Child marriage is a common practice in Nigeria rooted in traditional, economic, religious, and legal conditions that disproportionately affect girls and women. Nigeria’s rates of child marriage are some of the highest on the African continent.
The 2020 UN Development Program said in its development report that 43 percent of women ages 20 to 24 had been married by the age of 18 in Nigeria. Child marriage has deep and lasting impacts on women throughout their lives. It prevents them from making their own life choices, disrupts their education, subjects them to violence and discrimination, and denies their full participation in economic, political, and social life.
Ordinarily the choice or adherence to any organisation legal or Illegal should be the prerogative of everyone anywhere in the world.
On 9th of December 2023, Miss Motunrayo Abigail, a 15-year-old Nigerian who lived with her grandmother (78 years) in Oke Aro community of Akure in Ondo State, was forced by her grandmother who has been brainwashed by a mosque Imam of the community to marry one Mr Rasheed Aremu, 45, who is now at large. Abigail informed her Mother who later informed the authorities and human rights services about her ordeal and secured her freedom from forcing her to early child marriage without her consent. The Chief Imam has now been arrested and facing the wrath of the law while Mr Rasheed Aremu is at large.
The father of the girl, Mr A. Pedro who lives in diaspora has commended the swift response of the law enforcement agencies and human rights services for their quick intervention and bringing normalcy into his daughter’s life. He called on the federal government to intervene and quickly implement a UN developmental program in the country.
The Nigerian government has obligations under African and international human rights law to protect children from being forced into marriage. However, Nigeria’s federal and state laws hold contradictory positions on protecting children from marriage and violent traditional practices.