Evil scripts of girl-child abductions in Nigeria

What befell Nigeria as a result of the barbaric abduction of 14-year-old Ese Oruru to Kano by Yunusa Dahiru has further confirmed the notion that those in privileged positions of authority lack empathy. Their conspiracy of silence and non-challant attitude even when the family concerned made frantic efforts to secure the release of their daughter is synonymous with erecting social, political and religious fences which were too high for the hapless Orurus to surmount. If Ese can be pregnant under eight months, let us be realistic, with two years down the line, those who left as girls in 2014 must be mothers by now! This is the sad reality that we face as a nation which bends the law for politics and religion; the two subtle evils regularly deployed to underdevelop and divide us.

The abduction of Ese must be seen as sharing fundamental similarities with that of the Chibok girls in 2014 by the ragtag Boko Haram vampires. The victims in the two cases are Christians. They are girls (maybe mothers now). Majority of the Chibok ‘girls’ were about writing their Senior School Certificate Examinations, while Ese was about to write her Junior School Certificate Examinations. While the Chibok ‘girls’ were abducted (and probably housed in Sambisa forest) and politics of denial ensued, it took only few days before the girls appeared in hijab on the internet as having been converted to Islam! Ese was also abducted and taken to another ‘Sambisa’ in Kano where her parents could not have access to her. Perhaps in the two instances, the girls were tricked to believing they were in safe hands. 

What is common in the two criminal episodes is the age of the victims; mostly below 18 years! This has health, psychological and social implications for the abducted girls. Their families and Nigerians have become victims. The motive for abduction, for me, is similar. Boko Haram leader, Shekau boastfully said in one of his infamous videos that the girls would be married to their fighters in their quest to Islamise and chase out infidels in a new territory to be governed under the Sharia law. In Kano, some bodies presided over the Yunusa/Ese affairs and pronounced them husband and wife. They saw no wrong in endorsing illegality! Thus, I argue that such abductions are more ideologically based than it is being portrayed. It is about a war of conquest and increasing religious demography.
Yunusa obviously understood his reasons for taking the actions. It was scripted and acted out very well. He was close to the family and still understood their routines, even when he fell out of favour with Ese’s mother. Working to answers, Yunusa sold his economic empowerment tool (tricycle), hypnotised/convinced/manipulated Ese and ran to Kano where he knew he would be welcomed as a victor! Why did he not marry her in Bayelsa if it was love-based? Kano is a safe zone since the Chi

ld Rights Acts is not domesticated there. He was, therefore, a rational criminal, who weighed the costs and benefits of his action.

The treatment meted out to the Orurus in Kano was less dignifying. It portrayed a system of injustice against the powerless and unconnected. More so, the agencies of government saddled with the responsibilities of protecting lives and properties became handicapped. The Emir of Kano and Inspector General of Police have tried unsuccessfully to use techniques of neutralisation to show they were responsive to Ese’s plight. The State has lost its capacity when the IGP had to wait for the return of an Emir from Umrah to free a Nigerian in bondage. The emir claimed he only knew Ese was yet to be released when he was contacted by foreign media! Nigerian big men are good offshore not onshore. They are more responsive to foreign media outfits.

Yunusa is already arraigned in court and charged for abduction, illicit sex, coercion and sexual exploitation. This must be well prosecuted. All co-conspirators must be legally sanctioned. Otherwise, we would be institutionalising a social order in which crime is the lower-class activity that is displeasing to the upper class and their cronies. Those who are to protect the vulnerable in our society are becoming collaborators with criminals; this is dangerous as it may lead to the rise of insurgent citizenship. Let those saying it is a tradition/culture in the North show me the daughter of a rich man that had been abducted and forcefully married as done to Ese! If such exists, it is only for the poor to obey! Winston Churchill may not be wrong after all when he said that “rules are made for the obedience of the fools and the guidance of wise men”. We must speak against the Taliban treatment of the girl child (and this includes rapist). Let those in forceful child marriage speak against this evil.

 On a daily basis, criminal scripts of kidnapping, abduction, child marriage, and rape against the girl-child are written and acted out. It is becoming an organised crime. Yet, we make a mess of victims of these evil scripts by the way our criminal justice system is designed. Ese and her family deserve justice and they must get it.    

Source: Tribune