Nigeria: Pyrrhic Indignation

23 October 2019
opinion

If you live in the North, particularly in Kano, you could not have missed the astounding story of the nine children stolen from Kano city, taken to Anambra State, sold and processed through a new culture, complete with changes in their faith, names and languages. You may also have seen or heard of a video showing fully-clad northern Muslim women receiving enveloped handouts from a catholic priest and assistants to relieve their suffering from poverty and ravaging conflicts. The stories of 'rehabilitation centres and Islamic schools' run by clerics being busted by police and political leaders are grabbing attention, with the likelihood that more are being targetted.

Anger and indignation over the nine retrieved Kano children went notches higher when a list of another 40-odd missing children was released by parents who had long formed an association to put pressure for their discovery. It appeared that the bustling city of Kano had for a while become a thriving locale for stealing Hausa children and selling them to people in the East who turned them into Igbo children for a variety of purposes. This anger and indignation has barely been scratched by the deluge of condemnations from a wide spectrum of opinions, including the local Igbo community. Even President Muhammadu Buhari commended the police for rescuing the children. The atmosphere provided ample opportunities for speculation as well. People asked how many other children may have been stolen from Kano and other northern cities. In a region living with over ten million child beggars on the extreme margins of security and comfort, is it possible that hundreds of this floating population have long become settled members of distant communities? Some with a sense of history recalled the uproar which followed the elopement of Ese Oruru, the 14 year old who followed a young man all the way from her home in Yenegoa, Delta State to his home in Kano to become a Muslim and marry him four years ago.

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