Again, when many thought the idea was forgotten and no longer considered a way of life in the northern part of Nigeria, then we read “Child-bride: Girl faces murder trial over forced marriage”, the salient, is how do we help this young’s ones who have little knowledge about life?
For a long time, the idea of early marriage most especially in some parts of Nigeria was no crime, why some used their female offspring as debt settlements; others gave their hands out in marriage basically because of large families and of the opinion that the place of the woman is in the man’s kitchen, not the forefront like their male counterparts.
The marriage of teenage girls to much older men is rampant in deeply conservative, mainly Muslim northern Nigeria, especially in poorer rural areas.
The region has since 2000 been under Sharia law which some say does not prohibit the marriage of underage girls.
But Nigeria’s federal secular laws also apply in the north, creating a confusing hybrid legal system where Sharia police try to work with government authorities to enforce criminal justice.
It’s however saddening that in today’s Nigeria with our development and the pace at which the females are acting as key players in the growth and development of our country, many are still of the opinion that the woman’s place is in the kitchen, supporting and playing second fiddle to the husband.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in a 2014 data sheet stated that over 16 % of the girl child gets married by 15, while by before their 18 birthday 39% will have been forced into marriage.
This chilling statistics show how prevalent this meanace is today, the prevalence of child marriage varies widely from one region to another, with figures as high as 76% in the North West region
According to reports by a team Girls not Bride, “Every year approximately 14 million girls are married as children across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities. Child marriage is rooted in gender inequality and in the low value accorded to girls, and is exacerbated by poverty, insecurity and conflict. It denies girls their rights, choice and participation, and undermines numerous development priorities, hindering progress towards a more equal, healthy and prosperous world”.
In the news is the case of 14-year-old girl, Wasila Tasi’u who was accused of poisoning the 35-year-old man she was forced to marry and is currently facing trial for murder in northern Nigeria
Wasila has also been charged with the murder of three others who allegedly ate the food laced with rat poison that she prepared and served in April this year, a week after her marriage to Umaru Sani.
Police say Tasi’u confessed to poisoning Sani, and his guests at the wedding party in the village of Unguwar Yansoro village, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) outside Nigeria’s second city of Kano.
Unfortunately, Wasila is one among many Nigeria girl child who have been pushed into this slavery of child marriage with no help from anyone.Many of the victims parents have been blinded by religion, money or any other challenges at the expense of their child’s wellbeing.
The issue of child marriage has been fiercely debated in Nigeria over the past year, sparked by a proposal from a northern lawmaker that any girl, regardless of her age, should be legally considered an adult once she is married.
That measure has not become law but the proposal was intensely criticised, mainly by activists in the mainly Christian dominated south who say Nigeria should not permit any application of Sharia, even in the North.
Importantly, education is a strong indicator of whether a girl will marry as a child. 82% of women aged 20-24 with no education were married by the age of 18, as opposed to 13% of women who have at least finished secondary education.
The Child Rights Act of 2003 sets the national legal minimum age of marriage at 18. To be effective, however, state assemblies must take necessary measures to implement the Act, and to date, only 23 of Nigeria’s 36 states have taken concrete steps to execute the minimum age of marriage.
While data shows a 9% decline in the prevalence of child marriage since 2003, action is needed to prevent thousands of girls from being married in the coming years. If present trends continue, UNFPA estimates that 4,615,000 of girls will be married as children by 2030.
Revealing the side effects of early marriages, Sexual & Reproductive Health Matters mentioned that, “commonly, early marriages (marriage before the age of 18) are seen in developing countries and child brides can face serious, life threatening issues such as obstetric complications during childbirth, cervical cancer, unplanned pregnancy and often malnutrition in offspring.
Young girls who are married at an early age can also face psychiatric issues such as depression and stress related disorders. This is usually because they have responsibilities thrust upon them at a very early age which at most times they are unable to cope with.
Studies have also shown that young girls who are married at an early age are exposed to recurrent childbirths, unplanned pregnancies and abortions that in turn are detrimental to their health and nutritional status. As a result, babies born to mothers who have a poor nutritional status are at risk of low birth weight and stunting and wasting later on.
A look at this report justifies the likes of Wasila who have been cowed and coerced into early marriages that they weren’t ripe for.
I sometimes ponder and I ask myself, if those who marry at age 25 years and above face difficulties in their marriages and sometimes take it to their parents before resolution, then what happens to a naive girl of 14?
This year’s International Day of the African Child was tagged “A CHILD-FRIENDLY, QUALITY, FREE, AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION FOR ALL CHILDREN IN AFRICA” but it seems not to have effect on any in the country especially the leaders whose children are not victimised in this Attarris status according to Wole Soyinka’
Thirty years ago in South Africa, thousands of brave children in Soweto demanded quality education, and hundreds lost their lives as a result but at least these children got what they wanted out of the fight; what can we say of our own nation Nigeria? It is now over 100 days that more than 200 girls were abducted from a school in Chibok, northern Nigeria by the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram and we are yet to get good reports about them’.
Reports suggest that the Islamist militias who have kept them in bondage have turned them into sex-slave in a bid to brainwash them.
Today, after over 50 years since independence, we are still fighting for the rights of children to have a free and quality education, when many of today’s leaders got their own education for free, yet they give unreasonable and unaffordable bills to the students, while the looted money are used to give their own children the best education outside the country’ what a nation!
The Bringbackourgirls campaign is still a child’s play to some but it is truly a terrible situation and the worst nightmare any parent can experience. To send a child to school, and for that child not to return home, is an unimaginable horror. Schools are learning spaces – children receive not only their formal education, but also an understanding of themselves, their community, and the wider world.
According to Amnesty International, from the beginning of 2012, at least 70 teachers and over 100 pupils had been killed or wounded in northern Nigeria. Also, at least 50 schools have either been burned or seriously damaged and more than 60 others had been forced to close.
There is palpable fear of being maimed or killed among instructors who can help enlighten the strong-willed among the girls in Northern Nigerian to jettison this archaic age-long tradition
Even before the rise in Boko Haram attacks, girl-child education in northern Nigeria was much lower than in the south. Overall in Nigeria, from 1999 to 2012, the number of out-of-school children increased from 7.4 to 10.5 million, this is the largest number of out-of-school children in the world.
Ending child marriage will require long-term, sustainable efforts. Change will ultimately take place within communities, but has to be supported and galavanised by collective
efforts at national, regional and international levels.
Adequate resources must be made available to support effective implementation of strategies. All those working to address child marriage should evaluate programmes, share promising practices, and coordinate their efforts to achieve maximum scale and impact.
Recognising that child marriage does not take place in a vacuum is key, efforts to end child marriage should not be isolated from broader development efforts and should play an integral part in achieving development goals around the world.