"I am sure NC members all have their views and have kept quiet out of (appropriate) deference to our right to make our individual choice. Obviously I do not need to explain anything to anyone in a purely personal matter but a few points are worthy of note:
1. The lady in question is 18 and thererfore legally of age to marry under all laws and certainly inder Muslim law
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 “
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