Between Early Marriage and Adolescent Girls in Northern Nigeria

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Globally, the age at which girls are married is increasing but in some countries like Nigeria, particularly Northern Nigeria is slow because high proportions of girls are married during childhood or adolescent. Generally marriage is a social institution which provides formal union of a man and a woman, by which they become husband and wife. The inauguration of marriage institution depends on people’s own religions, traditions and cultural background, but they are generally regarded as marriage institution and they serve the same purpose among which are: :reproductive purposes, raising children inform of socialization, and also to partake in the political and economic developmental activities of their own societies or communities without discrimination either on Gender bases, religion or even skin colour.

         

Generally, there is no clear specification concerning the age at which a girl should be married. However, at 18years of age, a girl should be married because it has attained the legal age of marriage, but the girl should be allowed to make such decision without any pressure. Legally speaking, any girl married at the age below 18, that marriage can be seen as early marriage. Even at the age of 18/19, I think the girl will not be emotionally and psychologically ready to carry out responsibilities of marriage or parenting when she has children. A survey conducted by population council Nigeria office, on HIV/Aids and early marriage in Northern Nigeria, shows that the percentage of girls who are married by age 15, is much more higher in north than in the south. For example, North West alone has 35.8%, north east has 24.9%, north central has 7.7%, while south west has 0.7%, south-south has 2.4% and south-east has 0.4%.

 

Furthermore, most of the marriage below of 18years of age in northern Nigeria are forced married, and most of the victims are less educated, they lack opportunities and skills for income generating activities, and above all lack adequate knowledge of reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and STIs issues, and 1/3 of the marriages are polygamous with an average age of 18yrs between husband and wife. The survey also shows that over 50% of the marriages are at an average age of 15years, and some of the risks associated with early marriage comprises of the risk to be HIV positive because of unprotected sex with spouse that are mostly older, maternal, infant mortality and pregnancy problems, susceptibility to health condition such as VVF, RVF, also limited involvement in decision making processes, and limited educational attainment.

         

Conclusively, I think the only way to avoid all these effects is to delay marriage to a more appropriate age (26years). We should also encourage Adolescent girls’ school attendance and also provide economic opportunities to them in terms of vocational trainings so as for them to be economically independent.