This is not a short piece..

So, the last day of the ninth month of the Two thousand and fifteenth year after the death of Jesus Christ, just another day it seems but for two things, the first being that I got older this month, the other being that my country gets older tomorrow, so before tomorrow comes, I have some things I have to say with the passing age of my country.

One of the news that made rounds this week was HRH,Mallam Sanusi Lamido, Emir of Kano's Engagement to a new bride, a girl who is eighteen years of age and for whom another round of #ChildNotBride campaign had begun online. The events subsequently provoked a response from the eloquent Emir, who offered his own explanation to whoever cared to listen and then casted the rest into the abyss of perpetual self ignorance, advising them though, to make good use of money and buy themselves a brain.

Well, not that it matters anyway, but I would like to give my own opinion of the matter. To start with, I know that under Nigerian Law, an Eighteen years old girl (18) is an adult, who can sue and be sued, she can be imprisoned and sentenced to death if she committed an offence warranting that. Also, under Nigerian Marriage Act, a girl cannot by herself enter into marriage till she's 21, even if she's 18 already, that means, she must obtain the consent of her parents or guardian to do this, a Law which was clearly followed in Sanusi Lamido's marriage. Also, the Engagement would not affect the girl's education as she's proceeding to Cambridge University for her Tertiary Education. Obviously, this is no more a matter of legality, and the public outcry is not to show a law being broken, as it would be hypocritical to say a girl who can be killed for an offence cannot marry, it beats logic, what therefore is the problem people have with this Engagement?, the answer is simple, Cultural Intolerance.

It is funny in this country that everyone claims their own culture is the all in all of acceptable social behaviour, making them intolerant of other people's cultural accepted behaviours. This is the height of folly, every culture in Nigeria always has something which is repulsive to other cultures, we may think its wrong as the Culture of the North allows older men marry younger girls, or maybe we should accept it as their culture as long as it is within the law, our various cultures are not really different, there are cultures in Nigeria where Men send their wives to sleep with their guests as a sign of welcome and acceptance, under my own custom in Yoruba Land, the wife is part of the property of the husband and can not independently his claim properties, in fact she can also be inherited by his successor to properties. We therefore should cease trying to place our own cultures above that of others, it is unbecoming and tainting the beauty in diversity obtainable in our country. Let me cut the long story about that.

The second group of critics are the ones who annoy me the most, they are the ones who keep placing our cultural values on the scale of western ideals. Maybe its time people realise that their is a difference between Educated and Westernised. This is not the west, this is Africa, we have our own moral ideals, and cultural values, we do not try to impose them on the west, why does the west keep trying to make us conform to theirs. Its already taking an African voice in Mugabe to shout "we are not gays" at the UNGA for people to realise we are not finding the pressure from the west to legalise gay marriage funny. Our own moral and cultural opinions do not matter to them, they wouldn't stop Gay marriage because it is against our culture, they wouldn't legalize polygamy because our culture allows it, they wouldn't heed our cultural opinions, why should we heed theirs. It is annoying therefore that people keep judging african actions with western concepts of right and wrong, it is our culture, the west can keep their opinion or change to ours, we don't really care.

All those people forming human rights activists should think well and deep, except if they are now saying that the marriage consent which the girl gave as an adult is invalid, except if they are trying to deny the girl of her choice as an adult, all because of their own concepts of what is right or wrong. For once people should see the broken light in the prism, and see that even the ordinary light they see, has more than seven colours of the rainbow, the world is bigger than their own selfish conceptions.

#Respect_Africa #Educated_not_Westernised #Respect_personal_Liberty
#Congratulations_HRH_MLSII
#Happy_Independence_day

Nobody is disputing the fact that an eighteen year old can get married. All we're saying is; Must a man old enough to be her grandfather marry her?

SeverusSnape:
Nobody is disputing the fact that an eighteen year old can get married. All we're saying is; Must a man old enough to be her grandfather marry her?

Thank you my bros, just allow those deranged girl child bride advocates to continue to decieve themselves.


The reality is that only wealth and status of the man will make a girl of 18 years to marry a man of nearly 60 years.


No girl in her right mind will marry a man as old as her great grand father.


If that girl were a millionaire we all know it'll be impossible for her to stoop so low to marry Sanusi.

,

If a man like Sanusi with all his education(both western and arabic) and a sterling banking career would end up in marrying an 18year old kid who's younger than some of his own kids,it then means that the issue of child bride ending in the Islamic north is far from over.
I can bet that that kid is not yet 18. I strongly believe that her age was marked up a bit to fall into the 'adulthood',just to give the paedeophile called Sanusi some legal right to his pervasion. Afterall,it was stated that she just finished her SSCE which naturally puts her at 17 and 16(for some kids like her from well-to-do families).
Any person like this op who in any form,takes up the defence of Sanusi's action is definetly of a deranged mind and morally bankrupt. Sometimes,I feel there should be a curse on such a crusader that 'may his own daughter suffer be given away at the same age to a man old enough to be her grandfather'. But then again,that would mean subjecting a poor innocent girl to punishment because of her father's imbecillity and stupidity.

eyeview:
If a man like Sanusi with all his education(both western and arabic) and a sterling banking career would end up in marrying an 18year old kid who's younger than some of his own kids,it then means that the issue of child bride ending in the Islamic north is far from over.
I can bet that that kid is not yet 18. I strongly believe that her age was marked up a bit to fall into the 'adulthood',just to give the paedeophile called Sanusi some legal right to his pervasion. Afterall,it was stated that she just finished her SSCE which naturally puts her at 17 and 16(for some kids like her from well-to-do families).
Any person like this op who in any form,takes up the defence of Sanusi's action is definetly of a deranged mind and morally bankrupt. Sometimes,I feel there should be a curse on such a crusader that 'may his own daughter suffer be given away at the same age to a man old enough to be her grandfather'. But then again,that would mean subjecting a poor innocent girl to punishment because of her father's imbecillity and stupidity.

Thank you. I didn't know there are still sane people left on nairaland till I found your post. Many babaric blinded individuals are busy supporting him.

Independence space

Any person like this op who in any form,takes up the defence of Sanusi's action is definetly of a deranged mind and morally bankrupt. Sometimes,I feel there should be a curse on such a crusader that 'may his own daughter suffer be given away at the same age to a man old enough to be her grandfather'. But then again,that would mean subjecting a poor innocent girl to punishment because of her father's imbecillity and stupidity.[/quote]

Normally, I wouldn't reply odious comments like yours, but for once I need to break my own rules. You must be an unbelievably stupid megalomaniac, you must be one of those whose medication from the Neuro-Psychiatric centre got finished before the curation of their mental dysfunctionality.

Anyway, in further enlightenment of your disoriented and ignoramus mind, adulthood is characterised by choices, and if its someone's choice to marry a man older than them, its no one's business.

If it is the wealth the rich old men use in getting younger girls, no one is stopping you from making your own money at a young age and getting young girls too.

Stop assuming your pew of morality is the Standard for all, no, that is why Laws exist.