By Tunde Asaju

Yorùbá elders have a saying – wọn ní ẹlẹfọ o, oni ẹ̀fọ̀ tí tòun kii se torí ààtàn o.

At a time when the world ridicules our North for its existential backwardness in most stages of national indices and global strides, some aláìnírònú ará òkè Ọya (unthinking northern ‘elders’ ) have sought to validate that backwardness.

They want a clause smuggled into the electoral laws to validate child marriage.

These idiots want underage married girls granted the right to vote at elections. Mind you, in most jurisdictions, the marriage of girls under 16 is illegal, even though some clowns say it is their rights to perpetuate this level of moral larceny. These clowns, who relish virginity as the crowning glory of their libidonous exploit want it legalized.

Already, covering elections in most parts of northern Nigeria is an eyesore, with 3 year olds rigged with voting cards lining up to upscale illegitimate vote numbers, they want their statutory rape of young girls legalized.

I have waited for the outrage of the usual suspects, who don’t want to advocate for national improvement because they fear losing territory to yar kudu, but as usual, shiru! They are happy with such outrageous silliness. They saw nothing wrong when Ahmed Sani, Yariman Bakura went to Egypt to adopt a teenager as a member of his harem. In other climes, he won’t be free to consummate that rape, but he has even proudly displayed the seed of his wickedness. This is the man who stole millions as Governor but had the hands of a cow thief amputated.

Truth is, we need to start naming and shaming any northerner that stands to perpetuate the culture of abuse of the girl child. Whether they do it under culture, tarihi or religion, addini, we should come out and condemn them. We should not vote for them and even institute recalls for those who already have our votes. Make them feel the shame!

We cannot be members of a globalized world if we continue to adhere to arcane rules that are repugnant to natural justice and established codes of conduct. We can’t be buying cars, building skyscrapers and flying in planes while holding on to arcane rules of the 12th Century.

All societies, including the Western world that we sometimes escoriate for their excessive modernity used to marry off girls sometimes before their puberty, they stopped. They used to execute, behead and guillotine people on high towers, then moved to firing squads; today they hardly issue the death sentence.

Maybe we used to wear palm fronds or animal skins, today we only do so at ceremonies to remember our ancestry. We must move forward and stop these shenanigans.

We, who are enlightened must lead the crusade or jihad to stop underage children voting at elections. We must report these libidinous louts who prey on the innocence of little girls only to seek redemption for their immoral acts through the backdoor.
Because, very often it is the children of the poor that are auctioned off to dry bones in the name of religion or tradition.

If you guys who can hardly satisfy your wives want to enjoy virginity so much, send your wives to cosmetic surgeons in Egypt, they are experts in the reconstruction of damaged holes and orifices. If any of you is caught in 2020 marrying underage girls, you should be prosecuted. If you have immunity, it should be stripped off you so that you can be put away from the rest of sane humanity. We must protect the sanctity of polls or be doomed to shameful practices.