Quite a lot of noises have been made, especially in the social media since the issue of a 14 year old (who claimed by herself to be 17 year old) Bayelsa girl, Ese Oruru eloped with now 18 year old Kano boy, Yunusa Yellow from Bayelsa to Kano.
Understandably, the noises coming from both the side of the girl and that of the boy are laden with regional, religious and ethnic sentiments. But what the commentators have missed or deliberately avoided in all the noises is that the two ‘lovers’ are underage.
Another vital point that has not been addressed is the fact of the elopement by the two, even though it is being conveniently tagged ‘abduction;’ that the boy abducted the girl. The layman understanding of abduction or kidnap is that the target was whisked away on gun point or by the use of other form of coercion.
The basic story is that the boy was said to have been employed as house help by the parents of the girl. In the course of working in the house of the girl’s parents, the girl took liking to him and gradually, they fell into what one would call ‘infantile love.’
The love developed so fast, it led to a point where the two have to run away from the girl’s parents in Bayelsa and headed to the boy’s parents in Kano. The story has it that the boy’s parents also objected to their being together.
One thing led to the other and they were exposed. And till now, no one has come up with a story of any form of force or threat used by the boy to drag the girl to Kano: the girl was reported as saying that she went to Kano, on her own, to convert to Islam. Even if that point is not tenable, the fact remains that she went to Kano to join the boy on her own volition: there was neither threat nor force. Where has the form of abduction come in? It is on record that the girl herself said that she was not kidnapped.
Issue such as this has happened severally in the past. For example, a 15 year old Yoruba girl who was staying in her elder sister’s house was lured away to Zaria in 1989 by her equally teenage male school mate during holiday. The elder sister launched a serious search for the girl and eventually traced her to Zaria. But the girl boldly told her elder sister that she followed the boy to Zaria because she was in love with him.
What is worrisome in this Ese Oruru and Yunusa case is the religious and ethic colouration that have been inputted into it. This is despite the fact that the boy and the girl, who are completely underage, admitted that it was only ‘love’ that controlled them.
As a matter of fact, no one has come up with a contrary view that either the parents of the boy or the Emir of Kano or even anyone from Kano engineered the boy to take the girl to Kano or to force her to join Islam. No one has disputed the story that the girl volunteered to go to Kano, even if after the boy might have brainwash her. And no one would confidently say that in taking the action the two teenagers took, they were conscious of the negative religious or ethnic implications which the adult analysts have now been inputting.
In deed, thank God that the two are underage. If it were to be, say an old man of 45 or 50 that is involved in this Bayelsa teenage girl saga, who knows, those who are always hungry to throw this country into trouble would have found a soft spot to carry out their action. Thank God the two are teenagers and thank God the boy did not ‘abduct’ the girl for other purpose other than ‘love.’
After all, if they are adults and are fully in control of their emotions, would it not have been regarded as the love across the Niger? How sweet it would have been, talkless of its unifying force!
Postscript:
Indeed, reading between the lines of the interview the girl granted The Punch yesterday, a discerning mind would not fail to pick holes in it. Obviously, investigations by the police and other relevant agencies which are ongoing would eventually reveal what the two are hiding, but it is sickening to see enlightened people taking all that she said as the basis for analysis.
If those who believe in the innocence of Ese Oruru understand the way our youths behave today; tell a lot of lies and cover such lies with innocence; the way they think fast, even faster than computer and overshadow adults when it comes to twist the truth, such adults and or analysts would shudder.
What I in particular had learnt after encountering similar cases in some police stations, as an investigative reporter, has taught me not to jump into conclusion merely on the basis of what the young boy and young girl in love say. For, I had witnessed where a girl who eloped with a man, feigned near-death sickness when her parents eventually got her, but a senior female police damned her pretending and subsequently extracted information which was contrary to the one she was relating when she was brought to the station with her lover. All such earlier information was meant to show her parents that it was not her fault.
When the father of Yunusa, the alleged abductor’ of Ese said that his son was a house help to Ese’s parents for 10 years, during which time the two teenagers would have developed the love for each other, and when Ese now said that Yunusa was one of her customers that used to buy things from her, and that she didn’t know how she followed him to Kano (and spent almost seven months in Kano), who do we believe? That is even as the boy has not talked yet.
Of course, the fact remains that what the two young lovers did was wrong, but how they did it should be left in the hands of the investigators to unravel. Let’s wait for them before going into conclusion or overlabouring ourselves with anger, except if such anger is premeditated. [myad]
An insightful one there… God blessm