Parents who are farmers in Yobe State, Northeast Nigeria, marry their under-aged daughters to old men to pay their loads, the Nigerian Children’s Parliament said.
During a sitting in Abuja on Monday to mark the 10th anniversary of International Day of the Girl, members of the parliament lamented that the practice had blighted the future and potential of the girl child in Northern Nigeria.
Badamassi Khadija, a girl child champion from Yobe State, said in the last 10 years, there had been increased attention on issues that matter to girls amongst government, policymakers and the public, and more opportunities for girls to have their voices heard at the global stage.
“Yobe State, Nigeria, where I am from, due to its poverty, has the largest number of child brides in Northeast Nigeria. In my community, most people are farmers, and due to poverty, parents borrow money to cultivate their farms,” she said.
“During harvest, when the father is unable to back the loan, a father usually takes the decision to give out his daughter in marriage regardless of her age, and most times to an old man, old enough to be her father or grandfather. This girl bride is treated like a slave with no respect of any kind because of how she was taken in as wife.”
According to Khadija, investments in girls’ rights have been limited while girls continue to face many challenges to fulfilling their potential.
She stressed that had caused more harm than good as girls in her community face a lot regarding child early and forced marriage.
“Child marriage results from the interplay of economic and social forces. In communities where the practice is predominant, marrying a girl as a child is part of a cluster of social norms and attitudes that reflect the low value accorded to the human rights of girls,” Khadija said.
She added that a lot of girls that marry as children; end up dying during childbirth due to their bodies not being prepared for delivery and pain they cannot bear, while a serious condition known as obstetric fistula affects some others – a condition whereby the female child cannot control the passage of urine.
Also, Madina Abdulkadir, a member representing Dikwa Constituency in the Children’s Parliament and Chairman of, the Committee on Child’s Participation, said there was no greater pillar of stability than a strong, free and educated girl child, but there have been some limitations imposed on the investment on the rights of the girl child.
She noted that all over the world, their right to education, mental health, physical wellness and the protection needed for a life free from violence is being threatened.
Marian Ahmed, the Youth Ambassador, commended the government and organisations like Save the Children for working tirelessly to ensure that the lives and rights of children, especially girls, are protected.
Ahmed pointed out that they knew the issues and what was needed to eradicate them but lamented that the major factors stopping the country from moving forward were a lack of accountability and implementation of laws.
She said, “An example is the Child Rights Act. It has been passed in four states so far, but not all those states are correctly implementing the act. People do unimaginable things to children and girls and still get away with it.
“The first step that Nigeria should take is to prioritise the passage of the Child Rights Act into national law. This is because the CRA is a comprehensive document that identifies children’s rights and provides sanctions to anyone who compromises those rights.