Musa, the poor baby in Kano

“It often happens, that he who endeavours to ridicule other people, especially in things of a serious nature, becomes himself a jest and frequently to his great cost.” – Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), Italian writer and humanist. The front page of Daily Trust of Wednesday, 25 May, 2016 carried the picture of a 20 month old […]

“It often happens, that he who endeavours to ridicule other people, especially in things of a serious nature, becomes himself a jest and frequently to his great cost.” – Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), Italian writer and humanist.

The front page of Daily Trust of Wednesday, 25 May, 2016 carried the picture of a 20 month old baby, Musa Murtala, on admission at Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital in Kano after his two stepmothers allegedly broke his legs, hands as well as caused injuries to his private part and tongue. This beastly action has drawn widespread rage, condemnation, accusation and portrays stepmothers in bad light. The father’s attitude has also not helped matters as many see the incident as a typical case of child abuse and inhuman act
Child abuse is currently defined within four categories; physical abuse, emotional, sexual and neglect abuse. The physical abuse is the most commonly understood type of abuse which just happened to baby Musa. It involves hitting, shaking, throwing poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating and any physical harm done to a child. Physical abuse can be recognised by simply becoming aware of pattern of unexplained injuries or injuries where there are conflicting explanations, scalds and burns with clear outlines, bites, and marks etc, affecting the child.
The tragedy of Musa in an ancient city of Kano is disheartening, how can an innocent poor baby be abused, injured, maltreated and led to become a handicap by all means by his stepmothers? The very people you think and rely on to save and secure him but who turned to be the cruel to the innocent baby. As French soldier and moralist, Vauvenargues (1715-1747) says: “We should expect the best and the worst from mankind, as from the weather.” Which kind of society are we living in? How can a child not be safe even in his father’s house? The cruelty of most people is lack of imagination, their brutality is ignorance. Please we need to rethink and change!
 The issue of child abuse in recent times has been discussed at different levels. To so many people it is a non-existent issue, they don’t believe it, and it does not occur to them that such things do happen to some, they don’t have time to think about it and to others they consider it a trivial issue. But the truth of the matter is that a closer study has revealed that those things are happening with our children and most parents, society and government, especially seem not to bother.
One of the worrisome aspects of this concept is that of the sexual abuse. It may involve physical contact or involving them to look at pornographic materials or to watch sexual activities. Recognising child sexual abuse sometimes can be difficult unless the child discloses the abuse by telling an adult about it but it can be recognised by a child’s inappropriate sexual behaviour towards adults and or other children, sexual knowledge inappropriate for the child’s age.
These days most parents are too busy to meet the family needs others for self-aggrandisement, having no time to monitor the events around their children living the situation to escalate. Most parents have left everything in the hands of house helps not knowing that some of them could be agents  or contribute to child molestation and humiliation, since those to enforce laws have become an agent or take part in this repulsive trend. Some parents have left their responsibilities in the hands of stepmother(s) or teachers in the day-care (school) without themselves being involved. This is not the best. Based on the case of this innocent baby, justice should be done immediately; either by the father (husband) of those women or any authority in charge of these kind of attitude (Shari’a court). Actually they deserve to be punished to serve as a deterrent to others. I hope the government or any well-to-do individual will come to the aid of this innocent baby for his physical and mental fitness (medical bills). Also, religious bodies should intensify sermon/preaching on such brutal acts.
O God, we seek refuge in you from the evil of what we have done and from the evil of what we did not do; from the evil of what we knew and from the evil of what we did not know. May He also guide us aright. Amen.
Muhammad writes from Kafin-Hausa, Jigawa State.  [email protected]