Girls’ education, not marriage age

When the Federal Government unrolled a plan last week that pegged marriage age for girls at 18 in order to end the prevalence of child marriage particularly in the North, the intention was very good but there was a way in which it could have been done more carefully so that it would not explode […]

When the Federal Government unrolled a plan last week that pegged marriage age for girls at 18 in order to end the prevalence of child marriage particularly in the North, the intention was very good but there was a way in which it could have been done more carefully so that it would not explode in everybody’s face. A strategy document and campaign against child marriage was launched in Abuja where Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo said government will frown at marrying off girls below the age of 18. 

 He said, “There is a positive correlation between child marriage, poverty and illiteracy.  States with the lowest levels of literacy have the highest rates of child brides. Nigeria has made fairly poor progress in ending child marriage. 24 states out of the 36 states have passed the Childs’s Right Act but implementation is yet to be done fully.” 

Osinbajo expressed regret that there is no penalty for child marriage in the Constitution and urged the citizens to change their mindset. He said, “We must persuade all Nigerians to stop this through advocacy. States without provisions for girl-child education should consider this and also enrol girls who dropped out of school due to early marriage.” 

Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development Mrs. Aisha Jummai Alhassan said six million girls were married by the age of 15 in 2015, adding that child marriage is prevalent in the Northwest and Northeast geopolitical zones. According to her, northern girls account for the highest rates of early marriage in the world with an estimated 65 percent of children married off below the age of 18. She said, “The detrimental consequences of child marriage on children, women, families, communities and nations at large are evident. There are always high maternal mortality and morbidity, illiteracy, lack of skills, unemployment, low income and wide spread misery among the victims of child marriage especially female victims.” Speaker of the Children’s Parliament Oralgrandour Nweke, who represented Nigerian children at the event, called for the prosecution of parents who give out their children in marriage before 18. 

Well intentioned though this program is, it comes up against a thick wall of cultural and religious resistance which the government must carefully navigate around. No parent can be arrested and prosecuted in Nigeria for marrying off his daughter under 18 because the Constitution currently permits it. Vice President Osinbajo, who is as a lawyer, knows that the Constitution regards marriage as a personal matter which is governed by customary law, of which Shari’a is included. 

For any government program to have a chance of success, it must take careful cognisance of cultural and religious sensibilities in different parts of the country. Girl child marriage is only one side of the coin. In many parts of Nigeria, girls as young as 10 and 11 years old engage in illicit sex and many give birth in their early teens out of wedlock. The government’s focus on ‘child marriage’ while ignoring other facets of the child sexual problem is therefore poorly conceived.

The truth is that over the years, the practice of early marriage for the girl child has been declining essentially due to education and urbanization. Parents that send their children to basic and secondary school generally do not marry them off until they are through with the latter, which brings them to 18 years of age or close to it. Therefore, the best way to go about raising girls’ marriage age is to relentlessly promote compulsory and universal girl child education up to secondary school level. In fact, more and more families nowadays do not marry off their daughters until they at least enter tertiary schools.

Since nobody opposes education per se these days, we advise the Federal Government to rewrite its program and promote universal girl child education. It will achieve the same result of raising marriage age without the undue controversy.