Why Northern Nigeria Needs to Stop The Practice of Girl Child Marriage

by Salma Bello | Oct 26, 2021 | Opinion

Over 12 million girls are married out before the age of 18 according to UNICEF statistics. Child marriage is being practised across countries, cultures and regions. We have to stop stealing adolescence from our young girls. Northern Nigeria is one among many other African countries that practised child marriage, which has constituted a large number of girls marking an end to their childhood and any possibility of personal growth and development.

However, several N.G.Os have sprung up in the last decade to fight against this problem and come up with a possible solution to abolish this drawback.

Factors Leading to Child Marriage

Poverty, Cultural, traditional and religious factors are among the many factors that contribute gravely to the high number of child marriages in our society. Broken homes and economic crises are also basic factors that can’t be disregarded.

Child marriage in northern Nigeria is most prevalently practised in the rural, underdeveloped and poor communities, where women are seen as a means to an end. The devastating economic hardship in Nigeria is a major contributing factor to making the nation being ranked as the 11th highest contributor to the rise in child marriage in the world with an estimated 42% of girls married before age 18, which is considered child marriage.

Effects of Girl Child Marriage

Early child marriages anywhere in the world stand to intervene on the health, psychological well-being and formal education, as most of them abandon education and skills to focus on raising children and building a home. This is common with many ethnical groups in the country. But it’s predominantly common in the Northern part of this country.

Girls are forced to become the three most difficult things Woman, Adults and Mothers. The tradition is driven by poverty just to reinforce social ties in other to create financial stabilities for the benefactor families and improve their social status.

Jamila, a young girl I met and spoke to at Giwa local government of Kaduna State always wanted to be a nurse. The entire concept of science fascinates her. She told me she wanted to be a nurse for so many reasons as her mum battles severe back pain with a long medical history. All that faded as she explained how her father arranged her for marriage immediately after she got to SS2 ( Senior Secondary School.) She also explains how she went through miscarriage twice and struggles with physical and mental illness.

Little or zero health care is being provided while they’re exposed to many risks like depression, cervical cancer, malaria, fistula, and other forms of diseases follows.

Early pregnancy makes girls more predisposed to the risk of losing their life, increases in premature labour and this has given rise to high maternal death. They also have many medical complications such as. Vesico-Vagina Fistula ( VVF) And rectum vagina fistula (RVF).

What We Should Be Doing

Female child education reduces chances of infant mortality, promotes health, improves and raises economic productivity cohorts, enhances political participation and prepares the ground for educating the next generation.

In ending child marriages, we must consider accelerating our efforts to help change the lives of girls and young women by understanding the complex drivers behind the practice in a different context, identifying the variables that hinder their growth in society and implementing all necessary assistance the society needs to develop and enhance the social-political wellbeing of women and female child.

The Silent Culture of The Samburu People

by Salma Bello | Oct 26, 2021 | Opinion

The Samburu people are known for the colourful beads adornment they wear around their neck and other parts of their body like waist, leg and hands. This means beauty and wealth for women and men.

The Sambarus, are nomadic and pastoralist community settlers in northern parts of Kenya who have preserved their culture, tradition and way of life from pre-colonial times to the current days. Sambaru is a small community in Kenya that’s organized according to gender and age.

In this community, women as young as age 13 indulge in a full sexual relationship leading to unwanted pregnancy by warriors or any male from other clans like the Rendille.

The Silent Culture of The Samburu People

This silent culture is about to terrify you as we go deep to understand what Beading in Samburu means. It’s a preventive measure put in place by elders to prevent the young warriors from bedding married women (elder’s wives) the warriors are seen to be seductive to married women and this often leads to conflict between the warriors and the elders.

This practice gave the warriors a pass on young girls as a way for them to stop sharing wives with the elders. Beading was a form of conflict resolution. Samburu and Rendile communities are the two main closest communities who practice Beading as they share customs and another way of life.

Beading practice, as well as female genital mutilation, is a cultural harmful practice. According to the Samburu people, Beading is their traditional way of life that allowed warriors (Morans) to have a temporary marital relationship with a very young girl who shares the same clan as the warrior.

The warriors (MORANS), after getting a directive from the girl’s guardians, after which they make their proposal known to the uncircumcised young girl by providing the uncircumcised girl with a bead. By giving her a colourful bead-like Red signifies his interest in wanting to have a sexual or intimate relationship with her, that which is seen as a way to prepare this child for marriage in the nearest future to come.

The Girls undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) in their teenage years to prepare them for marriage. An uncircumcised woman is still considered a child and is not eligible for marriage but eligible to have a sexual relationship with the MORANS. The relationship does not lead to marriage and pregnancy is forbidden.

In case of pregnancy, the girl will have to abort the pregnancy or the baby be killed after birth using herbs poisoning, since the child is seen as bad luck and considered an outcast. The lucky babies who survive are given out to other communities like the Turkana tribe.

Abortion is performed traditionally by elderly women leading to all kinds of health complications and even death. Beading increases, the risk of spread of all kinds of Sexually Transmitted diseases and in an extreme case HIV/AIDS. The Morans are at liberty to have more than one sexual partner, while the women are unassisted to deal with the outcome or consequences of their sexual relationship with the Morans. The tradition decrees that men speak on women’s behalf and whatever the men have spoken remains final. The women have little or no say in their tradition.