TheNewsGuru

Tag: Child Bride

  • Why we allowed our 4-year-old to ‘marry’ 54-year-old man – Parents

    Why we allowed our 4-year-old to ‘marry’ 54-year-old man – Parents

    The December 26, 2023 marriage between a four-year-old ‘bride’ and a 54-year-old man in a Bayelsa community is a traditional rite to save the child’s life, according to her parents.

    They claimed that the marriage, conducted in Akeddei community in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa, was a spiritual rite to ‘untie’ the duo who were betrothed in their “previous lives”.

    It was learnt that the girl’s parents, the 54-year-old man, traditional ruler and others, who participated in the marriage, were summoned by the Bayelsa Government following a public outcry.

    Parents of the ‘bride’ and three others on Thursday appeared before the State government’s Gender Response Initiative Team (GRiT) to explain their roles in the child marriage.

    The government team comprised the Chairman of GRiT, Dr Dise Ogbise-Goddy and the Bayelsa State Coordinator of the Child Protection Network, Kizito Andah.

    Others are the Chairman of Bayelsa Non Governmental Forum, Mr Taritei Boco and representatives of DO Foundation,  National Human Rights Commission and Civil Society Groups.

    The team heard submissions from the father of the toddler, Mr Morris Aboma; the “groom”, Mr Akpos Napoleon; and the Paramount ruler, Chief Moneyman Binabo.

    In their separate submissions before the government team, they all insisted that the purported child marriage was a traditional practice termed “Koripamo” aimed to save the little girl’s life.

    They explained that it was a cultural practice in Akeddei community, Oyakiri clan, that if a girl child always fell sick, a man would be required to drop a symbolic amount as token to save the little girl from dying.

    The community representatives said that what transpired between the little girl and Napoleon was not a marriage but an Ijaw cultural practice called ” Koripamo”.

    They further explained that whenever the traditional rite of “Koripamo” was conducted, the man who paid the token was not required to take the girl as a wife.

    “The traditional rite  will also not stop the girl from marrying any man of her choice when she grows up to the age of marriage.

    According to the Ijaw tradition, this rite can be done on a boy child or girl child.

    Father of the child, Aboma, who spoke in Ijaw language, said his daughter was always sick to the point of death.

    He said that according to Akeddei tradition, the only way to save her life is for a man to pay a symbolic price and save the child’s life and that it had nothing to do with a real marriage.

    According to the “groom”, the outcry that trailed the rite is regrettable as all he did was just to save the child’s life as she is no longer sick again.

    He said that such tradition had been going on but it had not been elaborately celebrated with fanfare like the December 26, 2023 event which drew widespread reactions and outrage.

    “But since she says if I don’t do what she says she will die, I had to look for money and do it since it involves life; as it is, I am frustrated by this whole issue,” Napoleon lamented.

    The paramount ruler of Akeddei community, Binabo said he heard of a marriage in the community during the festivities.

    The traditional ruler said that he did not, however, have full details, not until the DPO of Sagbama Police Station asked him to produce those that got married in the community.

    Binabo further said he had to invite the parents of the little girl to get detailed information of what happened on the marriage day.

    He said the parents told him that the little girl had been sick and that one Napoleon had to drop a symbolic amount.

    He emphasised that what happened in Akeddei community was not a formal marriage but a fulfilment of a cultural practice.

    He, however, said that what surprised him was the demand of the little girl for an elaborate ceremony involving foods, canopy and a sound system be hired to celebrate the marriage.

    The paramount ruler noted further that the man  who paid the token on the girl was not expected to take her home to live as husband and wife, nor stop the girl from marrying any other person of her choice when she got old enough to marry.

    On their parts, Andah and Boco said from the submission of the parents of the little girl, the ‘husband’ and the paramount ruler of Akeddei community, what happened was not a formal marriage but a cultural practice known as “Koripamo”.

    The duo noted that from the information gathered, the little girl had not been sexually abused as confirmed by Dr James Omietimi at GRIT office and that the child was living a normal life with no  relationship with the 54-year-old.

    Immediately after the meeting, Chairman of GRIT, Ogbise-Goddy stated that the  deliberation was frank and fruitful and promised to give further updates on the matter.

    She said that the Bayelsa Ministry of Women Affairs, Children and  Social Development and all stakeholders would review the situation and take a decision.

    “Like I had stated earlier, the Bayelsa State Government is child-friendly and will do anything to  protect all the children of the state from any form of perceived abuse,” Ogbise-Goddy said.

  • [TNG Special Report] 2021 Day of the African Child: Child-bride syndrome, child labour, other stark reality surrounding African Children disturbing – Activists

    [TNG Special Report] 2021 Day of the African Child: Child-bride syndrome, child labour, other stark reality surrounding African Children disturbing – Activists

    June 16 every year, the world marks the International Day of the African Child. The day is commemorated with tributes to some South African black students who where killed in Soweto during a protest for their right to quality education in 1976.

    Since 1991 when the day was first marked by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now African Union (AU), the drive towards better healthy life for an average African child has been in the front burner with very disturbing statistics showing the vulnerability of African children who are exposed to child labour, child marriage, destitution, abuse, rape and marginalisation.

    The theme for the Day of the African Child (DAC) 2021 is “30 years after the adoption of the Charter: Accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2040 for an Africa fit for children”. The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Committee), established under Articles 32 and 33 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (the Charter) selected this theme for the commemoration of the DAC in 2021. The theme seeks to appraise the effort so far by the African Union and other international organizations in ensuring children’s welfare.

    TheNewsGuru.com. TNG can confirm that more work needs to be done as Africa still has the largest number of child labourers. 72.1 million African children are estimated to be in child labour and 31.5 million in hazardous work. In Africa, agriculture accounts for 85 per cent of child labour statistics and for 61.4 million children in absolute terms. A record the International Labour Organization (ILO) provided adjudged as disturbing.

    Here in Nigeria, Africa’s largest population, children especially in the northern part of the country have over the years become endangered species; child destitution and begging, child labour and child marriage account for the high number of out of school children in the region. The girl-child is the most affected, forcefully married from as young as age eleven (11) to thirteen (13).

    “You will think they are young, but to us they are very mature, we are forced to believe they are mature once we see them doing some things only adult are doing, it is then we send them to marriage”. Idris Musa, a resident of Bargi village in Makarfi local government of Kaduna State told TNG. Inevitable signs of puberty to Musa and his likes are signs a young girl is ripe for marriage.

    Other instances of abuse of children’s right can be seen in the child labour practice enshrined by the Almajiri system. The Almajiri system is an Islamic practice in Northern Nigeria where children are sent out of their parents house to Islamic clerics to learn the teachings of the Quran, but in the absence of food and even shelter, the children are forced to become street beggers and become exploited through unskilled labour. These children who are often called ‘Almajirai’ often litter the streets and at the latter stage in their lives when they grow without education become thugs who would make life in the society unbearable. Their female counterparts forced to marry at premature ages end up with diseases such as Vascular Virginia Fistula (VVF) and often thrown out of their marriage due to their incompatibility with their forced spouses.

    All these still exist in Nigeria despite the enactment of the Child Right Act 2003, a policy frame work that currently exist to provide healthy lives and protect Nigerian children. This according to some stakeholders is worrisome.

    For Osigwe Momoh, an Abuja based lawyer, the Nigerian justice system must look in to the issues of Nigerian children for posterity sake.

    “What I love most about the child right act is the fact that the child has been defined as anyone below the age of eighteen, so if you are bellow eighteen, you are a child in this country and every right facility a child should have you ought to have it if you are below eighteen.” He said.

    He added that “it’s quite sad that even at this instance we have some painful understanding where people still think that children should marry especially owing to some traditional or religious purposes, so while it’s in one hand we say this is a child you have to take care of, some other people in another hand feel that it’s their right to religion and so a twelve year old girl should marry, I think this is offensive.”

    In her submission, Any Rotimi a civil right activist in Abuja said; “It is important that we continue to advocate and engage every stakeholder; it starts from the community level which includes the family, the traditional, religious setting, and others.

    “We also have the responsibility of holding the system accountable, to ensure that those children are able to live the life they desire” she added.

  • 12m girls become child brides yearly – UNICEF

    An estimated 12 million girls under 18 are getting married every year globally, according to new data from UNICEF released on Tuesday.

    The newly collated figures signal a 15 per cent drop in the last decade, from one in four to approximately one in five girls.

    UNICEF warned that if child marriage continues at the current rate, more than 150 million girls across the world will marry before their 18th birthdays by 2030.

    “When a girl is forced to marry as a child, she faces immediate and lifelong consequences.

    “Her odds of finishing school decrease while her odds of being abused by her husband and suffering complications during pregnancy increase,” Anju Malhotra, UNICEF’s principal gender adviser, said in a statement.

    In South Asia, there has been a decrease in the prevalence of child brides from 50 per cent ten years ago to 30 per cent today.

    In sub-Saharan Africa there has also been a decline, with 43 per cent of women married in childhood ten years ago compared to 38 per cent today.

    UNICEF said there has also been a shift in where the highest number of child brides are located, with close to one-third of all the most recently married child brides globally now in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to one in five a decade ago.

    According to UNICEF, an estimated 650 million women alive today were married as children.

    The UN Sustainable Development Goals sets out plans to end child marriage by 2030.