ESE ORURU: THE BLAME GAME.
The parents of Ese should be blamed for carelessly exposing Ese to such criminal elements as Yunusa. It is common how parents use their children as employees. Instead of letting them rest after school hours, they bring them to the shop in order to help them run the family business, thereby cutting cost. Ese’s case was no difference. Instead being in the house studying, Ese was always in the shop with ‘mama’. Thereby making her a perfect prey for unscrupulous elements like Yunusa. This will not only increase the risk of becoming wild and precocious but will negatively affect their academics.
The Bayelsa state government should close its mouth in shame; it could not stand up for the rights of its citizen who also happen to be a minor. The federal government, with all the awareness created by the media about Ese remained mute about the subject, no public statement about it. Too bad. Even if silence can be the best type of response sometimes, yet silence can also show indifference and cluelessness. Comments from the president especially being the number one citizen and a Muslim would have made a lot difference. You don’t need to steal government fund before you are corrupt. The act by Yunusa is corruption. Just as Sam Omatseye puts it, “It is a corruption of childhood, of law, of religion and of natural rights”.
The Emir of Kano and the Emirate council acted very late. Ese, remained in his custody all through her estrangement from her parents. That made him guilty. Very guilty. A girl was abducted and brought to your palace; and all we hear after months of her imprisonment is a public statement denying the fact that she wasn’t married off and that the police didn’t obey your order. It’s a belated response sir. Very belated. If any of those excuse were valid, then we would have heard the news about Ese from you. The Emir’s palace would have issued a statement on the refusal of the police to return Ese to her parents. But nothing was done. But thank God for the media. Thank God for Punch.
The Nigeria Police Force NPF usually never fails to amaze me. In a way still shrouded in mystery, in every widely broadcasted news, the Nigeria police always consistently make themselves the black sheep. After all, they are black men in black uniform! Nonsense.
They usually, never know the difference between right or wrong. To them, if you are poor, you are wrong. If you are not a politician, you are wrong. If your political party doesn’t occupy Aso rock, you are wrong. They do things to please certain selected individuals. They are hypocrites of the first order. They heard of Ese’s case before the media, yet they swung into action with state-of-the-art sloppiness. If the police had acted timely, maybe Ese wouldn’t have been pregnant. The police take the chief blame. It was this same sloppiness that made the rescue of the kidnaped Chibok girls impossible; the army dragged their feet while the girls were been dragged to slavery.
The NPF can redeem their image. There area other girls reportedly married off in suspecting conditions. They can learn their lesson from Ese’s case and act more swiftly before the media helps them do their job again. Lucy Ejeh, Patience Paul and Charity Uzoechina. All these are names recently indicated by the media as victims of child marriage. They should help re-unite them with their families.
Our girls should be protected. We need more ladies to serve the society positively. Girls should be allowed to enjoy their childhood. This can only happen if we give them a chance to choose their path. And not selling them off because of some mundane and primordial line of thought. It is not enough to ask for justice for Ese. Neither is it enough to bring punishment on Yunusa Dahiru. But there is a bigger picture. It is about the protection of the future of the female folks. It is about saving the future from this sort of emotional fisticuff. It is about doing away with the past, mundane and terrible cultures. It is about being modest. It is about giving the right orientation to religious men. It is about love and protecting the vulnerable.
God help Nigeria.
Ezekiel Efeobhokhan
500 level Pharmacy (Pharm D)
University of Benin.
