The Kano 9 Abduction: The Hypocrisy of the Southern Press

By Maiwada Dammallam

The hypocrisy and selective justice of the Nigerian media and its Siamese twins, the public affairs analysts and quasi-NGOs, is simply out of this world. This much is exposed by the arrest of a kidnapping ring behind cases of rampant kidnappings in Kano. A covert operation by the Kano Command of the NPF led to the rescue of 9 children who were kidnapped and “smuggled” to Onitsha, Anambra State and subsequently renamed and converted to Christianity.

One only need to scratch the surface to expose the repulsive double standards of the Nigerian media, the overbearing community of quasi-analysts operating with a seeming “over-upright” attitude and many religious groups deceptively disguised as NGOs. The story of Ese Oruru is still fresh in the minds of Nigerians for better understanding of the theme of this piece.

Sometime in 2016, an over-exuberant young girl of 15, Ese Oruru, eloped with her Kano boyfriend from Bayelsa to Kano, the Southern press went wild, saying she was abducted and forced to accept Islam. The umbrella body of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) reacted to Osuru’s elopement with acerbic assumptions and unfounded malicious conclusions sparing no Nigerian Muslim in the frenzy. The body warned traditional rulers and religious leaders “not to encourage” forceful marriage of underage girls against their wish, noting that such practice is a violation of their constitutional rights. Meanwhile, the two love birds only acted on their childish impulses to make real their infatuation.

For Oruru and her boyfriend, CAN and its affiliates had a field day reducing the North and the entire Muslim community in Nigeria into a devilish and pedophiliac community while a large army of hyperactive “analysts” and “NGOs” amplified the campaign to maximized effect. Annoyingly, on the case of the criminal abduction of the Kano 9, not even the fact that they were renamed and forcefully converted into Christianity could attract the attention of CAN and the Jos based “Stefanos Foundation” that “gallantly” fought Oruru’s case, to condemn this criminality or at least, apologize to the North and Nigerian Muslims for deliberately misreading and misinterpreting the Oruru case just to satisfy a craving for a seeming addiction to lower the esteem of Islam and Muslims in Nigeria.

Who but a dunderhead could miss Oruru’s case for the isolated and common incidence of adolescence exuberance it was? And yes, who but a dunderhead could miss the unforgivable criminality that was the Kano 9 abduction? Somehow, newspapers are empty of the boisterous columns that hitherto, hosts “erudite” columnists that could easily pass for a walking, talking “Nigerian human right laws” going by the ease they shamelessly twist or (mis)quote such laws just to suit their malicious agendas — always trying to outdo each other in what, at best, could be said to be a frenzy of investment in commercial bereavement whenever individualistic incidences like this happens; when a Muslim go off the road and harm a Christian.

How much brain would it cost to see and understand criminality and deal with it for what it is? The Kano 9 abduction is a clear case of criminality and no matter how much some people would try to suppress it, its significance to our national development and cohesion would remain glaring. This is one case I would love to see pursued to its logical conclusion. Let me at this point explain that in Islam, religion is a matter of conviction not forceful conversion. The idea that Muslims forcefully convert Christians into Muslims whether in Nigeria or elsewhere is false in its entirety.  This may explain why Nabee Muhammad (SAW) peacefully co-existed with Christians and Jews in Medina.