The Implications of Child Marriage
A report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has projected that Nigeria will have 29 million child brides by 2050, if the right measures are not put in place, writes Ugo Aliogo
A report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has projected that Nigeria will have 29 million child brides by 2050. The report which was contained in a document titled: ‘Situation Analysis of Children in Nigeria: Ensuring equitable and sustainable realisation of child rights in Nigeria,’ was launched recently by the federal government in conjunction with UNICEF.
The report puts Nigeria’s current number of child brides at 22 million, which it said represents 40 per cent of such cases in West and Central Africa. It further predicted that seven million more child brides will be added by 2050.
The Statistics
Citing the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2013, the report revealed that 58.2 per cent of Nigerian girls get married before they turn 18 years old.
It also stated that although a comparison of data from 2013 to 2017 revealed a drop in child marriage in Nigeria, while describing the rate of decline as modest.
It said the country ranked among those with the slowest declining rates of child marriage in West and Central Africa.
“The rate of decline is also not enough to significantly reduce child marriage in Nigeria under current conditions. Even if efforts are redoubled, Nigeria will add about seven million child brides by 2050. This is because the statistically observed decline will be upended by population growth and the prevalence of child marriage in some regions and cultures, erasing whatever little progress is made in reducing child marriage in Nigeria,” the report said.
The report noted that by 2018, the percentage of women marrying before the age of 18 had dropped from 48 per cent to 43 per cent, while the percentage of women aged 15-19 marrying before the age of 15 had dropped from 12 per cent to 8 per cent.
Expert View
To provide deeper context to the issue, THISDAY spoke to the Country Director, Centre for Development of Democracy (CDD), Idayat Hassan, who stated that the report highlights the existing challenges faced by the Nigerian girl-child, and underpins that stagnant growth and development despite the availability of laws such as the constitution of Nigeria as well as the Child’s Rights Act, which was passed into law in 2003 and has been adopted in 24 out of the 36 states across the country.
She hinted that the projected number on the rise of child brides highlighted in the report clearly shows that several girls will be out of school by the year 2050.
Hassan stated that beyond the increase in the number of females that are out of school, there are also health implications, especially child mortality.
She disclosed that many of the child brides have not yet acquired adequate health knowledge therefore, endangering themselves and their children, adding that child brides may not be mature enough to properly offer parental guidance to their children, “this implies security, especially in the northwest and northeast and is some other pocket cases in other regions that is battling insecurity.”
According to her, “The relevance of having this data shows us the exact figures and challenges we are facing. This projection highlights that we currently have 22 million girls outside of school due to early marriages, in addition to the projection made in the report Nigeria will have approximately 30 million girls out of school by the year 2050. This is in line with sustainable development goal four which looks to ensure that all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030. It also aims to provide equal access to affordable vocational training, eliminate gender and wealth disparities, and achieve universal access to quality higher education. It can be further emphasized that this statistic poses a great danger to the fundamental human rights of the girl child in Nigeria.
“Curbing the challenge of child marriage is both a legal and enforcement issue. Although the Nigerian government has tried to stamp out child marriage with the enactment of the Child Rights Act of 2003, the practice of child marriage is still prevalent among the Hausa-Fulani tribe (predominantly Muslim) who occupy Northern Nigeria and where Sharia law is in force. While the Child “Rights Act has sharp teeth, it has no bite because each state in Nigeria has to enact the Act under its state laws before it is enforceable. This means that a social injustice such as child marriage can be practised in a state that is yet to pass the Child Rights Act as domestic law. Another dimension to the prevalence of child marriage is the laxity with which the Nigerian Government treats female education. The government has not shown the required commitment to the pursuit of basic education.”
UNFPA Viewpoint
In the recently launched 2022 State of the World Population Report titled: ‘The Case for Action in the Neglected Crisis of Unintended Pregnancy’, by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), it was revealed that in 54 developing countries with data, the majority of first births to girls under the age of 18 occur within a marriage or union, according to a new, previously unpublished, analysis from the United Nations Population Division.
The report also noted that countries in Central and Southern Asia and in Northern Africa and Western Asia most consistently show high proportions of marital births.
According to the report, “Many young brides are expected to bear children or demonstrate their fertility early in their marriage, in which case pregnancy occurs soon after marriage. But we also know pregnancy can be a driver of child marriage, owing to cultural beliefs or gender-stereotyped attitudes about childbearing and wedlock, premarital sex, family honour and lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services including safe abortion. Women and girls married as adolescents tend to have less education, less household and economic power and less mobility than unmarried adolescents and older women.”
Way Forward
The report, however, proffered ways by which the increase can be mitigated, saying Nigeria has to overcome some challenges to effectively reduce child marriage.
These issues include numerous states in the federation failing to domesticate the child rights act (CRA), especially in the northern part of the country).
It also noted that the federal government’s failure to legislate and enforce 18 years as the minimum age for those seeking a constitutionally recognised marriage, is a factor.
Hassan argued that at a national level, child marriage contributes to population growth by increasing fertility.
She further explained that the report estimates that a girl marrying at 13 will have on average 26 per cent more children over her lifetime than if she had married at 18 or later, adding that the report has a national impact by placing an increased burden on basic services.
The CDD Country Director, remarked that in interrogating the rationale it can be said that some of the reasons for such high rates of child marriage were found to be a lack of access to education, economic opportunity, and health services, particularly for girls, alongside severe poverty and weak legal and enforcement mechanisms.
Continuing, she said: “Child marriage is not a healthy practice as it has many effects on a girl’s health such as an increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases, cervical cancer, malaria, death during childbirth, and obstetric fistulas. Girls’ offspring are at increased risk for premature birth and death as neonates, infants, or children. Finally, on this last question on who is to be blamed, I believe all 3 stakeholders should be held responsible at equal parameters, religion has played its part in not opposing child marriage as sharia law gives them a religious backing to it, also on the part of the family. I believe a sense of ownership and responsibility falls on the family based on the bounds of morals, no matter the challenges being faced in giving out a child for early marriage there is zero justification. And on the part of the government, its lack of internal mechanism and its failure to implement its policies to protect the vulnerable is key and the lack of shared political will to combat this problem as some of them are the perpetrators of this act points them in the forefront to he be held accountable.”
