My March 4 column, of above title, generated heated debate, especially in cyberspace. Even though it wasn’t my intent, it was polarising because I indicted certain elements of southern descent who have mastered the art of stereotyping the northern, and this week I chose to yield this space to one of the reactions. The author is a Lagos-based writer Chiagoze Fred Nwonwu, with a rejoinder originally titled Ese Oruru – before we condemn the ‘northern hypocrisy’. Enjoy – Kakanda.
It would be easy to claim that the typical northerner is a hypocrite, but when we seek for balance, we will find the same level of hypocrisy in all parts of the country.
The north has been at the receiving end of country-wide derision over the religious and cultural environment that made Ese Oruru’s ordeal appear sanctioned by the society, and expectedly, we found northerners defending themselves from the deluge of attacks.
Articles were written at the pace of a heartbeat, people pointed out motes in people’s eyes while they ignored the plank in theirs. We read pieces from southerners that suggested that the Emir of Kano ordered Ese’s kidnap and conversion, and northerners clapped back by mentioning the many baby factories busted by the police in southeastern Nigeria.
If the above does not reflect hypocrisy, it reveals how uninformed Nigerians have become and how easily we react to issues from a regional or religious standpoint. In truth, no matter how much we argue against the fact, we are all bigots in our own way, and when the right buttons are punched, our bigotries rear their heads.
Claims that Ese and Yunusa (25?) only eloped does not change the weight of Yunusa’s crime. A minor was taken to Kano, got converted to Islam, and was kept away from her family until a national uproar forced the government to call for her release and reunion with family members. These are the facts; every other detail is open to conjecture, depending on which side of the divide you are.
And here’s what I think:
Ese is a minor and as such, cannot make weighty decisions without her parents’ consent; meaning she can’t travel, can’t get married without her guardians say-so. And then, there is the conversion to Islam.
Gimba Kakanda wrote a piece whose summary was disassociating of the north from Yunusa Dahiru’s crimes. While I understand Mr Kakanda’s intent, he intentionally ignored a salient point: Islam can’t be glibly dismissed from this narrative because it shaped the north and holds a very important place in this narrative.
The north is arguably the only part of the country where a child would be sheltered thus without parental permission for reason that she/he ‘converted to Islam’. Ese was no longer the girl from Bayelsa; she became a property—an infidel who got saved.
Yunusa, on his part, was celebrated as the ‘good’ Muslim’ who won a soul, all this made possible by structures that foster same. And this was why the Emir’s letter demanding for her release got ignored. Ese, instead, was first moved to the Shariah Commission’s custody, and then to the District Head’s. The powerful elements in Kano, both religious and otherwise, supported keeping the girl in Kano despite the parent’s protestations.
Religion is a big factor here!
But though Mr Kakanda might have erred as per the fact that his society bears some responsibility, he is right on the money about the hypocrisy that this case throws up. However, we need to know that this hypocrisy comes from all sides.
As per hypocrisy in the south, it is easy to get a better example than his baby factory yarn. Think about the braying southerners who see child marriage as a northern problem that denotes how mediaeval the north is and how these finger pointers forget that Ebonyi state, with its high rate of VVF, is in the south. Hypocrisy is also refusing to address the fact that there are two constitutions in the north and that it is hardly practicable for both to coexist without friction. Hypocrisy is forgetting that in the south, a customary law exists and at times it also comes into conflict with our conventional law.
Across the south, there are uncountable injustice being perpetrated against our country men and women. In my native South East, the ‘Christians’ are waging a vicious war against traditional worshipers, and they mostly do this under the cover and protection of the nation’s police who are supposed to protect each citizen’s constitutional right of worship. We still practice the Osu caste system. In other words, being majorly Christain has not saved the South from the evil that man perpetrates on man. These injustices are awaiting hashtags.
It wouldn’t serve to end this rant without pointing out our penchant for generalisation.
Northerners were swept under one brush in the Ese Oruru’s story, which should not be. Consider the fact that when you follow Ese mother’s journey to bring back her daughter, you see that it was successful because northern heroes stood for justice and fair play. She was accompanied to Kano by a northerner whose family sheltered her and also joined in her cause (I can’t help but wonder what this fact does to the vicious northerner narrative?). There were police officers who took her to the Emir’s palace and whisked her to safety at the whiff of trouble. The Emir also swiftly called for the child’s release to her parents. We should not ignore these aspects of the story as we rush to share our selective narratives.
In all, while northerner are not the default villains in this story, we can’t hang Yunusa without calling out the society and structure that permit such impunity to foster, and stress the fact that Yunusa would have gotten away with this, save for social media.
Northern intellectuals should begin to confront this reality. Ese is not an isolated case, there are unknown numbers of minors whose parents live in anguish, waiting in vain for sons and daughters who are said to have converted to return home. We can no longer deny that these crimes happen in the north and that in most of the cases the traditional and religious authorities are complicit, as is the society that keeps mum.
We need to do better, as a country.
By Chiagoze Fred Nwonwu
