THINGS are, indeed, falling apart for the girl-child in Nigeria on a daily basis. The girl-child in Nigeria is living in perilous times. She is, indeed, an endangered species. She is hunted by predator men that will not take their preying eyes away from her. She is abused because of her gender and sex.
She is vulnerable and treated as an object instead of as a human being. As a result of men’s avariciousness, the centre of her world cannot hold any longer. She dreads walking along the street because of men’s amorous gazes and at times molestations.
Apart from her being abducted and forced into marriage and change of identity through forced religious conversion, the girl-child has become a victim of kidnapping and serial rapes and abuses by Nigerian men. Some of them have been reportedly murdered by sadistic elements and at times ritualists in gruesome circumstances.
Young school girls are now targets of kidnap for ransom purposes. The case of the three
young girls kidnapped from a mission school in Ikorodu, Lagos, recently is still fresh in mind. They were kidnapped simply because they were girls and can be used to bargain for huge ransom. However, luck ran against their abductors before the girls were rescued. Thank goodness that they have been released from captivity through the combined effort of the police and Lagos State government.
As usual, we were told that no ransom was paid as in other such cases. We shall give them the benefit of doubt. But the public is aware that such release in most kidnap cases is never possible without parting with some huge money. The traumatic experience of being in the kidnapper’s den for some days cannot be easily erased from their memory.
The bleak condition of the girl-child is better illustrated by the reported abduction saga of Miss Ese Rita Oruru, an indigene of Bayelsa State by one Yunusa (alias Yellow) from Kano State. Her abduction case is a classical example of how not to abuse a girl-child in contemporary world. Beyond the sad abduction, Ese’s innocence has equally been abused as she is said to be five months pregnant for Yunusa, who did not deny the act.
She will soon be a baby-mother. Her identity was changed from Ese to Aisha and dressed with hijab. Ese has disclosed in an interview that she did not know how she got to Kano from Bayelsa. She might have been hypnotized. The abduction and her subsequent conversion to Islam are against her wish and the freedom of religion as provided for in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution.
It shows that Ese can no longer think for herself in matters of faith. Some of her other rights as a human being might have been abridged too, before she was returned to her parents. Ese’s life will never be the same again. Her transformation from girl-child to motherhood is terrific and without adequate preparation and counseling.
Most prominent public commentators have described Yunusa’s action as criminal and not religious. They include the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and human rights lawyer and activist, Femi Falana (SAN). They did not see religious motive inside Yunusa’s action. They may be right. But Ese’s saga has many religious and ethnic codes and tones implied.
The changing of her name from Ese to Aisha and forced conversion to Yunusa’s religion and dressing up in hijab are religious. Taking her from her parents from Bayelsa without parental approval for a girl that is 14 years, a minor, has ethnic bias and colouration. Besides Ese’s ugly story, other stories of Southern girls abducted by Northern men have been on the rise.
All of them were given the same Ese treatment in a multicultural and multi-religious country. Remember the story of the abduction of the Chibok school girls by Boko Haram. Nobody talks of the Chibok girls anymore. Where are the “Bring Back Our Girls” campaigners? Are they tired? They should continue because the work is not yet over until the Chibok girls are rescued.
I remember those in charge of this government promised to rescue the Chibok girls during the electioneering campaigns. They should just do that. The sad story of Ese and others that happen in quick succession have eclipsed it. The stories of abuses of the girl-child should not be hidden under the carpet.
They should continue to hug the headlines as the media’s own way of condemning such atrocities and putting a stop to them. In reporting such stories of injustice against the girl-child, all the themes and dimensions of such evils should be exposed, be they tribal or religious.
It is a known fact that inter-tribal marriage is allowed in Nigeria and inter-faith marriage is also allowed. Why the recent rampant abductions of girl-child and forced marriage and forced conversion to another faith? Every ethnic group in Nigeria has its way of marriage and marriage by force is definitely not one of them.
Why abduct a girl in the name of marriage or whatever? The criminality of Ese’s abduction is so grave and that is why it has attracted much media attention for weeks without closure. Because of Yunusa’s criminal act, Ese will drop out of school and join other 10 million out-of-school girls in Nigeria, to take care of her pregnancy and the baby when born.
She may go back to school or she may end up a drop-out without a future. Whichever way it goes, her future will never be the same again. There are possibly many Eses in the country whose tragic stories in the hands of randy Nigerian men are unreported. Nigeria is fast assuming the toga of the worst place to be a girl-child due to these inherent abuses of that category of Nigerians.
We shall all rise up and condemn strongly the current rape of the girl-child in Nigeria. The government should rise up against the abduction of the girl-child either in the name of love, marriage or whatever reason.
Our constitution is against it and our various cultures, mores and beliefs do not sanction such monumental abuse of the girl-child.
All major religions in the country should rise up and condemn the predatory violence being visited on the girl-child because no religion can condone such evil. The society should rise up in defence of the Eses of this world that are daily abducted and raped by some randy men in our midst.
As a full citizen of Nigeria, the girl-child deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. Her freedom to achieve her aim in life should not be abridged in any way simply because she is a female. She needs the freedom and support to achieve her aspirations just as the male-child.