A Word For Yarima And The Paedophiles In Power

I  expressed my concerns about the issue of paedophilia and child brides in Nigeria quite extensively in an essay that I wrote last week titled ‘’A Nation Of Perverts And Paedophiles’’ which was widely published and which attracted a lot of rejoinders and commentries from other writers and commentators from both sides of the divide. I do not intend to cover the same ground or repeat the same arguements here but kindly permit me to make a final contribution to the debate in this piece. The good news is that no matter what anyone thinks or says and regardless of whichever side of the divide one is on, when it comes to this issue, at least the Nigerian people are now talking about a subject which, hitherto, had been regarded as being ‘’off limits’’ and taboo and which had been essentially swept under the carpet. I commend the Nigerian press, the website magazines, the bloggers and the electronic media for standing firm, rising up to the occassion and bringing the matter alive and one can only hope and pray that they will keep the fire burning by continuing to reflect the heated discussions and various opinions on this issue. I was particularly impressed with and encouraged by the editorials of some of our leading newspapers on this issue including ‘Thisday On Sunday’, ‘The Nation On Sunday’, ‘Leadership On Sunday’ and ‘The Sunday Vanguard’ which were all published on Sunday 28th July and which were titled “In Support Of The Girl Child’’, ‘’No Cover For Paedophiles’’. ‘’Much Ado About Child Marriage’’ and ‘’Building Nigeria On Deceit’’ respectively. With contributions like that from very serious and credible mediums like those there is still hope for the girl-child in Nigeria. I urge all those that have not read these contributions to please find them and do so. Yet despite the outrage expressed by the overwhelming majority of Nigerians and indeed the wider world about the plight of the girl-child in our country, on Sunday 28th July, a deeply defiant and unrepentant Senator Ahmed Sani Yarima, who was the individual that sparked off the whole controversy in the first place by

insisiting that Section 29 of the Constitution must not be removed, told the Sunday Trust Newspaper that ‘’if the vote on the child marriage issue came up in the Senate again’’ he and his supporters ‘’would win a million times over’’. Sadly, given the nonchalant attitude that has been displayed by a large number of our Senators to the plight of the girl-child, paedophilia and infant marriages in Nigeria and their obvious reluctance to step on Yerima’s big toes and thereby upset his religious sensitivities he may well be right. If not how does one explain the fact that two female Senators, Aisha Jummai Alhassan from Taraba State and Zainab Kure from Niger State, both of whom I gather have daughters, actually abstained when that historical vote took place. To drive home the point, the Senate President himself, Senator David Mark, only last week admitted that he and the entire Senate had succumbed to Yarima’s ‘’blackmail’’ on the issue of the right of the child-bride to renounce Nigerian citizenship and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, accepted the fact that the matter “needed to be revisited’’ in view of the outrage expressed by the majority of the Nigerian people  continued