Haba Emir!

When is a failed state? That is putting it like our revered Professor Wole Soyinka. When is a lawless country? When is impunity and when is leadership failure? When certain matters leave you spewing a stream of questions it must be that such matter must have left the realm of rationality into the wild jungles of un-wisdom and unreasonableness.

In such a situation, questions, like blank shots, go out in staccato array into the air, loud with sound and fury but empty like the shell it is. What is Hardball going on about this time? Why does words seem to fail him and explanations elude him?

But we all know the story. It is a big one indeed involving the Emir of Katsina and the entire Emirate Council of Katsina State. One, this is the paramount traditional head of a state. Two, this is the state of origin of President Muhammadu Buhari. Three, this is a blatant case of breaking of the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

And lastly on the import of this story, this is a leader and role model for millions of people. Whatever he does would be considered standard behaviour by his followers. That is the grave danger in this story and this is why the authorities must intervene quickly and ensure that the right thing is done immediately; which is allowing the law take its proper course.

Now the story: it was reported last week that the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulmumin Usman, has married 14-year-old Habiba Isa who has just finished junior secondary school and ought to be in senior secondary now. Young Habiba is also a Christian from a Christian home whose father and mother are alive.

Habiba was reportedly abducted last August by one of the palace hands and held incommunicado for a long time. Then the story emerged that she has voluntarily converted to a Muslim and is now the wife of the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulmumin Usman. When the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Katsina chapter, led by its president, led a delegation to the palace to plead, it was told that the marriage is irreversible.

Here are some of the justifications from the palace: right before the palace crowd, little Habiba, now ‘properly’ covered in hijab, was asked if she was forcefully converted to Islam; if forced into marriage with the emir and whether she was already menstruating before she got married to the emir? She answered all these questions in favour of the emir.

But Hardball will only close with even more questions: is 14 the legal marriage age by Nigeria’s law? Does any tradition in Nigeria allow a woman to be married off to a man without the presence and consent of her parents?

Finally, how would you, dear reader, feel if you woke up tomorrow to find that an old man (no matter his title) has abducted your little daughter and forced her into marriage? I already know how you would possibly react so I will not deign to ask what is of course a leading question. One has a fair idea what any man is capable of doing under the circumstance.

Suffice to say that this obvious injustice is capable of breeding extreme lawlessness.

Source: Nation