A thought for Nigeria’s girl child

Ese Oruru

Yunusa Dahiru alias Yellow did not bargain on the collective anger of Nigerians when he kidnapped 14-year-old Ese Oruru from her home in Bayelsa State, dragging her all the way to Kano, his home state. He then “married” her, impregnated her, and converted her from Christianity to Islam.

He probably felt that hiding her in his home state would help him shield his reprehensible act. After all, lewd men have been marrying under-age girls in this country and nothing happened, except a few grumbles that quickly died down when some other tragedy struck.

But his ill-timed move was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Nigerians appeared to have had enough of the likes of Dahiru. It was even more apt that his crime came to the fore as the world was about to celebrate International Women’s Day, even as the country is still grappling with the pain of the still-missing Chibok girls.

Up till now Nigeria had been a country where the girl child didn’t seem to matter. Lots of men – and some women too – still accept that this is a patrilineal society where men are entitled to a free ride. But this should not be so. This country has grown in leaps and bounds and women have proved that they can stand toe to toe with men in every area of human endeavour. So why are women still treated like commodities?

Fortunately this is not Taliban territory where young women are killed for going to school. But not much is being done to encourage the education of the girl child or to protect her from men like Dahiru.

However, the furore raised over Dahiru’s dastardly act shows we are finally standing up to the awful way some men treat women in our society. We are finally moving past lip service to actually fight for the rights of the girl child.

Almost all of the country’s First Ladies have launched programs focused on women. However, many of these programs did not go past sewing colourful dresses and singing/dancing at festivities. It was as if the women themselves don’t believe they can rise above the status quo.

There is a preponderance of Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) especially in the North because old men won’t leave little girls alone. According to the National Demographic Health Survey, about 12,000 women develop VVF every year in Nigeria. That is a staggering figure.

Dr. Ahmed Yola, a surgeon, said VVF affects mostly young, short teenage girls of poor social economic background and women who are delivering babies for the first time.

Worse still, some of these evil men end up divorcing their “wives” shortly after. Imagine a girl being divorced at 16. She cannot help herself and no other man will marry her. Her life is ruined. Yet nobody makes these men pay for their crimes against these kids. If this is not a crime against humanity I wonder what is.

Thank God for social media. I believe information has brought the plight of the girl child to the fore. Stories the traditional media would normally have sat on or downplayed for “cultural” reasons are quickly now exposed. Now any “small” thing that happens in Kano, Imo or Ekiti is reported in Lagos the next second and that inevitably spreads to the rest of the country.

But it is not enough to just tweet and retweet stories.

Sugabelly, the girl who accused the sons an ex-governor of repeatedly gang-raping her when she was 17, hasn’t got any closure. Although her story trended on social media for weeks, the authorities refused to investigate her claims. The alleged perpetrators are still walking around, free as air. After all, they are the children of a “beloved” governor who recently lost his life. In this society we don’t speak ill of the dead. But we can let randy old men use their potbellies to crush little girls to death.

Even when she is fully grown, the woman still faces serious attacks from men. A few days in Delta State, soldiers flogged a group of women for daring to stage a peaceful protest. In this country women have also been molested by mobs and even flogged by soldiers for daring to wear trousers!

Recently a horrifying story of how an Air Force officer, who is also a doctor (?) beat his female colleague to a pulp. Her crime? She didn’t move her car out of the driveway on time. I thought doctors are meant to save lives, not destroy them. Isn't an officer is supposed to be a gentleman? Like in Suagabelly’s case, the doctor is still walking around a free man, even though the story, complete with pictures of the lady’s extremely battered face, was all over social media.

The government has to go past lip service and show its commitment to the protection of the girl child before they become endangered species. The time to step up action is now!