Posted by By AKIN ALOFETEKUN Minna on
Are you amazed at how 86 women could share their love with one man? Then, you need to listen to Hajiya Hafsat Bello Masaba, the third wife of Bida, Niger State-based Islamic cleric, Alhaji Abubakar Bello Masaba, acclaimed as Nigeria's number one polygamist.
Are you amazed at how 86 women could share their love with one man? Then, you need to listen to Hajiya Hafsat Bello Masaba, the third wife of Bida, Niger State-based Islamic cleric, Alhaji Abubakar Bello Masaba, acclaimed as Nigeria's number one polygamist.
Hajiya Hafsat says the detained cleric facing trial in a Sharia Court in Minna for marrying more than four wives prescribed for Muslims, lifted her and many of her mates from despondency and made them happy and responsible married women, hence they decided to stick to him for better for worse.
Masaba's wife number three, and clearly the most outspoken of the women, Hajiya Hafsat, who was in Minna alongside other wives and children of the embattled octogenarian cleric told Daily Sun in an interview that many of the women in Masaba's life had little hope of having a fulfilled existence until he married them.
Hear her: 'This is the reason why these people should thank God for having somebody like Baba in their midst. He is God-sent. The way some of these women were living before if not for Baba, they would have still been roaming the streets.'
On how she herself met Baba, Hafsat says she attended one of his lectures in Lagos and got instantly attracted to him and has been married to him for 20 years now.
"I got to know him through a friend who told me about his waazi (preaching). One day, I attended his preaching and I became convinced that he is a honest man of God.
"It is through such contacts and introductions that he married many of us. It is not true that he uses juju to marry us. That is a lie. Do I look like somebody anybody can use juju to marry? That is the handwork of his enemies. They are liars.
"Many of these women before they got married to Baba, if you know the kind of life they were living you would pity them, no husband to take care of them. In fact, they were worse than prostitutes. But since Baba came into their lives, they have stopped roaming the streets.
'Now they say he should divorce us, where do they want us to go, go into the streets and become prostitutes? Baba loves us and he cannot divorce us. We are happy with him and we are not complaining. Our parents are not complaining. He married us legally, no force, no juju.'
To Hafsat and the other women, Masaba is the best thing to happen in their lives.
'Baba doesn't like adultery, that is why he married so many wives. Any of us who shows sign of adultery he sends her packing, like he did recently to his wife 85 (names withheld) from a royal family. Baba sent her packing because she was becoming adulterous.
"You can see we are all beautiful. The truth is even if you are ugly, when you come into Baba's place, you will be beautiful. We love each other, all of us, no discrimination. Those who think it is easy to keep 86 women in one house, let them try it and see.
"Already we are feeling his absence because of the heavy responsibility in the house. Help us tell them to release our husband. We want the whole world to see us. We are not begging for food. We believe in God. Baba is not a thief. He is an honest man. It is not true we live 10 in a room. They should fear God. It is rubbish they are saying about him. He did not marry us by force or use juju and so cannot divorce us, it is not possible."
On how her husband, at 84, is able to perform his conjugal obligation, Hafsat says it is not difficult for the octogenarian to go round the 86 women, because he has the energy of a 30-year-old man.
"Even you (pointing at the reporter), you cannot perform like my husband, I swear. Anytime any of us needs him, he will come, except he is very busy and does not want to be disturbed."
What if about four of them need him at the same time? Hafsat replies: "It has never happened that way."
Masaba was detained on the orders of a Minna Upper Sharia Court, early last week over allegations of insulting and inciting the contents of a religious creed, as well as engaging in illegal marriages.
The wives and children of the cleric stormed the premises of the Niger State Ministry of Justice in Minna last Thursday morning, protesting the incarceration of their breadwinner.
Some of the placards carried by the wives and children of Masaba read, "Our husband is innocent, he is God-sent," "What Allah has joined together, let no man put asunder," "We are legally married to Baba and we are not complaining," among others.
No official of the ministry attended to the protesting women. The state Acting Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary, Ndagi Usman Wali said it would be prejudicial for him to comment or make statement on a matter already before a court.
The protesters later moved into their vehicles at the sight of policemen drafted to the scene to ensure there was no breakdown of law and order, and headed for Bida.
The women, led by one of the sons, Maroof arrived the ministry loaded in three different vehicles.