Death over Ramadan food!

PERHAPS at some point in time, the Nigerian society will have little or no space for perpetrators of gender abuse to operate in. At such a time, would-be harassers and murderers of the opposite s3x will probably be certain in the knowledge that they will be apprehended and punished severely for perpetrating gender-based violence which, like all cases of violence, derives from a sadistic exploitation of the physical limitations of the other person by the perpetrator. The Ramadan period has only just kicked off but someone is already dead and buried following an argument over the breaking of fast. If the Bauchi State Police Command is currently trying to unravel the dastardly details behind the shocking death of a 24-year-old woman allegedly beaten to death by her 50-year-old husband during a domestic dispute over Ramadan meal preparation, it is precisely because domestic/gender-based violence continues to be a major challenge in the Nigerian society despite officials efforts to rein it in and create a safer and more decent society.

According to a statement by the command’s spokesperson, CSP Ahmed Wakili, the tragic incident occurred on March 1 at about 11:30 pm in the Fadamam Mada area, near the Government Girls College, Bauchi. The suspect, Alhaji Nuru Isah, a businessman at the Bauchi Central Market, allegedly attacked his second wife, Wasila Abdullahi, after an argument over food ingredients and fruits meant for breaking their Ramadan fast. As tensions boiled over, Isah allegedly reached for a cane and struck the deceased viciously, causing her to collapse. She was rushed to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital, but it was too late.

Following the incident, the police arrested the suspect and retrieved the assault weapon. Subsequently, the Bauchi State Commissioner of Police, CP Auwal Musa Muhammad, assured the public that justice would be done. He also harped on the dangers of domestic violence, calling on the community to uphold respect, empathy and understanding in family life. In addition, the police urged residents to report cases of domestic abuse, stressing that violence within the home is a crime with serious consequences.

As in all cases of mindless violence, the tragedy here was entirely preventable. Husband and wife having an argument, including over the most trivial matters, is rather routine. A home, any home, is occupied by human beings with (differing) emotions and a disagreement—sometimes even dissent—is completely normal. But in this case, apparently because someone had become accustomed to having his way no matter what, an argument resulted in the death of a wife, in a holy month and over food meant to be used in breaking a fast, to boot! By partaking in the Ramadan fast, this suspect in this case wanted divine favours. He wanted mercy. He wanted spiritual blessings. But to his fellow human he gave no quarter. He showed no mercy. He struck a wife with whom he ought to be in a good relationship with a vicious blow and threw his own home into turmoil. He spared no thought for the children who could become both motherless and fatherless as a result of his precipitate, patently criminal action. He wanted to have his way, and have his way he did, but he will now be hauled before the court of law to explain how and why he chose to be a terror to his own home. What a tragedy!

This incident of course highlights the persistent acts of domestic violence in many Nigerian homes. It shows the ordeal that millions of women continue to endure at the hands of brutes dressed in a husband’s robe. The way the felons carry on, it seems as if a wife is mere chattel; a domestic slave who is not supposed to question anything her husband does. For even if it was the victim that was wrong in this case, was vicious treatment the solution? Is a husband only powerful when he can physically subdue his wife? Why kill someone while preparing for a spiritual exercise? What then is the point of the exercise? How is it that the thought of Ramadan as a spiritual exercise did not dissuade the suspect in this case from his ruinous action? In all probability, this was not the first time that the suspect in this case had engaged in wife battery, believing that he would get away with it. And that, precisely, is where the problem lies: criminals in this clime often do not get their comeuppance, and that emboldens them to erase all bounds of civility, legality and decency in their relationship with their fellow citizens. This has to change.

Wife battery ought to have vanished from Nigerian culture, but it hasn’t, even though it is a brutally insane act. Governments at all levels have to prosecute perpetrators diligently while heightening their advocacy against all forms of gender-based violence and lawlessness. Regarding the present case, we hope that the Bauchi State government will make (would-be) violators of women and their kind understand that the state will go after them with every lawful weapon at its disposal, and that they will never again be allowed to take human life at will.