Stakeholders Call For Actions To Eliminate Child Marriage In Nigeria

A two-day media engagement workshop was conducted concurrently in Ondo State, South-west Nigeria and Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, to highlight the prevalence and inherent dangers of child marriage in Nigeria.

The workshop with the theme, “Tackling the Scourge of Child Marriage in Nigeria,” was organised by the National Coalition of Civil Society to End Child Marriage in Nigeria in partnership with the Girls Not Brides, an international Non-Governmental Organisation made up of over one thousand four hundred member CSOs spread across over one hundred countries.

Participants cut across the media, Civil Society as well as Non-Governmental Organisations.

In his address, Kolawale Olatosimi, the National Co-Chair of the National Coalition of Civil Society to End Child Marriage in Nigeria, introduced participants to the organization’s mission.

He stated that the organization, established in 2015 and formally set up in 2019, aims to amplify members’ activities, encourage greater engagement, and strengthen collective advocacy efforts to eradicate child marriage in Nigeria.

With over seventy members across the country committed to fighting child marriage according to the Co-Chair, the sole objectives of the organisations are to among other things, help improve access for girls, adolescents and youths to public services, laws and institutions, help communities to promote and practice positive social norms for gender equality and to end child marriage and enhanced institutional capacity to amplify and deliver on its mission to end child marriage in Nigeria.

Quoting statistics from the Girls Not Brides data bank, Olatosimi revealed that 30.3% of girls in Nigeria marry before their 18th birthday, 12.3 % marry before they are 15 while 73.8 % of girls (aged 20-24) were first married before 18 years adding that child marriage cuts across all regions in Nigeria with some States still having a weak implementation of the Child Rights Law.

He however stressed that child marriage is not a Nigerian or African thing alone but rather a global menace that must be tackled with all seriousness and political will.

Speaking on the topic, “Building Trust: Objectivity and Bias Awareness in Reporting,” Kolawale Olatosimi, stressed the importance of specialized education for Journalists in the reportage of child marriage issues.   

“Journalists should receive specialized training on child protection laws, ethical considerations and best practices for reporting sensitive issues.

“This ensures that Journalists are well-informed on the matter and also have the knowledge and skills on how to report.

“Building trust in reporting child protection issues by journalists is crucial for ensuring accurate, sensitive, and impactful coverage that will contribute to changing the narrative,” he said.

He also highlighted building a relationship with communities and collaborating with experts as key to reporting child marriage issues accurately.

In a paper titled, Power Dynamics: The Role of the Media in Advocacy and Awareness on the Issues of Marriage, the Communications Manager of the Coalition to End Child Marriage, Pannan Henry, said it is important to understand the relationships between people and institutions, identifying who has the power to deliver the change you want as well as who can influence them.

He defined power “as the ability to influence or control outcomes,” which he said the media has in abundance.

Henry identified poverty, social norms, culture and ignorance as some of the driving forces of child marriage.

Apart from Girls Not Brides, the organization said that it is also partnering with USAID Nigeria SCALE Project, implemented by Palladium and the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs.

Some milestone achievements recorded by the Coalition according to its leadership include, “Strengthened partnerships with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and other international organizations, which created safe spaces for girls to voice their opinions on issues affecting them, improved membership and visibility across the six geopolitical zones, improved influence on policy-making by partaking in the National Strategy on Ending Child Marriage review and became a Member of the Technical Working Group on Ending Child Marriage.”

Though the Nigerian government has taken some measures to address the menace of child marriage in the country, like the Child’s Rights Act, Child Act Law and the National Strategy to End Child Marriage in Nigeria which expired in 2021, implementation of these laws and document by relevant authorities has been faulted by the Coalition.

At the end of the two workshops, the organisers and participants agreed on the need to build a strong synergy with the media and other partners towards advocacy on the dangers inherent in child marriage.

Lantana Nasir