THE ORDEAL OF AISHA ORURU: WHY PMB MUST INTERVENE

Sometime in February 2013, a lady by name Charity Uzochina then a student of the federal Polytechnic Bida embraced Islam. As is the practice, she changed her name to Aisha, a popular Muslim name. At that time, Aisha was 25 and thus by any standard an adult who could decide for herself.

In a nation whose constitution allows for freedom of religion with respect to its choice and practice, one would expect no dust to be raised at that development. However, the father of Aisha, who is also a pastor tried to forcefully take back Aisha in order to force her back to Christianity. He was backed by the Christian Association of Nigeria and all manners of so-called human right activists. Out of fear for her life, the lady approached a Shariah court in Niger state which asked the Etsu Nupe to give her protection. She thus dropped her studies and took refuge in the Emir’s palace. A year later, she got married to the Muslim lawyer who handled her case. It is important to note that Aisha succeeded only because of the resilience of the Emir of Nupe who refused to release her to those wolfy set of people who were not ready to accept anyone of them to embrace Islam even if their conversion is as Aisha herself put it, “strictly personal, gradual and well thought-out” and even if no law of the land prevents it from taking place. One irony is that none of the so-called human right groups came out to defend the right of adult Aisha to decide for herself the religion she wanted to follow and indeed the husband she wanted to marry.

If the Emir of Bida stood his ground to protect a helpless lady who was adamant on exercising her right of choice, the Emir of Kano was not forthcoming in this regard. I m particularly referring to the story of Ese (Aisha) Oruru which has dominated the headlines over the first several days. This story is one of pity and persecution. It has also revealed the timidity of the Nigerian Muslim community and the dysfunctionality of their leadership. Ese Oruru is a teenager born to a Christian family in Bayelsa state. At a stage in her life she decided to change her religion to Islam. Conversion to Islam in Nigeria is not new. Islam is the fastest growing religion on earth that people across all continents continue to embrace. In the case of young Ese she embraced Islam through one Yunusa who is a native of Kano state. Not only did the young man preached Islam to Ese, he took her to his village and married her. According to the news, there was an attempt by Ese’s family to take her back to Bayelsa but she refused because she was comfortable living as a Muslim with her husband of choice.

Like the case of her name-sake in Niger state, the story of Ese has attracted a lot of noise by the traditional noise makers in Nigeria. A lot has been said to the extent that many people who should ordinarily sympathize with Aisha for her ordeal have become confused and are busy condemning people whose guilt has not been legally established.

Here, there are many questions in need of answers. First, how old is Aisha? The initial story was that Ese is 18. But later we were told that she is now 14 but was 13 as at the time she was ‘abducted’. There has been no independent investigation to determine her actual age. What I expect the self-acclaimed champions of child right to have done is to launch and publish an independent investigation to ascertain the actual age of Aisha (Ese). This will clearly establish whether or not she has the right to decide for herself.

And what determines the age of maturity?  It is relative depending on the issue at stake and the legal system in place. According to the laws we inherited from the British, a girl who willingly submits herself to a man is not considered to have been raped unless she is below the age of 14. In other words, marriage aside, if Ese willingly submitted herself to Yinusa for sex at the age of 14, he can validly accuse anyone who calls him a rapist of character assassination. This is obviously the reason why our so-called advocates of child right reduced the age of Aisha to 13 in order to have a reason to make the public believe that the ‘minor’ was abducted and raped.

Now, how neutral is the Nigerian Police? Anyone who has listened to the explanations of the Nigerian Police would doubt the neutrality of the Force on this issue. For example, since the ‘rescue’ of Aisha and her return to Abuja, they have been hiding her from the public and disallowing her access to the press. In spite of this, a national daily published an interview purportedly given by Aisha in which she corroborated the claim that she was hypnotized. The ‘interview’ is available on the popular Linda Akija’s blog as I am writing this piece.  If the Police truly allowed the interview to take place and denied other journalists access to her, then it is not fair. And if the interview is false, I expect the Nigerian Police to arrest the publishers for misleading the public and ridiculing the Force.

Another threat to the well being of Aisha is the statement from her family that they will be taking her to TB Joshua.  This is because according to her father Mr. Charles Oruru, “Ese had declined to come home after being released into the custody of the Police, fearing she may have been hypnotised”. This statement from Mr. Oruru, published in the Vanguard of 2^nd March 2016 raises another dust. The Police must have forced Aisha to Abuja and that is why she has been hidden from the Public. And why take her to TB Joshua? TB Joshua is a Christian preacher who does not share the same faith with Aisha. Assuming Aisha is bundled and taken to TB Joshua who is believed by his admirers to have extra-spiritual powers, how will he react when she refuses to accept his advice to return to Christianity? Can we rule out torture? Who is there to make sure that this young person is not maltreated? Her desperate parents who have been made to believe that their daughter has been hypnotized by Muslims and want her to be hypnotized back to Christianity by TB Joshua or Joshua’s disciples who believe in the supernatural powers of their leader? Nigerians would definitely be interested to know TB Joshua’s method of hypnotisation to make sure that it does not contain any form of maltreatment.

In conclusion and with due respect to the Emir of Kano, he should not have handed over Aisha (Ese) without getting assurance that she will be safe and following to make sure that she is not tortured for her belief whether or not she has reached the age of puberty. But it is not late. He, along with other leaders must follow this matter to logical conclusion and make sure that Aisha stays alive and safe. But above all, Mr. President should come in to make sure that this helpless Nigerian has been safely handled.