There was the Yoruba adage I was told many years ago whist dong my national assignment somewhere in the west that had the moral that it was a much more dangerous thing to understand a foreign language partially because there was always the possibility of misinterpreting what was being discussed most times.
In the last three days there has been a flurry of campaigns on the social media accusing our senators of endorsing child marriage ostensibly being advocated for by the Nigerian senator who imported a 13-year old bride from the land of the Pharoahs some years back.
While not holding brief for the distinguished 'cradle snatching' legislators in the midst of those occupying the hallowed chambers, I dare say that those crying 'wolf' should take out time to read the areas in the constitution that this contentious issue was dug up from. Sadly, Nigerians don't read even though we all can speak the Queen's language so I don't expect people to take the pains to review the issue dispassionately by consulting the pages of our constitution.
Be that as it may, we shouldn't expend energy flogging a dead horse because if there are two areas Nigerians will never change their deep rooted convictions about, they would be the areas of ethnicity and religion.
So if a culture or system of belief supports the longings of full grown men taking on toddlers as wives, no amount of fussing via twitter, Facebook, blackberry, e-mails and what have you to the United Nations, U.S senate, the Russian Duma or the Afghanistan Taliban will invalidate this reality because at the end of the day when the baby bride's parents will be giving her away, we will not be there in person to applaud or throw stones to register our presence!
In the last three days there has been a flurry of campaigns on the social media accusing our senators of endorsing child marriage ostensibly being advocated for by the Nigerian senator who imported a 13-year old bride from the land of the Pharoahs some years back.
While not holding brief for the distinguished 'cradle snatching' legislators in the midst of those occupying the hallowed chambers, I dare say that those crying 'wolf' should take out time to read the areas in the constitution that this contentious issue was dug up from. Sadly, Nigerians don't read even though we all can speak the Queen's language so I don't expect people to take the pains to review the issue dispassionately by consulting the pages of our constitution.
Be that as it may, we shouldn't expend energy flogging a dead horse because if there are two areas Nigerians will never change their deep rooted convictions about, they would be the areas of ethnicity and religion.
So if a culture or system of belief supports the longings of full grown men taking on toddlers as wives, no amount of fussing via twitter, Facebook, blackberry, e-mails and what have you to the United Nations, U.S senate, the Russian Duma or the Afghanistan Taliban will invalidate this reality because at the end of the day when the baby bride's parents will be giving her away, we will not be there in person to applaud or throw stones to register our presence!
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