“Did you hear the latest trending news from Kano? The state government is planning to spend N2.5 billion for the quarterly mass wedding exercise across the 44 local government areas of the state in 2025. This is happening in a state that has the highest number of out-of-school children (UNICEF estimates about one million) in the country. Do our political leaders ever get their priorities right?”
“You’re asking me? I first thought somebody had got his calendar mixed up. But it was too early to play April Fool. The obsession with sponsoring marriages shows a clear lack of imagination. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that it is wrong to assist indigent people who want to get married. What I’m saying is that it is the duty of the educated elite who run the government on our behalf to show the people the way, not to keep them mired in the same old ways that entrenched their parents and grandparents in endemic poverty.”
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“Right! Even if there is a clamour for early marriage in the community, it is the duty of the government to ensure that all those desirable of such early marriage are empowered through education and skills acquisition to become economic players, no matter how minimally. What we have, instead, are baby factories who will swell the population of the Almajiris and other out-of-school children in the society.”
“Ah, when you mention the almajiris, I’m reminded that in the 1980s Kano used to be a star in education.”
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“That’s a point worth noting, especially as most online commentators seem to have always known Kano to harbour thousands of street urchins since forever.”
“In the 80s, the PRP government led by Abubakar Rimi invested heavily in education. It promoted the Adult Education Unit of its Ministry of Education to an independent board called Agency for Mass Education, with the ultimate objective of wiping out illiteracy and improving the economic prospects of the people. The programme was so effective that the world took notice. Kano State won the UNESCO award for literacy in1983 and repeated the feat in 1990.”
“So, it all boils down to leadership?”
“Yes, in the case of Kano of that time, Mallam Aminu Kano provided the ideological leadership at the national level, while Abubakar Rimi was the ‘Action Governor’ in the state. If I remember correctly, Umaru Aji was the director of the mass education agency. You see, a leader must be creative in thinking for the people. But when all you ever seek to handle is a hammer, every challenge will look like a nail. Sponsoring mass weddings is a lazy way of intervening in the lives of the people. A thinking leader will design a more lasting programme that will improve the lives of the people.”
“Well, proponents of the mass wedding programmes argue that it is a religious injunction and that it helps to keep the society morally stable.”
“And has the society become morally stable? Have you checked the number of divorces in those areas where mass weddings are common?”
“I hear that economic pressures and other social problems combine to put pressure on such marriages. Anyway, the government thinks that is the way to go. The state commissioner for Planning and Budget, Musa Shanono, said the mass wedding initiative was part of the government’s bigger plan to spend N91.32 billion for various social welfare and development programmes. He explained that the commitment to mass weddings was to promote responsibility, openness, and human rights, while ensuring a fair society that supports sustainable growth and improves citizens’ living standards.”
“Did you say it would improve living standards? In what way?”
“Not I. Shanono said so. He also highlighted other allocations within the budget to include N1billion for Ramadan feeding, N955 million for a manpower statistics survey etc.”
“Ehya! Maybe some people are trapped in a time warp. Perhaps those freebies served some purpose 50 years ago but in today’s world, it makes better sense to assist people to put their hands on the plough, rather than buying beds and mattresses for beneficiaries of mass weddings to go and multiply thereby mass producing children destined for the streets and swelling the number of almajiris.”
“In most cases, you have indigent boys marrying indigent girls. Children producing children. Poverty rolling over poverty. When will society move forward? Meanwhile that is not the case in many Muslim societies where men and women are encouraged to attain their full potential.”
“In the modern world, one of the requirements for marriage is economic stability. Not necessarily wealth. But a young man ought to be able to fend for himself and possibly for his wife. And a woman should be more than a baby machine. In the interest of the woman and the family, it is desirable that she is not a total liability to her husband. That is the reality of today’s world.”
“That is even without factoring in the destruction wrought on some of the pre-teen girls who participate in such marriages by Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF).”
“VVF is considered one among the most distressing complications of gynaecological and obstetric procedures. That’s the real definition of bad news!”
“Well, there’s some good news from the same Kano State. Senator Jibrin Barau, the deputy Senate president (who is a third-term senator representing Kano North Senatorial District in the 10th Senate), is showing the way with his plan to award 1,000 scholarships to students in Kano Central and Kano South Senatorial Districts to pursue ICT-related degree programmes. He had earlier facilitated the establishment of four study centres in Kano North Senatorial District where more than 1,000 students are currently enrolled in various degree programs.”
“That is how to spend money.”
“Absolutely! Imagine how many ICT graduates he would have produced in the next five years!”
“That is what we mean when we are talking about applying intellect. We can’t just keep throwing money at problems. We must deploy cerebral muscle. The other day, netizens were savaging the state government for boasting about distributing hundreds of wheelbarrows and shovels to some youths in the state. It also distributed 7,158 goats to 2,386 women as ‘empowerment’”
“One online news medium cheekily planted a story about Lagos State’s allocation of N3.5 billion to improve power supply side-by-side with the Kano mass wedding and goat distribution story.”
“Mischief!”
“Yes. And an unspoken message.”
“To everybody, his own.”
“Progress, stagnation or retrogression. Mass wedding or mass literacy/empowerment? It’s a matter of choice.”
“Well, one romantic commentator said that a poor couple can conquer every challenge if they are in love because love conquers everything.”
“Dreamer! I think he should be listening to Mae West: ‘Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache’.”
“Hehehe!… By the way, I hear that many of the male beneficiaries of the mass wedding are taking their second or third wives. Aren’t some people lucky!”
“You’re saying that tongue-in-cheek!”
“I was just trying to imagine having a new wife for free!”
“There’s a saying that when an old man marries, Death laughs!”
“When I’m carrying home my brand new mattress donated by the state government with my brand new second wife in tow, I will be the one laughing at Death.”
“I hope your wife hears you, in which case Death may actually have an uproarious laugh.”
“I wish you the same.”
Wole Olaoye is a public relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached on [email protected]. Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021
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