NIG worried over girl-child rights’ abuse in Nigeria

The Nigerian Independent Group (NIG),a socio-economic Think Tank,  is worried by the spate at which incidences of girl child marriage and rights abuse have become a common place in Nigeria.
Less than a year after the pathetic case of Ese Oruru, a 14-year-old Bayelsa-born girl who was abducted by one Yunusa Dahiru, taken to Kano and forcefully converted to Islam, another 14-year-old, Habiba Isyaku, has suffered a similar fate.
According to a Newspaper report of February 28, 2016,  Ese Oruru was abducted from her mother, Mrs Rose Oruru (a food vendor), from a community in Opolo, Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State and taken to Kano State on August 12, 2015 where she was converted to Islam and married by her abductor, one Mr Yinusa, aka Yellow from Kura Local Government Area of Kano State.
All efforts by her parents to rescue her were rebuffed by the Chief of a village in Tufa, in Kura Local Government Area of Kano State and by the Kano Emirate Council.
The Emir of Kano and the Kano Emirate Council abetted the purported conversion and marriage of the minor. The abductor was given protection by the Nigeria Police Force. In August 12, 2015 when she was taken away, Ese was just 13 years old.
The recent case of Habiba Isyaku is even more pathetic.  One Jamilu Lawal, a Muslim and an Aide of the Emir of Katsina, allegedly met and fell in love with Habiba Isyaku Tanko, a Christian, who hails from Wawar Kaza community in Kanakara Local Government Area of Katsina State at Wawar Kaza community. Her father, Isyaku Tanko, opposed the relationship.
Jamiu however abducted Habiba on August 16, 2016, converted her to Islam and ensured she was made incommunicado. Upon petitioning of the Inspector General of Police through Katsina State’s Commisioner of Police, by Habiba’s father, Tanko,   Jamilu was subsequently arrested and detained for four days at the Criminal Investigation Department of the police.
However, the Katsina Hisbah boss, Abubakar took the matter to the palace, claiming that Habiba had indicated interest to convert to Islam and marry Jamilu,and that the Emir had only facilitated the marriage to a palace official.
The question that instinctively comes to rational minds is who gave the emir the power to approve the marriage of someone else’s child? A minor for that matter. 
Nigeria is a multi-religious country. But the positions of our laws are clear.. Neither Penal code,which operates in the North or the Criminal code in the Southern enclave permits forceful conversion, let alone of Christian minors.
The Penal Code,which applies in the case of Habiba, actually puts the age of consent at 18, while also prohibiting abduction.   
 According to Section 272 of the Penal Code: “Whoever by force compels or deceitful means induces any person to go from any place, is said to abduct that person.”  Section 273 adds: “whoever kidnaps or abducts any person shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine.”
 
The Child Rights Act 2003 ,which is deemed applicable ANYWHERE in Nigeria is also clear on the matter.
Section 27 subsections (1) & (2) of the Act states that:
(1) “No person shall remove or take a child out of the custody or protection of his father or mother, guardian or such other person having lawful care or charge of the child against the will of the father, mother, guardian or other person.
(2) A person who contravenes the provisions of Subsection (1) of this Section commits an offence and is liable on conviction—
(b) where the child is unlawfully removed or taken out of the State in which the father, mother, guardian or such other person who has lawful care of the child is ordinarily resident, to imprisonment for a term of ten years.
 As far as the law is concerned,  minors cannot vote, be issued a drivers licence, or open a bank account,as they are deemed not to have attained the age of self-account.  There is no gainsaying in the fact that  Habiba’s case is a criminal case abduction and breach of extant laws.
We are however bothered not just at her fate but that of others, who unlike her and Ese Oruru had not been afforded the luxury of limelight, and their anecdotes unheard . We are bothered these incidences are treated with seeming flippancy at an era over 10.5 million Nigerian Children are reported to be out of school, and a clear disparity still exists in national averages of female and male literacy rates.
 This is even more worrisome as the female literacy rate(40%) in the Northern region ,where the culture of child marriage is taken for granted ,deviates so significantly from the Southern female literacy rate(70%).
For instance, Habiba who is supposed to resume at SSI, has been forced to leave the classroom for the bedroom. Beyond figures bandying, it is evident that statistics on level of female gender education have relationships with communities’ level of wealth, enlightenment, crime and hygiene, which among others are all traits that determine the quality of the human life.
For instance,the possibility that street urchins- almajiris ,who are mostly vulnerable and mostly targets of terrorism merchants for hypnotism  into vices and destruction ,are products of homes with illiterate mothers ,is higher.  We share the Ghanian proverb,that ‘if you educate a man,you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman,you educate a nation’.
 
The health implications of the child right abuses is equally as disturbing. As reported, the President elect, International Society of Obstetric Fistula Surgeons   decried Nigeria having the largest burden of obstetric fistula cases globally. The report by  Oladosu Ojengbede, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Ibadan,  described obstetric fistula as a huge problem, and that, majority of the 2.5million women living with obstetric fistula globally reside in Nigeria. The incidence of obstetric fistula is more in the northern part of Nigeria, and the scourge of underage female child marriage cannot be wished away as one of the causal factors.
We in light of the foregoing however demand that the President should consider the issue of girl child marriage and right abuse an issue of national significance which does not only impinge on the nation’s unity,as evident in the Ese Oruru’s case,but also on security, national wealth,health,and education. That the Child Rights Act 2003 ‘Applicability’ in all parts of Nigeria had perpetually remained at the rhetorical level,as about 12 states which include Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Enugu,Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto,Yobe Adamawa,and Zamfara states are yet to domesticate the law, suggests how the insensitivities in Nigeria’s cultural diversity relate to the national question.  It is one of the reasons the restructuring of the country along the line of cultural homogeneity should be considered expedient in sustaining the idea of national indivisibility, as the nation cannot pretend to be making national laws that exclude certain parts of it in application.