Twitter went berserk during the Sallah holiday as news got to beloved twitteratis that our beloved Emir of Kano got married to a new bride {4^th wife} who also happens to be a princess in Adamawa state.

Some feel it was wrong for a man of the Emir’s caliber to have taken a bride of such age and others argue based on religious and traditional beliefs while the self-acclaimed social media activist/feminists went in hard on each other [no pun intended].

I believe the Emir has done no wrong in his marriage with the beloved princess but just like life in general we are focused on the things that don’t matter which I term #misplaced priorities because the lady in question has attained the age by which she can be considered an adult.

Royal families around the WORLD have used marriage as an important way of bonding among communities and also preserve the interest of their kingdom whenever help is needed, also marriage among royalties are quite different from that average individual especially females, who for a larger part of their lives have been trained from childhood to perform this role.

Let it be known that the moment a female experiences her first menstrual cycle and some women experience this as early as nine years old and people get married for various reasons.

The most important factor in this issue and even in the issue of #childnotbride campaign is FAMILY, which is the child’s first point of contact with the society and the family is the contributes the most in the society as such if the family wishes to give out a child’s hand in marriage then I see no reason why anyone should feel otherwise because the family might be acting in the best interest of the child as she might stand a chance to have a better life in her husband‘s home.

This write-up is written to highlight the importance of the family in the society but a larger percentage of times in our country, religion is a major factor by which we judge others which is wrong in all aspects.

I am more concerned in the fact that the Emir was not on hand to take his new bride home by himself but hey marriage in absentia has been the new cool in Nigeria for a while

Another factor that worries me is that the princess just finished her secondary education at an age where her age mates were already in tertiary education despite her privileged background

With all said and done, I wish Queen Sa’adatu all the best in marriage and I also wish the Emir of Kano long life and wisdom in all that he does.

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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

Connect with the writer, Etiko Hammed via Twitter @etiks89

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