The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has called for the arrest of parents who sent out their children to beg for alms as against going to school.

Sanusi made the call at the Joint National Conference of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and Future Assured Initiative on Repositioning the Muslim Family for National Development, at the Banquet Hall of State House, Abuja.

Sanusi said everyday wives were complaining about their husbands who claimed their rights but abandon their responsibilities of marriage.

He also said that women complained being divorced, with their husbands not taking care of the children and those children ending up on the streets, doing drugs, political thuggery and violent extremism.

He said:

“There was no law that talks about consent in marriage, the rights of wives and husbands, domestic violence, rights of women divorced, the responsibilities of husbands under divorce situations. If a child is found on the streets, it’s the father that is responsible and can the state hold him accountable?  These are Shariah and they are all more important than cutting off the hand of a thief.”

Asking rhetorically whether men could marry and have children without any responsibilities, the Emir said:

“The reason Allah send His Prophets is that there should be justice in this world. Justice in our relationship with our maker and in our relationship with our fellow human beings.

“Justice means that everyone is given his rights. If a man takes the privilege of being the head of the family, he takes the responsibilities of being the provider of the family. You cannot take that privilege and abandon their responsibilities.

“Is it a fact that a father has the right to force his daughter into a loveless marriage? That you have the rights to batter your wife?  You have the right to have children and push them to the streets to beg? That when you divorce your wife, you ask her and her children to pack and go back to her father’s house and that is the end?

“I can spend 100 years saying that it is wrong and un-Islamic for a man to beat his wife, but it is the governor and the State House of Assembly that should pass the law, it is the Courts and the Police that will make sure that the woman gets justice. The Scholars and Emirs cannot do that.

“It is only the governors who can pass the laws to say that when a man divorces his wife, it is his responsibilities to provide for the children, it is the courts and security system that will enforce.

“So, the problem is these groups of human beings are those who will stand to answer to Allah if there is no justice. ‘’Traditional and religious leaders have an obligation to ask for justice, but those with the political powers have an obligation to put in place the processes that will make sure that these justices are complied with.”

In the same vein, the Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, called on the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) to give matching orders to governors to implement high level solutions provided at the programmes like the conference.

“No matter how big a person is he is not bigger than Nigeria. Issues of drugs, high rate of divorces, social issues have to be looked into and addressed,” the Sultan added.