Nigeria: Ese Oruru’s Mirror

By Okey Ndibe

I received a plaintive note last week from a young man who seemed rather shocked that I had not written about Nigeria’s scandal of the moment—the harrowing story of a 14-year old girl named Ese Rita Oruru, abducted from her home in Bayelsa State, transported to Kano by a 22-year old drifter, Yunusa (alias Yellow), who contrived her conversion to Islam and then made her his bride. My young correspondent then pleaded with me to write about the Ese matter, as if the burden of rendering whole again a world turned on its head rested with whatever I was going to say.

*Ese Oruru

The matter of Ese, even the fragment of it sketched out above, is a tragic story. But what makes the story truly, deeply tragic is far less the specific details of what happened to a solitary young woman than what the Ese Affair says about Nigeria, its institutions, its attitude to children, and the vexed subject of religion.

In short, the tragedy lies in the fact that Nigeria is a country at war with its most vulnerable, weak citizens. It is a country at war with its poor, its workers, especially those of them who are minimum wage earners, its womenfolk, especially those of them who are, in every important sense, children.

Speaking to a reporter, one of Ese’s best friends at school in Bayelsa State disclosed that her friend’s dream was to become a nurse. According to this friend, Ese excelled at math, integrated science and English. In her first interview with reporters, Ese corroborated the account of her dream. In a child-friendly society, Ese would have received encouragement to enable her to achieve her professional aspiration. But this is Nigeria, a country that’s turned into a killer of dreams, if not of the dreamers. Instead of being on her way to a nursing career, Ese, who is now five months pregnant, must become the charge of nurses as she, a mere child, prepares to bring a child into the world.

How did the young man who abducted Ese manage to pull off his crime—for crime it was—in broad daylight, without anybody, civilian or uniformed, to stop him? How was it that several adults presided over the farcical conversation of the young woman without one of them pausing to ask, one, whether she was competent to voluntarily understand said conversion and, two, whether she understood the implications of what was to follow?

In her interview, Ese described the process of her ostensible conversion. “They took me to one place. Before they took me from the house to Kura, they put me in hijab, then we went to Kura. When we got there, they went to one place, and one old man came there and he would say something and they would say I should repeat. Then I would repeat. If the man said something again, they would say I should repeat and I would repeat just like that.”

A conversion indeed, just like that!

Abduction And Forced Marriage Of 13 Year-Old Girl: Impunity Stretched Beyond Comprehension!

*The Victim - Ese Rita Oruru

1. On 12 August, 2015, 13 years old Ms Ese Rita Oruru did not return home 

2. Efforts made by the parents to locate Ese led to one Mohammed (aka Daidi) who informed the mother that one Mr. Yinusa (alias Yellow) had taken the said Miss Ese Rita Oruru to Kano with an intention to convert her into Islam, recruit her into an Islamic fanatical Group and marry her.
3. Acting on the above information, Mrs. Rose Oruru approached one Dan Kano, who not only confirmed the story but also promised to take her to Kano to recover her daughter.

4. Notwithstanding the above promise made, the said Dan Kano rescinded on his promise and rather sent one Rabiu to accompany Mrs. Rose Oruru to Kano.

5. On the 14th of August, 2015 the journey to Kano was embarked on, arriving after midnight. The said Rabiu took Mrs. Rose Oruru to the chief of a village called Tufa in Kura Local Government Area of Kano State on the 15th of August, 2015.

6. After relaying the purpose of their visit, the said chief was furious with Rabiu for bringing Mrs. Rose Oruru to Kano and told them that the said Miss Ese Rita Oruru has been converted to Islam and renamed “Aisha”, married and that the child was no longer her child. He also informed them that Miss Ese Rita Oruru was in the custody of the Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Sanusi at the Palace.

7. Moving forward, Mrs. Rose Oruru in the company of Rabiu approached the Emir of Kano’s Palace but met a stiff opposition by several youth, they were pushed out of the Palace.