₦airaland Forum

*comfort:
I. THE BRIDE-PRICE LAW

The Bride-price Law of Eastern Nigeria 1956 also set the Marriageable Age at 16 years of age. It also fixed the amount of money to be paid as bride-price. The people did not like this Law and ignored it because they like to bargain for the bride-price as if for a commodity or chattel.



II. PROHIBITION OF CHILDHOOD MARRIAGE LAW



Prohibition of Childhood Marriage Law prohibits Childhood Marriage in Nigeria. Because this Law is totally ignored by both the parents and the men who want to betroth young girls, Childhood Marriage is still condoned, not only in Igbo land but in the whole of Nigeria, in this day and age. But to make a very bad case worse, Nigerian Family Law regards any girl who is said to be “married”, no matter her age, as an adult. This is regardless of the fact that the age for adult suffrage or the right to vote in Nigeria is 18 years. See 136. The Legal Status of Women In Nigeria by Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi and Biola Akiyode-Afolabi (Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi, WILDAF Nigeria National Co-ordinator, & Biola

Akiyode Afolabi, Executive Director WARDC.



Most of the young girls betrothed this way become pregnant at the very onset of their puberty, and are left to carry the pregnancies. Above all, they are left to bear the babies without proper medical attention and without Caesarean Section.

On account of child marriage, many of such girls and their babies die from fistulas and other complications. This is a measure of the callousness with which the men who are said to have married them and the society treat these young girls. That the Igbo allow the practice of Childhood Marriage to go on when the girls are not physically and biologically developed for procreation is a crime committed against Igbo women and against humanity. Here The Aka Ikenga Ndi Igbo and the Oha Na Eze Ndi Igbo should show their relevance in Igbo land, Igbo culture and Igbo civilization by seeing to it that these Laws are obeyed.





III. LAW PROHIBITING OSU AND ORU CASTE SYSTEM AND THEIR STIGMA

The Osu and Oru caste system is found mostly in the Southeastern and South-central Nigeria called Igboland or Igbo society. This affects women very much in that it is a descent-based discrimination which seriously affects the choice of partners for marriage. It is similar to that faced by the Dalit of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the Burakumin of Japan, minorities in the US, Apartheid in South Africa (before 1994) and the color-caste system in Guyana. There are many versions of oral history (and little information) on the origins of the Osu and Oru caste system in Igboland. The paucity of information in this area is, in part, due to the fact that some people erroneously believe that one cannot change the attitude of the society toward the Osu and Oru system, and on another part, because the issue is not politically palatable. In other words, nobody wants to be associated with it for fear of being ostracized by their community (Isaiah Ilo 1992; Obi 1994; Dike 2003).



The Osu is a person sacrificed or dedicated to the gods in the Igbo community to appease the gods. Thus, an Osu and Oru is a sacrificial lamb (except that they are not slaughtered; they are kept for service to the deity). (Anoka 1991; Dike 1999, August 8-12, 2002, & 2002), a child, slave or property of a god or a deity (Obi 1994). However, in Chinua Achebe’s popular Things Fall Apart, the plights of an Osu and Oru (an outcast) in Igboland are vividly and pitifully portrayed. He notes that an Osu and Oru is: a person dedicated to a god, a thing set apart - a taboo forever, and his children after him. He could neither marry nor be married by the freeborn. He was in fact an outcast, living in a special area of the village, close to the Great Shrine(1959, p.156).



The Osu and Oru Caste System affects the man as well as the woman equally in the society. This is the major reason why Ndi Igbo make extensive inquiries about the young man or young woman and their families, initially, before ever any negotiations for marriage is undertaken. If any links to the Osu and Oru Caste is found, even remotely, the idea of marriage is called off completely. But if the man and woman concerned would decide to go ahead with it, they would be doing so completely at their own risk. The risks in such cases is ostracism by the non-Osu and non-Oru families and kindred. Even though a free-born, he and she and their descendants, would become Osu and Oru wholly and entirely by that marriage. Some of such people either do not marry, or they marry people of the same caste.

Some young men are known to have committed suicide on account of the stigma, which status can be acquired by Birth, Marriage and Inheritance. The act of discrimination violates people’s human rights by dehumanizing them through the practices of discrimination and segregation. Certain parts of Igbo land, such as those of the Mid-West, do not have the Osu and Oru caste system.



The Law passed in 1956 by the Eastern Nigeria Government has been neglected and disregarded. The Law Enforcement Agencies operators are themselves afraid of becoming tinted with the caste system and therefore, steer clear of it. It becomes a question of: Who will bell the cat? This means that the people affected and the society in general are not being protected by the rule of law. The challenge of finding ways and means for eradicating the Osu and Oru caste system and their stigma is another one that is starring the Aka Ikenga Ndi Igbo and the Oha Na Eze Ndi Igbo starkly in the face.





IV. LAW PROHIBITING FEMALE GENITAL CIRCUMCISION



This Law which was passed by the Federal Government in 2002 prohibits Female Genital Circumcision. There is no earthly reason why the girl-child should be circumcised in Igbo land or anywhere. The practice is carried on only for the reason of the self-aggrandizement of men; for the sadistic reasons of curbing the sexual appetites of women; and from keeping them from imagined promiscuousness. I wonder how the excessive sexual appetites of men, Igbo men inclusive, and their promiscuousness are curbed? Do women become promiscuous or prostitute by themselves or with themselves? Is it not obvious, as Ndi Igbo say, that wherever a Masquerade is talking that there is a human being (a man) there?


This only goes to say that wherever there is a promiscuous or prostitute woman, that there are men there also! Igbo men should, therefore, stop piling all their faults on the girl-child and women and oppressing them for those reasons. Female Genital Circumcision or Female Genital Cutting or Mutilation, as it is described sometimes, comes in about four different forms. To say the least, female circumcision in whichever form is wicked; sadistic; unsympathetic; non-empathetic; non-compassionate; oppressive, suppressive and a crime against womanhood and humanity, which should be stopped with immediate effect. This should be done, if for no other reasons, for the fact that it is deadly in the child-bearing life of such women; and also in obedience to the Federal Law prohibiting and abrogating the practice in Nigeria. Period!



V. PUNITIVE WIDOWHOOD PRACTICES



This is another wide-spread practice in Igbo land, which should be stopped with immediate alacrity, to borrow a leaf from Zebrudaya, Okoroigwe Nwogbo, alias 4:30. Why should a woman be made to suffer so much and some die as a result of such punishments, because she lost her husband by death? This is a time when she deserves much sympathy and empathy and co-operation. But men are not made to suffer like that when their wives die. Why should it be assumed that the woman killed her husband, while the same assumption is not extended to men when their wives die? Why should it be assumed that a woman would want to kill the man she married, and with whom she has children and is building a family and home, and the same suspicion is never extended to men when their wives die?



Some of such acts of punishments and atrocities committed on widows include:

making the woman drink some of the water used in bathing the body of her dead husband;

sit on the bare floor or, at best, on a straw-mat or mattress;

sit in a position where she would be looking at the body of her husband laid in state, overnight, until it is taken away for burial;

not to sleep on a bed throughout the mourning period of six months to one year;

shave off her hair, wear rags, eat, drink and bathe in secrecy;

eat and drink and bather only from old and broken vessels;

not to eat from food items provided for her husband’s funeral ceremonies;

to accept a substitute husband, if still of child-bearing age, and not to become pregnant otherwise, during the period of mourning;

not to look out to see what is going on for the funeral ceremonies of her husband;

not to talk aloud or travel beyond a certain distance during the mourning period;

to know that her own monies and properties belong to her husband;

to hands-off all monies, moveable and immovable properties of hers and her husband’s; The woman, if she unfortunately does not have a child, is sent away as soon as her husband breathes last. Some of such women are not even allowed to participate in the funeral of their husbands.

If the woman has only girl-children and does not have a male child, she could be allowed to stay in the worst type of shelter, and at the pain of losing all the family possessions;

she would also be starving with her daughters; there is also the danger of

having her daughters married away very young, with or without her or their consent.


SILENCE BY MEN: A CONSPIRACY AND CONNIVANCE



These discriminatory practices are not applied to men at all. In fact men have it very easy. They have a field-day. Some men have actually confessed of spotting their subsequent wives from among the girls who came to sympathize with them on their bereavement of their wives. The men also have a choice as to what to do to mourn their wives, if any. They are even comforted for losing their wives and are pampered by the same Umuokpu ma obu Umuada who punish the widows. I know that the retort to this statement would be that it is the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada who perpetrate those atrocities on their fellow women. But that is not altogether true, because men are behind the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada who carry on the practices, even if by remote control. After all, the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada are the kindred-sisters of the men – dead and living. Therefore, the kindred brothers use their kindred sisters as willing tools to carry out their nefarious acts of violence on their wives and widows.



Besides, the silence of men in these circumstances means connivance. After all, it is men who are being mourned. If the living men do not like what was happening to the wives of their dead relations and friends, they should have protested and spoken out, loud and clear. Ndi Igwe, Ndi Igwe-na-Ndi Ichie, and the Town Unions should abrogate these practices and call the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada to order at attention. These local and cultural legislative bodies should do this. They can do it. To say that they cannot is, again, a ruse, a deception and the passing of the buck! Ndi Igbo have a saying that: Nwam akalia-m bu aghugho, that is to say that: the expression that my child is beyond my control is a trick or a connivance! I am not looking forward only to the State Governments of Igbo land to enact the laws prohibiting Punitive Widowhood Practices, but I lay the onus for the practices on the men, and the responsibility to persuade Ndi Igbo to obey the existing laws and to have new and progressive ones enacted, on Aka Ikenga Ndi Igbo na Oha Na Eze Ndi Igbo to abrogate these and other such obnoxious practices in Igbo land, and really make it happen and work. Some States, like Enugu State, have already enacted the progressive law, and they are, hereby, congratulated. Let the other States of Igbo land follow suit and place themselves squarely on the path of the emancipation of women.





VI. DISINHERITANCE OF WIVES AND DAUGHTERS IN IGBO CULTURE



The Disinheritance of the Girl-child And Women In Igbo Culture is, in effect, the disinheritance of Daughters and Wives, who are the very people that should be considered first. The case against the Omenana of disinheriting daughters and wives, more so widows in Igbo Culture, cannot be more succinctly put than by Justice Niki Tobi, in his lead judgment in the Anambra State Appellate Court, on 10th April 1997. This was when he showed a change of heart and leadership, by taking the bull by the horns. He came up with a pioneer and landmark decision, in the Mojekwu vs Mojekwu Case, in the Nnewi Oli-Ekpe Appeal Case, appealed from the lower Court. In the judgment, which was clearly in favor of the girl-child and women, he wrote:



“All human beings – male and female - are born freely, without any inhibition on grounds of sex; and that is constitutional. Any form of societal discrimination on ground of sex, apart from being unconstitutional, is antithetic to a civil society built on the tenets of democracy, which we have freely chosen as a people. We need not travel all the way to Beijing to know that some of our customs, including the Nnewi “Oli-Ekpe” custom, relied upon by the appellant, are not consistent with our civilized world in which we all live today, including the appellant. In my humble view, it is the monopoly of God to determine the sex of a baby and not the parents. Although the scientific world disagrees with the divine truth, I believe that God, the Creator of human beings, is also the final authority of who should be male or female. Accordingly, for a customary law to discriminate against a particular sex is to say the least an affront to the Almighty God Himself. Let nobody do such a thing. On my part, I have no difficulty in holding that “Oli-Ekpe” custom of Nnewi is repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience”.

The judgment has been acclaimed everywhere as a landmark decision. Some other such judgments followed. See Law And Practice Relating to Women’s Inheritance Rights In Nigeria: An Overview by Joy Ezeilo, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu Campus.



APPLICATION OF THE REPUGNANCY TEST CLAUSE



The British colonials saw the oppressive ways of the Customary and Traditional Practices, and instituted the Repugnancy Test Clause, as part of the Nigerian Legal System in 1900. It provides for the overriding of any Customary and Traditional Law and Practice in the Courts if it is in conflict with natural justice and equity. Also Customary and Traditional Law should be overridden if they were in conflict with the written and official law, and the rights of women and children. Unfortunately, the Test Clause was left by the Law Courts and Law Enforcement Agencies to lie dormant for one whole century until Justice Niki Tobi’s landmark Decision in 1997, and just before it was re-introduced in the 1999 Constitution. The Repugnancy Test Clause, of course, applies only to cases appealed from the lower Courts to the higher Courts.



COURT DECISIONS: THE ONLY ANSWER



Women should learn to take the matters that concern them to the Courts, and refuse any kind of pressure to withdraw the matter from the Court for adjudication at home. This is because any kind of adjudication out of Court would be according to Omenana, by the Elders and the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada. Women should seek for bloodless and discrimination-free revolution in decisions in matters concerning them. The spirit of the new bloodless revolutionary initiatives for women emancipation always should be for women to take matters concerning them to the Courts of Justice everywhere in Igbo land and in Nigeria. Many more of such favourable decisions by Justice Niki Tobi have followed and, in all of the cases, the judges denounced such disinheritance practices as repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience.



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okunoba:
Dear Osisi, u right, madness comes in different languages. The ethnic bigotry on Nairaland is sickening. No ethnicity group as a monopoly on good or evil. Time to put a stop to ethnic hate. love thy neighbour.

Pepeye:
Hey peeps

I got lots of Kalabari as friends
nice people

liznelson:
It's Uniben, better by far!!

Aloy.Emeka:
1. Dr Oyenusi[ Nigeria's greatest armed robber in history]

2. Anini[ Another celebrity robber that made dummies out of the Nigerian police in the 80's]

3. Obidiozor Otokoto[ robber, hitman, racketeering, loan sharking and general crime merchandise]

4. Shina Rambo[ Nobody knows whether he is for real or a myth]

Bobbyb:
OAU in ile-ife
ABU in zaria
Uniben
UI in Ibadan
UNN in nsukka
UNILAG whr else in LAGOSUniport.

Ijawman:
Did anyone listen to the accent of the fighting babes as well as that of the man who was bursted by his wife? Both sound clearly Yoruba. Those people?