If they ever tell my story let them say I walked with giants. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat but these names will never die…let them say I lived in the time of Hector, tamer of horses…let them say I lived in the time of Achilles”- the Iliad, Homer.

Growing up, Nigerian children would play games pretending to be robbers. The average child would create a makeshift gun with his index and middle finger, while clenching his fist and pointing it at his counterparts, and ask: ‘Your money or your life?’

Unfortunately, Kano, being one of the 12 states of the federation yet to pass the Child Rights Law and operating the Sharia legal system, Wasila has no protection under the child rights regime except immediate plans are made not only to use her case as advocacy for the ills of child marriage but also to arrange a robust defence with a strategy to appeal the inevitable outcome of the sentence to death at the Sharia court.

Wasila Umar, a 14-year-old child bride, made news in April when she killed her husband and four of his friends through food poisoning.

This, indeed, is an unusual season for the residents of Ogun State. Lately, sleeping with their two eyes closed has become a Herculean task.