Nigeria: Early Marriage is a setback for Female Children; Senator Speaks Out

The debate on early marriage refused to wither away as a member of the Nigerian Senate again speaks out against it. The champion of the proposal has always been Senator Ahmed Yerima who married a 13-year old Egyptian. When the clause received the yes vote to be retained in the Constitution which is under the guise of protecting the girl-child who married early by conferring on her the right of full age as regards the renunciation of her citizenship, Nigeria cried out and since then, the Senate has vowed to review it.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that Sen. Helen Esuene, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs and Youth Matters, says early marriage is a major setback to the self-actualisation of female children. Esuene expressed this concern on Saturday in Uyo at the 18th Biennial Conference and General Assembly of the Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria (MWAN).

The theme of the conference was "The girl child: reaching out and raising opportunities for health, empowerment and education”. She said that early marriage was a monster that deprived girls of their childhood, health, future and sometimes her life."Child marriage serves no useful purpose in the society and should be discontinued,’’ she advised.

Esuene said that it was abnormal to practice such old culture in the 21st century world where the female gender was in a hurry to cover lost grounds in the area of public participation. The senator said that girls must be empowered with the right tools of education, self-confidence, knowledge and absolute understanding of their physical makeup.

She said that girls should be made to grow up to see themselves as complete and independent persons, not a weak half. Esuene added that the girl-child had been spotlighted in recent years due to attempts to correct her marginalisation caused by cultural and traditional practices.

"I am happy to note that some of the obnoxious cultural practices such as genital mutilation and fattening are fast becoming history,’’ she added. She also expressed concern that the level of female education in the northern part of the country was still very low in spite of Universal Basic Education programme of the Federal Government. She said that the girls needed to acquire adequate knowledge to be in a position to impart same to her children later in life.

Many Nigerians killed against the section that could encourage many paedophiles who do not understand the basic Islamic tenet of ensuring and assuring the girl-child is protected as adduced by Senator Ahmed Yerima. Twitter users created the hashtag #ChildNotBride which spread like wildfire and instantly created a platform to go against the provision in the constitution.