Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido responses to marrying 18 years old Sa’adatu Barkindo-Musdafa
The Emir
of kano Sanusi II has responded to critic about him marrying an 18 years old Sa’adatu
Barkindo-Musdafa , the daughter of Lamido
Adamawa. The Emir has the following to say
- The lady in question is 18 and therefore legally of age to marry under all laws and certainly under Muslim law.
- She is proceeding for her undergraduate education in the UK in January. She had an A in computer science in her O levels and plans to get a degree in computer science.
- Each and every one of my wives is a university graduate and some have worked and then stopped and in each case the choice was purely theirs.
- It is a tradition in Kano that emirs and princes in choosing wives consider issues beyond the individual. The family is in every sense a social unit. My predecessor was married to princesses from Ilorin, Katsina and Sokoto.
- The relationship between the late Lamido of Adamawa Aliyu Musdafa the father of the current Lamido is well known. Lamido Aliyu was the first emir turbaned after emir Sanusi I and they remained close until Sanusi’s death.
- My own relationship with the current Lamido dates back to 1981 when he was Ciroma and commissioner for works. By the way the Lamido and I are not illiterates we know what we are doing and he does have a PhD in Engineering.
- My own mother was married in Adamawa and lived there for more than two decades and I have eight younger brothers and sisters from there.
- It is therefore natural that if I choose to marry from another kingdom Adamawa would be the first choice for me and I am extremely happy to strengthen these long historical bonds.
- The young lady in question gave her free consent and even after the contract the wedding will not happen for a few years. By then she may be 21. If she freely consents to this I do not know on what moral grounds anyone has a grouse. She is an adult, she gave her consent, and her education is not being in anyway interrupted.
- The real issue is that people do not accept cultural difference. And you can see it in the approach to these issues. I am supposed to be urbane and western educated. Yes but I am not European. I am a northern Nigerian Fulani Muslim brought up in a setting exactly like the one my children are being brought up in.
If you read this and
it improves your understanding of this issue that is fine. If it does not just
remember it is not your life, it is not your daughter and you are not my wife
therefore it is not your business.
I obviously cannot
stoop to the level of responding publicly to these kinds of articles. I have
always been an advocate of girls marrying after maturing. I personally like the
minimum age of 18 even though I understand those who say 16 is fine and indeed
this is the law in most so called advanced countries.
Is this something
that I expect a European or western trained or feminist mind to appreciate or
endorse? Not at all. But has any American been bothered about my views on men
marrying men or women marrying women who frankly I find primitive and bestial?
No and my views do not matter. These are cultural issues.
Even in Nigeria I
have heard all this stuff as in Pius article about “north” and northerners.
Again it is a failure to respect difference. There are parts of this country
where parents expect their daughters to live with their boyfriends for years
and actually get pregnant before they marry. It has become culture. We do not
have that in the north and if your daughter gets pregnant before marriage she
brings nothing but shame to the name. But we do not issue condemnations. We
agree that this is how they choose to live. And I can give many other examples.
When people use the
term libido they do themselves injustice. First of all it shows how they view
women and marriage. Women are nothing but the object of sexual desire. Marriage
is nothing but sexual gratification. Well I am sorry but in my tradition it is
not. Beauty and attraction rank third after religion and lineage in the choice of
a wife.
They see an 18 year
old young lady. I see a princess of noble birth whose mother is also a
princess, and who has been brought up in a good Muslim home. This is the kind
of woman that is prepared for giving birth to princes and bringing them up for
the role expected of them in society.
Marriage is both
social and political. Expanding the links of Kano which have already been
established by my predecessors through inter-marriage with Katsina, Sokoto,
Ilorin, Katagum, Ningi, Bauchi etc to Adamawa is an important and significant
step and this is obvious to anyone with a sense of how royal families work and
Ibn Khaldun’s sociological concept of Asabiyyah.
When the Emir of Kano
marries it has to be something beyond what he personally desires to what is appropriate
for that position and the expectations of the people he represents. You don’t
just pick up any girl on the street. And by the way, for those who shout
libido, sex is cheap and available everywhere in all shapes and sizes and all
colours if that is what they want. And all ages too. Marriage is a very
different proposition. The mother of your children has to be something other
than, not at least much more than a mere object of sexual fantasy. But if you
do not know that you need to buy yourself a brain.
I have daughters. And
they know they can only marry from certain backgrounds. I always prefer family.
When my daughter wanted to marry Mouftah Baba Ahmed’s son and she asked me,
knowing my views on family, I told her Mouftah is family. And this is not about
me and Mouftah or me an Hakeem or Nafiu. No. It goes back to Baba Ahmed and
Emirs Sanusi and Bayero. And the same rule applies to my sons. And it applied
to me as well.
It is, I am sure,
very strange that I should even bother to comment on this. But it would be
hypocritical for me to just keep quiet so long as these things are being posted
and commented upon explicitly or in a snide manner. There was no secrecy in the
marriage fatiha. The date was fixed and it was to be done in the central mosque
after Friday prayers.
The day before we had
a tragedy in Saudi Arabia and decided the fatiha must be very low key as a mark
of respect for the dead. All traditional rulers in Adamawa were there, as were
governors and commissioners, members of my own emirate council and Adamawa
people. There is nothing here to hide or be apologetic about.
The emirs of Adamawa
have shown love to my parents and grandparents and it is a sign of my
appreciation of their love that i marry their daughter. This is the highest
statement of friendship and loyalty on both sides.
Again if you
understand this this is fine. If you do not, buy yourself a brain, A la Pius.
In any event this is my one and final and only
comment on this. And I am making it out of respect for NC members.source theheraldng
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