Defined as marriages involving people below 18 years of age, child marriages violate children’s rights to protection from harmful practices. They expose them to risk of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and sexual abuse and also limit career options of girls who tend to become stay-at-home parents after falling pregnant. The teenage pregnancies themselves pose serious health risks which often result in birth complications or even death. Child marriages are thus a plague Africa needs to shake off.

However, despite the well-documented adverse effects, child marriages are still the norm in a lot of African communities. In the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ve actually increased along with other forms of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). UNICEF reports that an additional 10 million girls are at risk of child marriage in the pandemic and this risks reversing gains made in the past on reducing the scourge of child marriage in Nigeria which has the 11th highest rate of child marriages globally.

What can be done?

Defining, discussing and pontificating on the problem helps no one. If you are reading this you likely care enough to have researched the statistics. You likely already know that poor rural communities are most at risk, that child marriages are fuelled by ignorance of their harms and that religion or culture are used as the go-to excuses. There’s countless studies talking about that. But information on how communities can help is severely lacking.

At the grassroots level, community members can reduce incidences of child marriages by educating parents and children on the dangers of child marriage. Having legal instruments like the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child or the Child’s Rights Act of 2003 in Nigeria is not enough to end the injustice. In rural communities and fundamentalist families, there is a strong incongruence between what laws say and what people believe and do. And this is where a large part of the problem lies: there is only so much governments can do to protect people when the very people being protected don’t realise they’re being harmed. People are more likely to resist progressive laws whose import they don’t appreciate.

The Marange community in Zimbabwe is a prime example of how winning hearts and changing community beliefs is essential to ending child marriages. Zimbabwe has one of the most progressive constitutions in terms of child rights and the legal framework is strongly against child rights violation like child marriage and sexual exploitation. Yet girls as young as 11 years are married off to older men en masse. There’s thus strong need for those with more access to information to actively spread it in Nigeria because advocating for strong policies alone aren’t enough to protect children. Civil society organisations like ourselves must create peer educator networks where community members of all ages are trained to educate peers. These have successfully been launched in African countries similar to Nigeria with great results as people are predisposed to listen more to peers than outsiders when it comes to dismantling abusive systems and forsaking harmful practices.

While educating communities, there is strong need for peer educators to be trained on how to raise awareness even among religious fundamentalist communities like the Hausa-Fulani tribe in the North. Religion and culture continue to be used as justifications for child marriage, some States still haven’t even implemented the Child’ Rights Act arguing that it conflicts with Shari’a law and local customs. So, beating around the bush and ignoring the harmful impacts of toxic religious beliefs which condone abuse will only stall efforts. Religious leaders in these communities must be engaged, educated and won over as supporters of the fight to end child marriage. It is their duty to guide communities spiritually and in daily life. This duty must also involve working to end child marriages in Nigeria.

In addition, there’s need to create Community Support Groups for survivors of child marriage. Children who are married off often face isolation, stress-related mental health challenges and stay with abusers out of fear of destitution since their families usually aren’t welcoming should they try to escape. Community support groups are thus integral in the fight against child marriage. They’ll work to identify cases of abuse, report to relevant authorities, rescue survivors and give them the support they need to live healthy lives proceeding with education. Incorporating survivors of the abuse will also ensure these use their harrowing experiences to raise awareness on the injustices of child marriage. Giving them a platform to tell their story like this will increase effectiveness of anti-child-marriage programs by touching more hearts and encouraging behaviour change.

We must also campaign for policy change at state level. By advocating better child protection policies and their indiscriminate enforcement, a lot of good can be done, especially in the Nigerian North where child marriages are highly prevalent. The remaining 10 state legislatures that haven’t adopted the Child’s Rights Act must be pressured by community advocacy groups to adopt it in its full spirit of ensuring the girl child is protected. Among those that only partially implemented, there is also need to pressure leaders into fully implementing the Act. Religion and culture must never supersede progressive laws to protect children. Religions and cultures both exist to make human existence less unbearable and communities must be vigilant in getting this point across to policymakers.

Looking at the rates of child marriages in Nigeria, ending child marriages seems like a mammoth task. But it can be done. Communities with empathetic, informed and vigilant members are making significant strides the world over. Nigeria can do it too if we all make concerted efforts: communities work at grassroots level, while States enact strong laws and work to end the poverty that also contributes to perpetuation of child marriages.

Written by: McAuthur Mkwapatira

McAuthur Mkwapatira is a Social and Economic Justice Activist, Community Advocacy Officer, Writer and strong believer in the power of informed, empathetic and vigilant communities.