Question

report on child marriage campaign

Answer 1

A girl who goes to school and stays in school till about 18, according to Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), “is a better mother than a girl who has a child at 10.” Osotimehin, a former Health Minister in Nigeria, spoke last week when he took his public enlightenment campaign against child marriage to Kano “so that the age for marriage is shifted at least to 18.” He found a listening ear in Governor Umar Abdullahi Ganduje. “We will go for legislation to give it strong backing based on religious injunction,” said Ganduje, “so we can carry our people along.”

Despite Osotimehin’s intervention and that of many others, child marriage is still an overwhelming challenge in Nigeria. Many of our young girls, particularly in the northern parts of the country, are still married off before attaining the age of 18. Recent data revealed that about 17 per cent are married before their 15th birthday. The Northwest has the highest prevalence of 76 per cent, while it is about 10 per cent in the South-east.