By Abiodun Awolaja

A disease ails Nigeria’s North, and it’s called culture. You have probably read the story of the 14-year-old bride who allegedly poisoned her 34-year-old groom on their wedding night in Jigawa State last December. The story of the suspect, Zahara’u Dauda, and the victim, Khamis Haruna, who survived the killer meal of jollof spaghetti and whose friend Muhammad Alfah did not live to tell his horror story, underlines the malaise that governs this society.

Hear Haruna telling the Nigerian Tribune his love story: “We were married out of love. She loves me and I love her too. We were in love for two years. I saw her in the neighboring village called Bakata in Kiyawa Local Government Area and approached her almost two years ago. Since she was still young, I waited. And when she clocked 14 years, I made all the arrangements for marriage and we got married on a Friday and I brought her to my house. We were married for love. She never showed any worry in our relationship.”

First off, RIP to the dead and quick recovery to the survivor(s). But I can’t help feeling that Haruna’s story sounds ridiculously moronic. Somehow, we are supposed to be comfortable with the fact that a 34-year-old roused himself, eager to violate a mere child in the name of culture. Mr Haruna and the suspect “were in love for two years,” meaning that she was only 12 when he captured her heart. God have mercy! Mr Haruna “made all the arrangements” for marriage to a child, callously indifferent to the ailments the union was going to spring. Isn’t it strange that the crooks who gave us “culture” are long dead, but we perpetuate their vicious crimes? It was culture that made Nefertiti Pharaoh Akhenaten’s bride at 12 in ancient Egypt. And Isabella of Valois, England’s Richard II’s bride at the age of six.

If I was at table and anyone mentioned a forthcoming wedding to a 14-year-old girl, I am sure I would have indigestion. I am apparently no spokesman for Mr Haruna’s culture of cradle robbery that thrusts mere children into the world of legitimized sexual assault and serial violations. Completely ill-prepared for the strange, misbegotten world of matrimony into which they are thrust, child brides often activate their suppressed dissent in violent ways. In 2014, 14-year-old Wasila Umaru killed her 35-year-old groom, Umaru Sani, and a friend in Kano. The unwilling bride had bought rat poison at a village market and prepared poisoned rice. She did the crime “because she was forced to marry a man she did not love.”

In June 2018, teenager Noura Hussein had her death sentence commuted to a five-year prison term by an appeal court in Sudan following an international outcry. The child bride had killed her husband after enduring serial rape ordeals. Sudanese law senselessly allows children above 10 to be married with a judge’s permission, and leprous marriages are routine. In 2023, Samira Sabzian, a child bride convicted for murdering her abusive husband, was executed with relish in Iran. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), was livid with rage: “Samira was a victim of years of gender apartheid, child marriage, and domestic violence, and today she fell victim to the incompetent and corrupt regime’s killing machine.”

In That cradle robbery in Bayelsa (January 6, 2024), I wrote: “Today, Northern Nigeria, teeming with child brides, best epitomizes this malady, although Niger Republic, where 76% of girls are married off before 18 and 28% before 15, is statistically the country with the highest rate of child brides in the world. And the political beneficiaries of this biological robbery aren’t letting up, principally because the state has been a big letdown. Child marriage should rank among war crimes given the extent of its evil, but worldwide, one in five girls ends up in its trap.

Africa is home to more than 130 million child brides and as of January 2023, Nigeria had an estimated 22 million child brides, the population of Benin Republic and Togo combined, never mind that a 2017 World Bank/ICRW study estimated that ending child marriage could generate Nigeria some $7.6 billion in earnings and productivity. If those brides escaped to any of Niger, the Central African Republic, Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, or Guinea, they would walk into the leprous embrace of lechers. Nationally, 30.3% of girls in Nigeria are thrust upon marriage before they turn 18 and 12.3% before 15. Only a miserly 1.6% of boys suffer this indignity.” I have found no reason to disturb this conclusion.

What I might add, though, is that the situation in the so-called advanced climes is just as gross. Per the Colorado Public Radio columnist Andrea Dukakis: “The U.S. Census Bureau did not link age with marital status till 1880, which makes national figures unavailable before that time. But in that year, 11.7 percent of fifteen-to-nineteen-year-old girls were wives. That number dipped in 1890 and then increased incrementally through the 1920s to 12.6 percent in 1930.” Child marriage was actually legal in all 50 states until 2018. Per a 2021 study, nearly 300,000 minors, most of them girls, were victims of that culture between 2000 and 2018.

“Child bride’s killing shocks Nigerians” is the title of a Washington Post May 3, 1987 story. The rider: “Death of girl, married at 9, draws outcry over old custom.” Certain hypocrites who cried foul then are still laying siege to the bodies of minors. Says the UN Sustainable Development Group: “Trapped at homes, prevented from going to schools, isolated from their families, friends and communities—this is the life of most child brides. Replacing learning at schools, playing with their friends and living their childhood with home responsibilities, household chores, and raising children while they themselves are children pose a risk to their lives, the lives of their children and the future of their communities.” How profoundly sad!

Look at this story of regret by Idrisu Ali, a Bauchi-based buffoon who married off his 12-year-old daughter, Fatima, to a 65-year-old accomplice. Ali told Forbes in 2018: “I was sad because he was too old. I wanted her to marry someone younger, say 55 or 50, because he could take care of her for a longer time before he dies. But he was a successful farmer in the village and he paid a good dowry.” To this pestilential, culturally castrated fellow, the ideal husband for a 12-year-old should be someone between 50 and 55. To think that a man would subject his child to legitimized rape just for some crops! The bride wasn’t even supposed to have any say in her own future!

To escape poverty, parents throw their children into a more egregious poverty trap. Betrayed by their parents and society, child brides confront childbirth complications, malnutrition and anemia, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). They are socially isolated, economically dependent, and emotionally distressed. And when they react in the most unfortunate ways that their limited horizon dictates, the law that lay idly by when lechers robbed them of their childhood pounces, ready to send them to hell. Over to the Jigawa State authorities, who have vowed that justice “will take its course” while making mincemeat of the future of their own children through child marriage!

By Richard Odusanya

Eagles and lions are designed to do very different things. So pound-for-pound, the eagle has stronger muscles for flight and a stronger grip with its toes. The Lion has a stronger bite and stronger muscles for grappling, running, and leaping. Eagle symbolizes; loyalty, devotion, freedom, TRUTH, honor, divinity, hope, foresight and psychic revelation. Majestic and untamed, Lions personify nature’s grandeur. Their golden coats shimmer like the sun’s embrace, exuding power and prowess.

Unsurprisingly, eagles can sometimes take down prey that is larger than themselves, but the bald eagle is a poor example. It’s a fish eagle, and catching fish is what it’s mainly designed for. Lions also regularly take down prey larger than themselves, such as Cape buffalo and zebra, but they usually have a pride and work together. In this new era, as people bond in unity; by embodying the lion’s courage and leadership and the eagle’s vision and power, we can navigate life’s challenges with strength and clarity.

Additionally, Eagle is a symbol of power, freedom, and vision. They have a strong mindset and that is the anchor and the foundation of their success., eagles are formidable — perhaps the most formidable among the flying birds. But lions are a whole other category. To give you some perspective- a full grown golden eagle is fast, strong and well armed enough to capture, restrain, and in some cases kill a wolf. 

On the other hand, Lions are way heavier, have longer reach and more massive weapons. Eagle can injure a lion fatally, I suppose, if it strikes from the air. However, if it makes the mistake of landing on the ground, Lion will win the fight. They are the second fastest cat in the world, third fastest animal and have matching agility. The Lion and the eagle are powerful symbols in many cultures. Their mindsets can be a source of inspiration for leaders, teaching them about courage, vision, and overcoming challenges.

To sum up, attitude is the product of belief. You cannot have an attitude beyond your belief, so your attitude comes from your belief system. The lion is the king because of what he believes about himself. I’d like to share with my readers a poignant, provocatively and profoundly incontrovertible fact about mindset, as we search for a better country and seek to build a golden monument from the ruins of yesteryears and the anguish of today.

There are only two animals on the planet that God identified himself with. The first one is the eagle and the second one is the lion, both of them, are the king of their domain. Correspondingly, the way-forward: “Reset, restart, refocus” is a phrase that suggests a cyclical process of self-improvement or goal achievement. It’s a reminder that it’s okay to pause, take a step back, and start again when faced with setbacks or distractions. Beginning from ‘2025’ the mindsets of the eagle and lion should envelope us as a people bond in unity. We are in the period of forward ever backward never till Africa is free from all that ever sets us back in time past.

In conclusion, I like to use this contribution about the characteristics of the Eagle/Lion as portrayed in the above paragraphs for us to realize that, the problems we’re facing today as a nation and by extension the continent of Africa is not because of being a Nigerian or a black man, but instead, it is a problem of a people who has lost who they are; mortgaged their traditions and cultures and overall definition of honesty, focus and concentration. Under the circumstances, we may have unwittingly relegated or even cancelled our societal values and psychological being for the ways and traditions of the western societies. 

Finally, as the Lion is revered as the king of the jungle, known for his authority, courage, and ability to lead his pride through any challenge. Also, the Eagle, soaring high above, admired for its sharp vision, resilience, and the grace with which it flew above storms, never fearing the winds but using them to rise higher. I pray that beginning from this year ‘2025’ the mindsets of our leaders in all the  troubled Nations of the continent of Africa begin to work with satisfactory results, and beneficial effects.

Richard Odusanya

[email protected]

By IfeanyiChukwu Afuba 

History is set to return as a subject in Nigeria’s primary and secondary schools. Barring any unforeseen hitches, the reintroduction which was mooted in 2016, will be actualised sometime in 2025. Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa conveyed President Bola Tinubu’s approval for implementation of the plan while featuring in a Channels television programme on January 1, 2025. “What has been missing in the past is Nigerian history. We now have people of 30 years disconnected from our history. It doesn’t happen in any part of the world” Alausa stressed. The Minister’s specificity on Nigerian history helpfully dispels contending notions of African, West African or general world history. Although the Minister outlined “disconnection from our history” as a need factor for the policy, he did not go into details especially with regard to stating the objectives or goal to be achieved with the exercise. And for that crucial component of the programme, we have to go to his predecessor, Adamu Adamu, who started the journey in 2016.

Adamu who oversaw the curriculum development stages of the policy had offered some definition of the problem. “You have to know who you are before you can be anything in this world. The immediate implication of this was that we lost ideas even of our recent past, and we scarcely saw ourselves as one nation and gradually began retreating into our primordial sentiments.” At the commencement of training of history teachers in 2022, The Guardian of December 10, 2022 quoted the Minister as further saying: “The loss created by the absence of this subject has led to a fall in moral values, erosion of civic values and disconnect from the past.” The consistency in execution of this policy is commendable. It suggests there is merit in the vision and equally gives hope on the issue of continuity in government projects. However, the presumed gains of history study in our schools invite closer interrogation against the lessons from our nation-state efforts and experiences elsewhere. Are the values of history necessarily the same as those of nation-building? Does consciousness of history equate to conviction? What constitutes nation-building? How does history impact citizen behaviour?

There are about two main positive dimensions of the initiative. The first borders on the decolonisation of our sense of civilisation. Conservative and radical African thought tend to accept that Western education left it’s toll on the African psyche. In spite of it’s many salutary contributions to development in Africa, western education unleashed a feeling of inferiority complex on the average African. Western stereotypes of the blackman’s religious, political, cultural barbarism as it affects Nigerians need to be addressed by projecting the authentic way we lived. Our native languages were suppressed and with them a good dose of oral history and worldview. We envisage that the scheme of Nigerian history will correct the misplaced lionisation of an imperialist soldier such as Boden Powell by highlighting the exploits of local heroes. And ditto for the egregious ascription to Mungo Park of discovery of River Niger. As the sage, Chinualumogu Achebe put it: “Our past was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans, acting on God’s behalf, sought to deliver us.”

There is no doubting the government’s focus on a three course of Nigerian history, identity and citizenship rolled into one. We think the federal government’s essence is one that can be adapted from Bob Marley’s _Exodus_lyrics. “We know where we’re going. We know where we’re from. We’re leaving Babylon. We’re going to our father’s land.” It speaks of a history that traces our roots as co – existing neighbours even before the advent of colonial boundaries. It speaks about the evolution of a common destiny from colonial statehood to the gains of independence. In this era, Nigerian history for schools would most probably dwell on similarity of sub-national cultures, emphasising how components of the federation have related and made gains over the years. It seems the case that the content would be driven by the philosophy of The Guardian’s oft quoted exchange; a cross between Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s “Let’s forget our differences” and Sir Ahmadu Bello’s riposte “Let’s understand our differences.”

 A historically enlightened mind will most likely take pride in the achievements of his society. To such extent, history could aid the integration efforts of a State. Intimate knowledge 

 of the Nigeria civil war for instance could mediate inter-ethnic conflicts. There can be no doubt that the sobriety thrown up by the civil war experience has staved off dangers again and again. The lessons of the war has made dialogue a preferred conflict resolution formula for the older generations. It’s reasonable to expect that a deeper absorption of the impact of the war would sensitise younger generations not to take national unity for granted. But the benefits of historical awareness are not elastic. Their efficacy is not automatic but dependent to a large extent on other intervening factors. The interplay of these variables, not the declaration behind a history curriculum, will ultimately determine the result of the project.

The other factors that correlate with history are personality and environment. And for our purposes on the Nigerian condition, we include a third, political climate. Now, how does the personality thing play out? From Kunta Kinte to Kemi Badenoch, we see a varied pattern of responses to the call of motherland. Aside from rebelling against his captivity, Kinte, Alex Haley’s protagonist in _Roots,_ yearned for reconnection with his origins. Kemi Badenoch, free and conscious, is critically selective of what she acknowledges as her heritage. It is not something peculiar to the British opposition party leader. How many Europeans and Americans of African descent have made permanent homecoming after tracing their roots? How many even visit regularly thereafter? Simply put, consciousness does not translate to conviction. Historical narrative must contend with the individual’s judgment. The situation can be likened to a salesman and the targeted buyer. However outstanding the product, however persuasive the salesman, the buyer’s disposition is what prevails. And the ease of accepting history as truth has to do with environment and political climate.

The environment may be described as comprising all the external influences that we are exposed to in a society. In trying to predict the encounter between history study and segments of the Nigerian population, we find hints from the environmental experience. This is to say that our environment already contains within it mini typologies of Nigerian history. How have they fared in inculcating the citizenship spirit that the federal government seeks to achieve with the study of history? There are two federal government colleges in every state and Abuja, with more than a quarter of them over fifty years old. The NYSC programme is in it’s fifty – second year this 2025. The National Institute of Policy & Strategic Studies has operated for over forty years. These institutions were created and nurtured to foster national unity. By their duration, they have become part of Nigeria’s history for some generations, a few of which are already in leadership. Has their familiarity with, indeed, experience of this breeding of the new Nigerian, had any significant effect on them and on our polity? The fact that the federal character principle, even after being written into the Constitution, is violated with impunity, ought to be revealing. While there have been marginal gains in issues – oriented politics, we find that electoral behaviour is predominantly ethnic and religion based.

Political climate refers to the tenor of political and administrative order operating at a given time. Administrations have different characteristics and therefore different governance relations with the people. The more a government is perceived as responsible, accountable, progressive and responsive, the greater the chances of social cohesion. In other words, government credibility enables successful citizen mobilisation for nation – building. Conversely, an oppressive government that stifles the freedom and aspirations of the people will be alienated. When the actions of a government are contradictory to the precepts preached by officialdom, the narratives lose potency of persuasion. In such a situation, government fails to create the setting as well as the mood for civic participation in statecraft. The point applies beyond civic engagement. As it often happens in African countries, when a government is preoccupied canvassing investment opportunities, without providing the enabling environment for entrepreneurship, there’s hardly economic growth at the end of the day.

The school history policy is too ambitious given the scope of plan in which it is set out. It makes the unrealistic presumption that civic responsibility is a function of historical orientation. If that were so, Nigeria’s educated population would have transformed the country into a great nation with high standard of living. The task of nation – building is a comprehensive one demanding the pacification of fundamental grievances. Governments have a big role to play in engaging relevant actors and making the system friendly. As the Tinubu administration seeks to orient the citizenry on the Nigerian project, it should commit to the welfare of the people. She will do well to wage wars against hunger, corruption and insecurity and address inequities in the Nigerian federation. That will be a fascinating channel from which to beam Nigerian history.