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…calls for promotion of girl child education
By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
Save the Children International (SCI), Nigeria, has advocated the need for a wholistic approach towards ending child marriage in Nigeria.
The Director, Advocacy & Campaigns, Amanuel Mamo, specifically called for promotion of girl child education in the country, to equip young girls with knowledge that will enable them to voice against certain infringements on their rights.
Speaking on Monday at a workshop organized for journalists in Kano, Mamo, who was represented by Advocacy, Campaigns and Policy Manager, Hope Oduma, expressed worry that 11 states in the country were yet to implement the Child Rights Act.
“Unfortunately, 54% of Nigeria’s over 13.2 million children, aged 5-14 that do not go to school are girls.this is the highest of any country in the world. Poor and marginalized girls are disproportionately affected, with inhibitory factors that worsen a girl’s chance of entering and completing school. These facts highlight a scandalous denial of human rights.”
Meanwhile, the National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS,2018), said child marriage is one of the major impediments to sustainable development and realization of human rights.
“In Northeast Nigeria, 24.5% of girls marry at age 15 while 27.1% of girls at above 15. Generally, 23.0% of women marry before their 18th birthday with the associated morbidity and mortality from the complications of early child bearing, and increasingly reducing reducing chances of escaping poverty. These indices are likely to worsen with increasing security situation in the region”.
He said there is need for girls to be allowed to achieve their full potentials in life.
“We should encourage them to go to school and create platforms for them to speak out. If these young girls are educated, they will know their rights and speak in line with what is beneficial to them.”
He called on government at all levels to implement policies that could help promote girl child education.
“We want the states to implement policies and champion issues that promotes rights of the girl child education and to also create better platforms for engagements”.
