Cheta Nwanze: Yerima is all about himself and little of Islam (Y! FrontPage)

by Cheta Nwanze

Chxta Frontpage

The world will always be full o’people like Yerima who will always attempt to twist conditions for their own benefit regardless of what storm it causes. But when our very laws give them the latitude, then we have a problem.

I love the Arabic word for “hypocrite”. It is “munafiq”. It shares the same root as “tunnel”, or “two-sided”. A munafiq is someone who more or less lives in a tunnel, having two sides from which they may choose to go out depending on which side is more advantageous at the moment. Mostly however, they just hang out in the tunnel until they see which way the tide has turned.

That we have many such people in our politics in Nigeria is a no-brainer. They just sit in one place, watching, waiting, for the tides to be right, then they collect their plenty money, then continue watching, and waiting, again. One of such people is a chap who swore, as a serving Senator of the Federal Republic, to defend Nigeria’s Constitution. But when such it is convenient for him, he discards same Constitution, and tells us that Islamic law is superior to it. The same Constitution which purports to tell us that Nigeria is a secular state, and not subject to any religious law. As a quick aside, both Muslims and Christians were guilty of the same crappy behaviour when pushing for the Gay Bill. A story for another day.

Hear our subject, Sani Ahmed Yerima, Senator representing Zamfara West and who also happens to be Deputy Minority Leader in the Senate, speaking to the BBC (he never gives interviews to Nigerian press), in 2010: “I don’t care about the issue of age since I have not violated any rule as far as Islam is concerned,” he said. “History tells us that Prophet Muhammad did marry a young girl as well. Therefore I have not contravened any law. Even if she is 13, as it is being falsely peddled around. If I state the age, they will still use it to smear Islam.”

Yerima, if we go by that statement, purportedly only cares about Islam, and not about the country that in the last two years has handed him money in the region of N400 million!

However, in pushing this twisted interpretation of Islam, Yerima is committing two grave sins.

Mr. Yerima’s first (and smaller) sin here was when he divorced the girl he married in 2008 in order to pay US$100,000 to marry a purportedly thirteen year-old Egyptian girl. You see, in Islam, a man can marry up to four wives given that he can financially and physically treat them equally. However, he MAY NOT divorce any of them simply for the reason that he wants to take another (fifth wife).

Three years later, the question remains unanswered about what fate befell the young girl he divorced to make room for the Egyptian beauty. Her youth and innocence had been taken away. Her education stunted for the period that she was Hajia Sani Yerima. Did she go back to school after her adventure? Did she have kids for him? What became of them? However way you chose to look at it, Yerima’s behaviour in that respect can be termed as oppression of the innocent, and this is what the Holy Qu’ran has to say about such an action: “The way (of blame) is only against those who oppress men and wrongly rebel in the earth, for such there will be a painful torment.” (42:42).

Yerima’s second, and more grievous offence though, is that he has compared himself with The Prophet. As far as I know, no sane Muslim would think that he/she is at par with The Prophet (or most of His companions for that matter). It is commendable to strive to become like him. It is indeed seen as a noble goal, and one that people are encouraged to attempt. Hence you hear people saying, “I am doing X because The Prophet did X”, where X is something done to elevate your status with God. A good example is, “I will fast Thursdays and Mondays because The Prophet used to do it (Sunnah)”.

However, “I am going to marry a 13 year old, or 14 year old, or 52 year old” has absolutely no bearing on elevating your status with God. How does it?

Now for a little history lesson…

When Yerima made that statement, he was no doubt referring to one of The Prophet’s wives, Aisha whom a school of thought has it was 6 when she was married to The Prophet, and 9 when the marriage was consummated. You see, the reliance on the Hadiths for stories on the life of The Prophet provides a loophole that tunnelers like Yerima can make use of. This is because the Hadiths were narratives which were mostly gathered three hundred years after the death of The Prophet. As any amateur historian will tell you, oral traditions are always prone to errors and contradictions.

In the case of Aisha, there is no mention of her age in the Holy Qu’ran (which is the sole undisputed text among Muslims). The Hadiths tell us that The Prophet married Aisha in the year 2A.H, and there is a contradiction in those same Hadiths that not too many people have picked up on. You see, according to the same Hadiths, Aisha had an older sister Asmaa, her elder by 10 years. Asmaa died at age 100 in the year 73A.H. Aisha had died almost twenty years before in the year 57A.H. Using simple Mathematics, we would easily figure out the age of Asmaa when her younger sister died. Asmaa died 16 years after Aisha at age 100, which means Asmaa was 84 when Aisha died. Aisha was 10 years younger than Asmaa, which means she died at 74, in 57A.H. Now, if those same Hadiths are accurate as to when she married The Prophet (2A.H), then it means that she was 19 at the time. Even by today’s standards, that is an age of majority, while Yerima’s young wife is up until now, younger than the age of majority.

Then there is the little fact that asides Yemen, the age of consent in virtually all Islamic countries starts from 16. And that is where we have a problem in Nigeria. Our very Criminal Code pegs the Age of Consent in this country at 13, and that’s what gives Yerima and his ilk the opportunity to commit all sorts of atrocities. The Nigerian Criminal Code in Part III, Chapter 27, Section 281 says: “Any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of thirteen years is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for life, with or without caning.”

In my not-so-humble opinion, this is where the beast is.

The world will always be full o’people like Yerima who will always attempt to twist conditions for their own benefit regardless of what storm it causes. But when our very laws give them the latitude, then we have a problem. Sadly, we have a legislature that is full of chaps who do not know the difference between a “yes” and a “no”.
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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Comments (7)

  1. Dis ur writin is totally nonsense cheta Nwanze, nxt time do ur assigment well b4 u start ur critism.

  2. We are fulling our selfs if we don’t go back to the real manual from The Creator(GOD) because that is the only way out for any prospect nation and its bright future.

  3. Let’s get it right,correction to the imformation given. First,there is no any contradiction in islam both in The Holy Qur’an or Hadith(sunnah) of our beloved prophet(s.a.w),also we should emulate and follow the foot step of prophet MUHAMMAD (s.a.w) without exclussion of any which make us real mulsims. Y not finding the truth before claiming it! May ALLAH(GOD) guide us.

  4. Yerima can not be blamed,if was prosecuted under the criminal code which says any person who have carnal knowledge of underage girl should be jailed,yerima won’t have gut to raise such issue @floor of house.

    1. Is it Yerima that should be jailed because he follows the right path or who failed to believe the truth from his creator!

  5. True to type, Yerima is truely a ‘beast’!

    1. Is not gud to abuse a fellow humanbeing.tnx

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