Hello and welcome! Today in the Kura Bari programme we are discussing the rise in the number of child marriages in Nigeria and how the practice continues to claim the lives of thousands of teenage girls from pregnancy and childbirth complications.
Despite the prevalence of child marriage, the practice is illegal in Nigeria as stated in section 61 of part I of the 1999 Constitution. No one may marry under the age of 18.
However, because Nigeria operates a tripartite legal system with civil, customary and Islamic law operating simultaneously, in relation to marriage the federal government has no control over customary and Islamic marriages, only marriages conducted in a civil manner.
In its 2021 Global Girlhood Report, Save the Children International says an estimated 44% of girls in Nigeria marry before they are 18, one of the highest rates of child marriage globally.
It is estimated that 22,000 girls die every year from pregnancy and childbirth complications, describing childbirth as the number one killer of teenage girls because their young bodies aren’t ready to bear children.
The report says a further 10 million under-18 girls are expected to marry by 2030, putting more girls at risk of dying.
The national strategic plan to end child marriage was set up in Nigeria in 2016 to end the practice by 2030, but the recent findings cast some doubts on the actualisation of this promise.
Our guests are:
- Kaltume Jafaru, the retired director of information and documentation at the Borno State House of Assembly; and
- Ibrahim Magaji Wala, executive director at the Girl Child Concerns.
