I am writing neither as an apologist of abduction or kidnapping nor a proponent of forceful conversion of one’s faith or religion but as a patriot who loves to see unity harmony, tolerance and peaceful coexistence of the citizens of this country. For more than a hundred (100) years, the geographic entity now known as Nigeria was put together and the diverse people that make up the population have lived together and interrelated without giving up their individual ethnic origins. This in itself has never been a problem. The problem stems from the inability of some of us to tolerate faiths, cultures, traditions and ideas that we identify as not ours. This is why we have been unable to love and live together peacefully as one indivisible country and invariably responsible for the slow progress we are making as a nation generally.
Recently came the news that a young girl of 13, 14, or 17 (according to various reports) was abducted and forcefully converted to a religion other than those of her parents and hurriedly married off and impregnated by another equally young man of 18 or 25 (according to various reports)in a movie style story that was enough to explode the social media with barrage of hate comments and unpatriotic reasoning on the part of Nigerians. Most Nigerians took the sentimental angle to the tale and only wanted to sell the story through the religious and ethnic lines in order to attract sympathy to one religion and castigate another. In this tale, those playing the ethnic card are either trying to absolve Ese and her parents of all blame or trying to absolve Yunusa and his parents of all blame. This is quite unfortunate and unpatriotic as sentiments have beclouded all sense of reasoning and rational thought in an attempt score religious and ethnic points.
As far as I am concerned, I do not care if Ese or Yunusa are Buddhists, Sikhs or Taoist neither do I care if one or both of them are seeking to convert to Judaism or Jainism. My concern is that as Nigerians with certain rights, we must provide enabling environment for all to satisfy their legitimate desires.
The fact is that one way or the other, a kind of love related relationship existed between Ese and Yunusa. While Ese helped her mother in her restaurant, Yunusa, a Keke Napep rider, was a customer of the restaurant. Therefore it comes as no surprise that a kind of acquaintance will emerge from this interaction as is capable of happening anywhere in the country.
Although Ese is a minor and Nigeria is a signatory to the child rights act which means that Ese is incapable of making marriage decisions and the society must protect her in an advent of such an attempt to have her married off. Yunusa on the other hand is an adult who should know that a secular society like ours frowns at any attempt to marry a minor and as such shouldn’t have agreed to go off with Ese. Ese being just a child can be easily manipulated especially as she is yet to know how our cruel world operates. Yunusa being an adult, can therefore not be absolved of blame in this saga. He should be the one directing the affairs in the right way in patience and perseverance until such a time they could manifest their love without staunch opposition from the public.
Such stories happen every day where two people from different backgrounds and religious faiths put aside their differences and come together as one due to the love they share. Even in such instances, we find opposition from both families but when the couple involved persist, they are eventually allowed to have their way sometimes one converting to the religion of the other and at other times both maintaining their individual religions.
In the case of Ese and Yunusa, the complication arose only because Ese is still a minor otherwise all other variables mentioned above have come into play in their story. But what sentimental and unpatriotic elements want us to do is to adopt only the religious angle to the tale. They keep emphasizing that Ese was forcefully converted a claim she refuted herself. It will be recalled that when some misguided elements among whom was a pastor abducted three school girls, no one said anything and all attempts were made to pass it off as just a crime. Yet this abduction and kidnapping followed by the eventual rescue by the police was a greater crime than what transpired between Ese and Yunusa.
Suppose Ese isn’t a minor, we could assume that the love Ese and Yunusa shared was so intense that it transcended all ethnocentric and religious barriers. They therefore tried to harmonize their feelings in the only way they understood and in the process they decided to “run away”. These things are real and teenagers in love at a point in time have such ideas creeping into their minds but with proper socialization, some are able to discard such thoughts and rise above the challenges. Ese and Yunusa made mistakes also because their parents failed somehow to instill the right socialization into their wads. Yes, both parents (those of Ese and Yunusa) failed partly because they belonged to a generation that preached hatred on grounds of differences in ethnicity and religion.
The reality seem more like a story of teenage love that metamophorsized into elopement due to the failure of both families to inculcate the right cultural and societal values and ethics on their kids.
It was also revealed that the father of Yunusa kicked against Yunusa bringing home a girl from another state and promptly reported the matter to the village head who in turn reported to the district head who finally intimated the Emir of Kano of the matter.
According to the Daily Trust Newspaper, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II then, wrote a letter to the Kano State Shari’a Commission last September asking it to investigate the matter. The commission in its response concluded that Ese was too young to make decisions about marriage and religious conversion without her parents’ consent and should be sent back to her parents. The Emir then sent a letter to the Police Assistant Inspector General in Kano, asking him to send Ese back to her parents through his counterpart in Bayelsa State. Ese’s parents were contacted and they went to Kano but she refused to follow them back to Bayelsa.
Everyone else wants us to believe it was a kidnapping or abduction just to score sentimental points. We should out grow such sentimentality in today's world otherwise progress will evade us as a people. They are however too young to take the decision they took and the matter is now before a court in Bayela state. Yunusa is being charged for kidnapping and child abuse as well as violence against a girl-child.
It is likely Yunusa will be found guilty of the charges and Ese will be absolved of blame considering she is a minor.
The patriotic lesson we can derive from this love story is that the northerner and southerner can cohabit when there is love. The Muslim and the Christian can live together in this country when there is love. Love here does not necessarily mean emotional love shared by two individuals but a general love for one another. Ese though young and incapable of making certain decisions, sacrificed everything for the sake of love while Yunusa took every risk including impending prison term for the sake of love. If we consider that Yunusa isn’t wealthy, neither is he very literate we will appreciate that some form of real love was shared between them. We need to learn from them instead of trying to rubbish each other (North and South, Islam and Christianity) wrongly and at all costs. We need to sacrifice and risk everything for the sake of this country just like Ese and Yunusa did for the sake of love.
I want to believe that no abduction or kidnapping really took place. They eloped in order to be together away from hurting eyes and lashing tongues. As teenagers (if Yunusa is 18),s they didn't really see the world for what it was and made mistakes as a result of their limited knowledge of how society functions. This however does not mean that their actions are justifiable. If anything, it points to us as adults and parents that we set the stage for their mistake. And the myopic and unpatriotic elements in our midst are the ones playing the ethnic and religious cards with this issue. They never see without sentiments. They are the enemy we should be wary of as a nation.
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