celebrities as Michelle Obama clutching BringBackOurGirls placards were viewed globally in those ineffectual days of the Jonathan presidency. Across the world, from Europe to America and beyond, and before world leaders and entertainment icons, such as Wesley Snipes, Nigeria was making all sorts of hideous headlines.
How did the then president and commander-in-chief respond? He responded with an emphatic I-do-not-believe-it, a disposition that would last for nearly three weeks before he set up a committee to determine if it was true or not. Before the committee turned in its report, which in any case confirmed the obvious, it was a good one month since the girls were taken away, in which time hope of rescue was all but foreclosed.
If Dr Goodluck Jonathan realised that he had lost valuable ground, that the missing girls were as tormented, wherever they were, as were their parents, and that the eyes of the world were on him, he did not show it convincingly. Thus, when he was dressed up in some ill-fitting military battle gear and headed for the Northeast, then stomping ground of the sect, he could only draw a hopeless sigh from the people over whom he presided. When he announced languidly on national TV that the military had combed the much-trumpeted Sambisa forest and found nothing, even he knew that he could not in all honesty expect even the obligatory applause.
As the nation and its people resigned to fate on the abducted girls, to say nothing of Boko Haram’s other atrocities, Dr Jonathan would kick off such an ambitious reelection campaign whose funding schemes may yet go down in the country’s history as the most bizarre. And while we struggled to come to terms with all that, the Office of the First Lady or OFL came alive with some reverse entertainment, especially on the Chibok issue.
If Dr Jonathan lost his reelection bid simply because he failed to prove his leadership bona fides, his handling of the Chibok matter did him little good. His super minister Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has reportedly said her boss had no will to save money, a failing the Buhari administration is now paying for.
It is also safe to say Dr Jonathan blew the opportunity to rescue the Chibok girls, leaving his successor with quite a mountain to climb. Two years after the Chibok and other abductions, and about 11 months into the Buhari presidency, the Boko Haram profile has thankfully diminished but the sect’s horrors endure. That much was clear at the screening of the Chibok 15 video in Abuja. Chibok parents are no longer keen on talking to reporters or showing up for protests. All they want is seeing their daughters again.
Can President Muhammadu Buhari pull it off? Yes, but probably not with military efforts. The sect seems to want a negotiated release. The government should negotiate, but be sure with whom it is negotiating. The administration before it had little discretion in this regard and the nation was the worse for it.
One last word. Some have said the whole abduction thing is a scam designed to throw Dr Jonathan out of power. If it is not all faked up, they ask, why has none of the captured Boko Haram fighters volunteered any information on the missing girl’s whereabouts?
Supposing the captured insurgents have such information and do share it, is it now being contemplated that the full complement of the military should risk swooping on their location and expect to safely ship out all 219 girls?
Perhaps only credible negotiation leading to the safe return of the girls will heal this two-year-old wound.
In spite of the existence of the Child’s Rights Law and its status as Nigeria’s most cosmopolitan and most enlighten state, child and forced marriages still go on in several communities in Lagos unabated, reports BETTY ABAH
Amina Hassan spotted the signs with much trepidation. First, they came for her eldest sister, Zainab and two years later, they came for the second eldest, Maimuna. After another two years, when they came for her as soon she turned 16 like the other two before her, as usual with the gleeful wedding party in tow, Amina bolted with all the strength in her sprightly teenage legs. It was only a few months to her Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE).
“No, child marriage is not for me; my education first”, she blurted under her breath as she fled her home in the Ajegunle area of Lagos.
‘”I ran away from home to stay with a school friend of mine but my family and that of the groom waited patiently for me for those three days’, Miss Hassan recalled. “My father was no more so it was my uncle who was in charge. When I made a brief appearance at home to check if they had left, he got hold of me, beat me black and blue and said I was disgracing the family and shaming our tradition,” She said.
Amina Hassan; fought child marriage to get education, now promoting literacy in the Shuwa Arab community in Lagos
The next alternative was to seek refuge with the police. So, Amina again sneaked out and reported at the nearby Ajegunle-Boundary police station.
“But I received the shock of my life because some of my family members came and after some talk with the DPO, the story changed”, she said. The DPO took a long look at her and asked her to ‘cooperate’ with her family members as they had her best interest at heart.
“I looked him in the face and asked: ‘If I were your daughter, would you also say the same thing—that I should cooperate with them and get married at age 16?”
The obviously ruffled police officer, whom she remembered as having ‘bold, unforgettable tribal marks’, berated her for being a stubborn girl and promptly discharged her case from his station. The wedding party disappeared in great sorrow.
Thus, given up by both family and the police, Amina went on to finish her secondary school in that same year (1993), and university education at the famous Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and went on to obtain a Masters Degree, the very first person and woman in her generation to accomplish that feat.
Though Amina set herself free by her determination and sheer guts, her two other sisters, Zainab and Maimuna who could not, have continued to live with the consequences of child marriage, decisions made entirely on their behalf by their elderly relatives.
Amina still recollects their ordeals with heavy heart. Fragile-framed Zainab had been tricked into a party ostensibly held in her uncle’s house in the Oregun area of Lagos not knowing it was her own traditional wedding. She was later taken to Asaba in Delta State where her elderly husband, a polygamist, was waiting for her. She later ran back home from her elderly husband, unable to cope.
But the most dramatic was that of her sister Maimuna. ‘We had all prepared for school that morning and were all in our school uniform,’’ Amina recalls. Our uncle addressed Maimuna and told her no school for her that day as her husband had come for her. She had no idea who the man was or what he looked like. “My uncle had made the choice on her behalf. We all started wailing. Our neighbours’ children also came and joined in the wailing, but it was too late as a station wagon was already parked outside ready for her. They took her away in her school uniform. She was in SS1 at Oregun High School and was one of the best in the entire school, always coming first or second’.
Maimuna was virtually bundled and taken to Chad from where, unable to cope with the domestic work (including cooking for her husband’s large extended family), she ran back to Lagos, selling her belongings along the long lengthy and traumatic way from Chad to Lagos heavy with pregnancy, giving birth and losing the child thereafter. Like her sister before her, Maimuna never went back to school.
“My sisters were very intelligent and were well known in school for their brilliance, but these people just ruined their lives’, said Amina, established the Shuwa Arab Development Initiative (SADI), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), after graduating from the university in 2009, to try and right the wrongs of the past and save other girls from the ordeal of girl marriage.
Through SADI, she has facilitated the education of more than 100 children, boys and girls among the Shuwa Arabs (an indigenous community with roots in North East Nigeria) in Lagos.
Thriving culture
The above occurred mostly in the early 1990’s and therefore it could be assumed that child or forced early marriage is a thing of the past in Metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria’s most developed and most urbane city.
Yet, Aisha Nasirudeen, 19, sitting, stroking her three children’s heads idly in the face-me-I-face-you compound of her rundown house on Odo Street in the Obalende area of Lagos, did not just portray the picture of urban poverty. She aptly personified the victim of an on-going and vibrant tradition of child marriage in settler communities across Lagos as relevant government agencies entrusted with the responsibility of acting against it, continue to look the other way or engage only in lame rhetoric.
“My ambition was to become a doctor, but now I know I can’t achieve that dream anymore. My son Yahaha will achieve it for me”, said Aisha who was married off four years ago when she was barely 16 and in Senior Secondary Two (SS2).
Aisha Nasirudeen and her three children
Quiet and tall Aisha, with features akin to that of a model is one of 28 children of a prominent alfa (Muslim cleric) who hails originally from Katsina. She is the last of three wives of Alhaji Mohammed Nasirudeen, who hails from the Upper Volta region of Ghana but converted to Islam and adopted Bornu as his state. He was formerly a disciple of Aisha’s cleric father.
In a tone oscillating between sarcasm and seriousness, Aisha’s husband, Nasirudeen, 44, who runs a thriving restaurant in Obalende, says marriage was the best option for his wife. “You know some of these girls that have a tendency to be stubborn,’ he said, smiling from ear to ear and revealing his beautiful golden tooth. “it is always better to marry them off as soon as possible. It is for their good”, he added with relish.
nlike Nasirudeen, Garba Abu, 55, who came to Lagos 25 years ago, is a repentant man. The Jigawa State-born man who, after over two decades as a security guard, now runs an almost empty kiosk at the College Road in Ogba area of Lagos, and doubles as a water vendor, had given out his three daughters Bintu, Saratu and Sadia as teenagers. Now, with the little earnings from his small businesses he and his wife ensure his younger children,Aminat, 13 and Muritala, 9 get a relatively good education. They are currently pupils in the nearby African Church Primary School, Ifako-Ijaiye.
“There is so much difference between a person that goes to school and the one that didn’t,” he said, casting a distant look at his shrinking wares. “It is easy for an educated girl to get a job because she understands English while the ones that doesn’t understand English loses job opportunities.’
A neighbour who has known the Garbas for several years recounted how one of the daughters, already in secondary school and doing very well, was ‘plucked’ off to her husband’s house. ”On the day of the ceremony, we asked her who her husband was but she told us that she hadn’t met him yet and that one of her sisters had gone to check his place where she would be moving to later in the evening, and that is when she would see him for the first time”.
Deadly consequences
Forced marriages such as the above have sometime led to tragic situations such as the one involving Wasilat Tasiu, a 14-year old bride who poisoned and killed her husband, Umar Sani, and four other guests in Kano a few days after she was married off, in December 2014. According to her, she committed the crime in order to realise her dream of acquiring an education. Another tragic incident involved Rahama Hussaini who killed her husband, Tijjani Nasiru, in March 2015 in protest over being forced to marry the man who was her cousin.
Child marriage, with its devastating consequences on the overall welfare of the girl child remains one of the sore points and clogs in the wheel of Nigeria’s progress. The country, according to UNICEF, has the highest rate of girl marriage in Africa with over 50% of women in the North married off before or by age 16.
According to a recent report by Ford Foundation, about 48% of girls in Nigeria, predominantly in rural areas, are married off before age 18. Cases of Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF), maternal mortality, have been on the increase especially in rural areas. Also, according to a 2013/2014 UNESCO report, Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, numbering 11/5 million. This owes mostly to economic hardship and government’s indifference to children and the non-implementation of the Access to Universal Basic Education law in addition to the on-going anti-western education insurgency in the north.
Out of this figure, girls are in the majority. The gross lack of interest in girl education and welfare in many regions across Nigeria’s has given rise to child marriage as economically-hit families want to ‘do away’ quickly with their girl children so as to give priority attention to their boy counterparts.
Girls at Agbado and Agege railway area in Lagos; risk falling prey to child marriage
Child marriage not only deprives a girl of education and her childhood but exposes them to sexually transmitted disease such as HIV especially since they are unable to negotiate for safer sex.
A 2014 report by UNICEF titled ‘Ending Child Marriage, Progress and Prospects’ indicates that though child marriage in Nigeria has reduced by one per cent annually in the last 30 years, hundreds of girls are still at risk due to Nigeria’s peculiarly large population. It further revealed that of the world’s 1.1 billion under aged girls, 22 million are already married. The global body also expressed fears that if there is no reduction in child bride practices, up to 280 million girls will be married before age 18. That could even increase to 320 million by 2050 owing to population growth.
Besides, child marriage directly hurts the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Goal SGD 5 which focuses on gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls.
Forced marriages and the impunity thereof is exemplified by the globally known case of the more than 200 girls abducted from the Government Secondary School in Chibok Town, Bornu State, Northern Eastern Nigeria in April 2014 by Boko Haram insurgents. According to their leader in a recorded interview, the girls had been married off. Two years later, despite the worldwide #BringBackOurGirls campaign, not only have 219 of the girls captured from their hostel rooms had their educational dreams aborted, they are yet to be found.
‘Lagos State Government looking the other way’
However, while the reports and researches on girl marriage prevalence have focused on rural areas and especially the North fora long time, recent findings have revealed a steady culture of girl marriage in communities in urban areas such as Lagos. Girl marriage is prevalent, even if at a comparatively reduced rate, in settler communities and secluded populations of the Hausa-Fulani, Nupes, Shuwa Arabs and as well as minority populations from Benin Republic and Togo. The communities include Makoko, Kofiganmen sea side area of Badagry, Ojo, Agege, New Okoba, Ijora, Marine Beach among several others across Lagos.
Makoko, Lagos’ largest slum, a predominantly fishing community which hosts a pout-pouri of ethnicities drawn from across Nigeria, Togo and Benin Republic, is a classic case. According to a report by an NGO, Action Health Incorporated, Makoko has the highest number of teenage mothers. While many of the surveyed and the current are pre-marital pregnancies, hundreds of others are child brides.
On a recent evening as the sun set over Makoko and the impoverished community assumed its rambunctious train of routine evening commerce and camaderie, Juliana Idowu, 17, Rhoda Awahajinu, 16 and Sena Kobozina, 20 sat exhausted in a shop, after the day’s task, fielding questions impatiently from this reporter. They were warming up to go home so as to perform their usual wifely responsibilities of cooking, washing, feeding their children and pleasing their mostly young husbands in a variety of ways. The young mothers and wives have many things in common. Each had a child, each was married and each had her education cut short in order to take on marital roles and is currently learning vocational skills, mainly hairdressing or tailoring. Other than concentrating on their skills, owning their own shops ultimately and rearing healthy children, none had any more ambition. Like hundreds of other girls in the community, some of them became pregnant between ages 14 and 15.
The young wives and mothers of Makoko
Yet a rather more worrying trend in Makoko is that of some parents are not only forcing their teenage daughters into marriage once they become pregnant, but compelling their them to marry much older men in that condition, with the pregnancy.
In this category are Bose Nge, 14 who is pregnant, Elizabeth Avonzetin 18,mother of two, Jane Zanu, 18, also a mother of two and Olorunwa Humgbe Louis who lost her first baby and is pregnant with a second one. While Zannu’s twin brother is in a French school in Badagry, her sole ambition now learning tailoring and being a good mother and wife. All became mothers and wife as teenagers.
“Here, once a girl becomes pregnant, she is expected to identify the boy or young man that is responsible. The girl’s family thus organises a marriage ceremony and sends the girl off to live with the boy as his wife, and if he is still with the parents, she goes to live with them”, said Mariam Kusika, 24, mother of three and herself a victim of child marriage.
The only snag, she added, is when the boy denies and the baales (local chiefs) would wade in. “But most times the girl’s parents are not disposed to keeping her and would quickly ‘dispose’ of her ‘free of charge’ to any willing person alongside her pregnancy. We have seen so many of such cases here,”said Mrs. Kusika, who, after learning from her mistakes, is now hoping to go back to school later this year, and currently earning a variety of skills and running a girl empowerment club.
Paulina Vigan, a trader and mother of one of the pregnant and hastily married Makoko girls, corroborated Kusika’s claims. Her daughter is fourteen years old. And she has no regrets.
‘My daughter is very stubborn,’ she said, her forehead furrowed in a blend of anger and grief. ‘I thank God the parents of the boy who impregnated her accepted and took her in. Our traditions has no room for unwanted pregnancies and the boy who impregnated her is just about 17 years and in JSS Two. If they had refused, I would have sent her far away where nobody knows her until she gives birth or better still, give her and her unborn child to an old man, who might be willing to take her in as the third or fourth wife so as to reduce the stigma. Besides tradition, I couldn’t even have coped because I am just a poor trader and my business is not generating much profit and she has siblings I still have to fend for. I am so sad that she can’t go back to school again, if I had the money, I would have wanted her to become very educated, because I really liked her’.
‘’Child marriage has serious negative consequences for these girls,’ says Bimbo Oshobe, a community worker in Makoko. ‘Besides the health implications due to their unripe bodies, we have discovered that many of these child marriages don’t last because most times both the husbands and wives are too young and inexperienced and therefore unable to handle so many issues. Sometimes too, some of these men are even old enough to be their fathers’, she added. Oshobe advised the Lagos State Government, rather than being detached, to carry out sensitization program or partner with grassroots ngos that would reach the people with the relevant messages and orientation.
Adewale Akintimehin, 74, a retired police officer who has lived in Makoko since 1963, echoes Oshobe’s complaint. ‘The politicians come every four years with promises but we hardly see any of them fulfilled. And, when we demanded to know why, they would either say ‘Rome was not built in a day’, or that they were not the ones in the office in the previous term,’ he said, downcast. Akintimehin however hoped that ‘this Ambode regime would be better than the last one in terms of education’.
“We have seen girls of 14, 15, 16 years, some even 13 getting married here,” he said. Once they are physically developed, they want to identify with a man, or when they are asked to repeat a class,” he stressed. He also blamed the trend of negligence on the parts of some of the parents and peer pressure.
Education pays; Akintimehin and his daughter Ibukun at the airport in Finnland
A respected, outspoken community leader and founding member of the influential The Act of Apostle Church in the locality, Akintimehin said the church and community leaders were working towards reducing the rate of teenage pregnancy and child marriage by encouraging school enrolment.
‘We are now preparing for the annual ‘Makoko Day’ and one of the features of that day is the donations of free WAEC forms to both our boys and girls who are ready and who have passed through some tests to be administered’, he revealed, insisting that things would have been better had government been more attentive.
Amidst the challenges, Akintimehin is highly celebrated in Makoko as being an exemplar in promoting girl child education. By ensuring his first daughter, 44 year-old Ibukun Elizabeth delay marriage and obtain a university degree, he is happier and prouder for it. Ibukun now has a Master degree and lives happily with her husband and two children in Finland and invites her father for occasional holidays. Even in absentia, she remains a Makoko ‘girl hero’.
Abdullahi, a youthful leader of the bustling Hausa community in Agege Pen Cinema area and graduate of the Lagos State Polytechnic, spoke in the same vein. ‘They are so many children here, both boys and girls that are not in school. No government official has ever engaged us to know what is happening here or to try and enrol them in school’ he told this reporter in the office of the Seriki, local chief of the market. The Hausa population here, constituting itinerant traders, artisans and sometimes beggars has increased astronomically since the on-going insurgency particularly in the North East. By all calculation, with lack of education and government’s interest, many of the girls there who currently hawk fura da nunu (cow milk) around the railway side market risk being married off early.
A lot more sensitization, enforcement of law needed
Several attempts in the course of three weeks, to interview the Lagos State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), Mrs. Lola Akande , failed. However, a source at the Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) who craves anonymity insisted that the government was trying its best in ‘responding to the cases as they happen.’ ‘The fact that armed robberies happen does not mean the police doesn’t exist’. He urged affected persons to report to the nearest police station as the stations are now armed with human rights and family units.
He further pointed at the Lagos Child Rights Law 2007 which made profuse provisions outlawing child marriage. Also, only in February, he added, the state launched a well-publicised campaign titled ‘Ending Violence Against Children in Nigeria: Priority Actions: Lagos State’, which is was a multi-sectoral response to the 2014 Nigeria Violence Against Children Survey. The launch campaign has the backing of UNICEF, USAID, US Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention and other agencies.
However, Princess Olufemi-Kayode, a child’s rights activist and anti-rape expert and Executive Director of Media Concern for Women and Children (MEDIACOM), argued that government needs to do a lot more if child marriage must become history in Lagos State. “Just like the rest of the states that have passed the 2003 Child Rights Act, the issue is about enforcement”, she said.
Olufemi-Kayode also blamed lack of communication between government and the masses, especially the uneducated. ‘How much of information about such laws do the general public have? Even the police that are supposed to enforce the law don’t even have the necessary information.’ She advised the government to embark on massive public awareness including exploring the use of local languages that are accessible to the masses in addition to utilising such medium of mass communication as the ubiquitous and effective radio. ‘Child marriage is rape by another name because these girls are minors. It disrupts their lives and we must do everything to stop it,’ she added.
According to Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, a human rights lawyer and Executive Director of Spaces for Change, an ngo, girl marriage anywhere in Nigeria is a pointed violation of the rights of children and of country’s constitution.
‘The Nigerian Constitution puts the statutory age of adults at 18. Anyone lower than that is a minor and cannot give consent, and marriage is a decision that requires consent and consent cannot be given by a minor,’ she said.
Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, Executive Director, Spaces for Change; ‘Child marriage is unconstitutional’.
For citizens below the age of 18, the Constitution imposes certain obligations on states to protect their interests and welfare. Section 17 (3)(f) of the 1999 Constitution requires states of the federation to direct their policies towards ensuring that children, young persons and the aged are protected against any exploitation whatsoever, and against moral and material neglect.
Keep in mind that the child rights legislations follow the tenor of the Constitution. Child Rights Act criminalizes having carnal knowledge of a child below the age of 18. This has been interpreted to mean that 18 years is the legal age of consensual sex in Nigeria. Child Rights Act applies in twenty-four (24) states of the federation (including Lagos) and the Federal Capital Territory.
‘The fact is that though Lagos is a rapidly urbanising and metropolitan society, we must know that Nigeria is basically a cultural society. The traditions and religious practices and dispositions have a great influence over people and so even when come to Lagos or other big cities, those cultures still guide and inform their private lives,’ she added.
Echoing Olufemi, Ibezim-Ohaeri maintained that the Lagos State needs to enforce the Child Rights Act it so vigorously passed to safeguard children within its territories.
‘Having a law is a good step but people being aware and the government enforcing the law is another thing. The enforcement mechanism of the state needs to develop to a stage where it can enforce all the provisions of the Child Rights Act. They have taken some steps like setting up family courts but a lot of gaps need to be filled. Public education can play a major role. The people need to be sensitised as to the risk they put their daughters through. They need to know they are putting their daughters’ life, health, education, and futures at risk, I believe they will consciously make the decision not to marry out their daughters. They get to need to get to that level of consciousness so they can make informed decisions about their daughters’ futures.’
