Yarima's reply reminds me of Show Promoter's song in which he sang about an incestuous father who defended his heinous act in court with the claim that the girl he abused was his own daughter, born by the woman he married with his own money. He likened it to buying a piece of property and destroying it at will. Howbeit, that character in Promoter's music is as flawed as Yarima in something relating to a girl child. That someone is a father of a girl does not give him the right to do whatever he pleases with the child. Extremists never stop at anything to justify their evil. In Igboland, there's an adage which says that the child belongs to all. That's true, irrespective that the child has her parents. It points to the usefulness of the child to society, and the possibility of the child being defended by society if the case arises. In the Western world, there's a law that forbids a parent from ill-treating or abusing their own child. Any parent that runs afoul of the law is prosecuted, and loses custody of the child. If it were in a country where the welfare of the child is provided for, Yarima would be in prison serving a long sentence for child sexual abuse. More importantly, he'd be tagged as a pedophile. Ironically, it's that type of character we have in political leadership. And he’s using State instrument to legalize his sickening and abominable life style before our very eyes. He cleverly uses religion as a cover. It’s the same religion which he used as a cover to introduce Sharia into Northern Nigeria when he was governor of Zamfara State. The fruits of his Sharia adventure never yielded the dividends of good governance, except religious bigotry, killing, destruction, strife and intolerance in the North. Above all, Zamfara and its Sharia sister-states remain as poor as ever, and creating their greatest industry in the breeding of Almajiris. His tenure as governor of Zamfara never produced an industrial revolution which gave the uneducated and unemployed almajiris in the North succour.
Ahmed Sani Yarima presented himself to be a governor of a State in the North. He received a mandate from his people. He ended up disappointing his people by talking and instituting religious fundamentalism, instead of providing infrastructure, jobs, education, and other things that humans need to better their lives. By failing administratively, he helped creating the social problems in Nigeria as we know them. Such problems are: unemployment, insecurity, moral decadence, corruption, prostitution, armed robbery, kidnapping, starvation, intolerance, etc.

The level of poverty in Nigeria is phenomenal. It’s so because the political class which Yarima belongs to failed woefully. Yarima and his colleagues deprived the people of the basic necessities of life, which a responsive government provides for its citizenry. For instance, Ireland is a Christian country with a secular democracy. Every child in Ireland becomes entitled to child benefit from the day they’re born until they turn 18 years. Any unemployed persons receive unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance and rent allowance to enable them feed well and have a roof over their heads. These provisions are made by the State from the tax payers’ money. In contrast, in Nigeria, politicians massage their own ego by sharing and looting the money meant for the people’s well-being. Now tell me why a girl would go out in the night looking for men to have sex with for mere 500 Naira as Yarima suggested, if not for the sake of poverty. Has the government tried in any way to cushion the effect of poverty on the people? Poverty drives people into desperation. Which sane parent would send their daughter abroad or into the city to prostitute and earn a living for them if they had jobs? I am not trying to glorify decadence, but the decadence in society has been exacerbated by lack of responsible and responsive governance. Why would every Chemist Store be in position of abortion pills when there should be laws banning the practice? In Europe, Chemists don’t perform abortion. They are not even permitted to sell certain drugs over the counter, without doctor’s prescription. But in Nigeria, the likes of Ahmed Sani Yarima are sitting idly-by in the Senate, while impunities freely reign, and they call themselves lawmakers. We see that the law makers fail in their duties to make laws that would restore order in the land, now they think that if there’s prostitution or fornication or abortion, the remedy is to marry off the infant child so that she will not stand a chance of being corrupted by those vices. That is one of the most stupid and senseless thoughts ever to come out of the imagination of a man. Will the child be forced to lose her innocence because the politicians are not doing their jobs? Why is it that one’s personal religious perception would become a yardstick in how we treat a female child generally? Neither Yarima nor any other person has a religious right to abuse a child sexually. This is the bottom line. This law they whitewashed has no place among laws that regulate the activities of my people. A female child remains a child until she becomes an adult woman. Until then, it becomes illegal to make any marital proposal on her behalf. The law should not even authorize Yarima to do it to his own daughter as if she is a piece of property to be given out to any old man who cares. Children should be safeguarded from abusive parents and strangers alike. Suggestion of infant marriage for a girl is a gross abuse on a minor.