Emir of Kano Muhammad Sanusi II has responded to criticisms following his marriage to 18 year old Sa'adatu Barkindo-Musdaf
1. The lady in question is 18 and thererfore legally of age to marry under all laws and certainly inder Muslim law
2. 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
3 each and everyone of my wives is a
university graduate and some have worked and fhen stopped and in each
case the choice was purely theirs
4. 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 Somoto
5 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
turbanned after emir Sanusi I and they remained close until Sanusi’s
death.
6. 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
7. 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
8 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 ling historical
bonds
9. 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, her education is not being in anyway interrupted.
10. 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 justvremember
it us 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 calked @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
which 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 if 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 hiving birth to princes and bringing them up for
the role expected of them in society.
Martiage 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 signifant 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
oersonally desires to what is appropriate for that position and the
expectations of the people he represents. You dont just pick up any girl
on the street. And by the way for thise 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. Martiage is a very different
proposition. The mother of your children has to be something other than,
ot 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.”
MSII “