Tuesday, January 26, 2010

EARLY MARRIAGE AND THE STATE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS IN KANO STATE

EARLY MARRIAGE AND THE STATE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Introduction:
Let me begin by briefly introducing ancient city of Kano to you because probably this is the first time some of you came in contact with the name. It is located in the north-western part of Nigeria, and perhaps it is one of the thirty six states that made up present contemporary federal political Nigeria. Going by the 2006 population census, Kano is adjudge to be the most populace state with about ten million inhabitants, majority of which are youth, and Hausa/Fulani people constitute the major tribes that made up the state. Socially and economically, the inhabitants of Kano mostly engaged in commercial activities which made it to be called “center of commerce”.
My decision to write on early marriage in Kano, is due to the fact that high proportion of adolescent girls are being married before their eighteenth years of age, with many of them being forced not only to accept their partners (husbands), but also to leave their various schools, which I see as an encroachment upon their fundamental human rights, and if this trend will be allowed to continue, majority of them will be married in the same way. It is the objective of this paper to draw upon my little knowledge and experience, as a young person from Kano, the dangers of early and forced marriage as it affects the lives of my peers in the state, so as to provide some action steps for policy makers and other relevant stake holders in order to stop the trend.

Definition of Key Terms:
For the purpose of this discussion, I intend to define the following key terms as follows:
Ø Early Marriage: Any marriage of adolescent girls that are below eighteenth years of age.
Ø Forced Marriage: Any marriage that is not in accordance with the consent of the parties involved. In other words, any marriage that did not take in to cognizance the right of the parties involved to choose their partners without any external pressure or influence.
Ø Adolescent Girls: Young Girls who fall within the age bracket of tenth to seventeenth years of age.
Early Marriage and Adolescent Girls in Kano
On a general note, it is important to note that Marriage is a social institution that is found in any society, and it is the institution that has the legitimate right to provide for the formal union of a man and a woman by which they became husband and wife. In fact, it is a moment of celebration because it signals a milestone in adult life. Though the way and manner through which the institution of marriage is established differ from one society to another, this is due to differences in terms of cultural, traditional and even religious ways of lives of their people. Perhaps, in spite of these differences, they share some responsibilities in terms of reproduction, socialization, and even economic activities. Though, there is generally no specific age at which a girl should be married, and while in some countries the age is increasing, in others particularly those of the developing world, the age is slow. As a result, various international human rights documents provided the norms to be applied in marriage particularly on issues of age, consent and equality within marriage. Such instruments include for example article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948, which states that:

1) Men and women of full age… have the right to marry and found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and its dissolution.
2) Marriage shall be entered in to only with the free and full consent of the intending parties.

Other instruments such as Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and African charter on the rights of the child, also reiterated the same position. In fact, African charter prohibits child marriage and instead suggested that legislation should be done to make the minimum age for marriage to be eighteenth years of age.
At this juncture, let me share the experience of a lady who, while at her 16th years of age, got married recently to a man who is at his 40s, so that we can have a clear picture on what made most parents in Kano to give their daughters out for marriage at their younger age below eighteenth. When the man first contacted the lady, she rejected him, he then decided to inform her mother about his intention and what her daughter said to him, the mother assured him of her corporation and insists that she is a girl that is why she responded to him that way. When the mother talked to her daughter to accept the man, the lady turn the offer down and insists that her education is her only priority. The mother responded to her by saying that “…ba kya ganin ya na da halin da zai iya kula mun da ke, ko kin fiso in barki haka kiyi ta yawon gantali a gari akan gidan mijinki” – don’t you see that he is a business man and he can take a good care of you for me, or do you want me to allow you to be going round the street just like that instead of you being in your husband’s home. The lady still didn’t accept the offer and insists on the pursuance of her education, but the mother decided to go ahead with her plan.
Though, the mother of the lady is not living with her daughter’s father because they have since separated, but when he was informed about the issue, he encourage the mother of the lady to go ahead with the plan of getting their daughter married to the man, even though is not in accordance with her interest. After getting the marriage, she had to run back from her newly husband’s home but they still take her back and insists that she must stay or she should find another place to live, and her dream of getting admission in to a diploma program became a forgone issue. Also worthy to note, is the experience of a lady I knew who got married to an eighteenth year old boy when she was thirteenth, and she never attended any formal school and has a child, and was divorce when she was seventeenth. Ladies and Gentlemen, how do you expect this lady to survive after all she doesn’t have education not to even talk of having access to any income generating skills? Perhaps, this is a clear picture of the kind of roles most parents think they should be playing in giving their daughters out for marriage at their younger age, and the most unfortunate aspect of it, is that, most of them tend to see their daughters as burden which they can no longer bear and instead will decided to get them married not minding the risks associated with it. Some of them also believe that it will protect them against unwanted pregnancy outside marriage, HIV/AIDS, and other Sexually Transmitted Infections.
More over, some of the dangers associated with early marriage, based on my experience, include the possibility of contracting HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Infections, because some of these girls have no knowledge of HIV at all and they are being married to the men who are older and more experienced than them. Ladies and Gentle men, it is also important to note that by marrying adolescent girls at their younger age, their bodies have not fully developed and there fore stand a chance of experiencing complication during pregnancy which can lead to maternal and child death. Other dangers include that of exclusion in virtually every sphere of activity, this is because some of these girls have limited educational attainment and doesn’t have economic empowerment skills to earn a living which is contributing to the current on going circle of poverty.
Perhaps, it is important at this juncture to note the contribution of some NGOs such as Advocacy Nigeria – a network of volunteer advocates of which I am one of them, who have been working in six states of northern Nigeria including Kano, purposely to change laws and policies in order to promote the provision of reproductive health services and increase public funds devoted to reproductive health. In doing so, we are working with state legislative arm, ministries of health, justice, and that of women and of youth to achieve our aim of ensuring that healthy mothers have healthy babies and raise healthy children. Also worthy to note, is Adolescent Health and Information Project (AHIP), who have been working to sensitize young adolescent girls and boys to understand their sexuality, and to also empower them with income generating activities in order to live a healthy life. In fact, I am a beneficiary of this training because I was trained as a peer health educator in AHIP, and many youth like me are still being trained.
Some action steps:
Below are some steps which I think can be useful in trying to reverse the trend:
Ø From the part of the policy makers, Family Life Education should be incorporated in to our school curriculum, and adolescent school attendance should be encouraged by lifting the payment of school fees.
Ø Policy makers and NGOs should strengthen their partnerships with the media in order to create more awareness holistically so as to reorient the entire society on the dangers of early marriage and also the importance of girl child education.
Ø We should also dedicate international days for women for a massive campaign to end early and forced marriage.
Ø They should also as a matter of urgency, concentrate more on economic empowerment trainings for those adolescent girls that were divorced out of marriage through vocational trainings, so that they can earn a living.
Ø And lastly, Policy makers should look at NGOs as partners in development not enemies of progress.
Finally, if our dream is to ensure a just and egalitarian society, a free and democratic society, a great and dynamic economy, a just and healthy life for women must be taken as a priority by both the policy makers and other relevant stake holders, because early and forced marriage is a threat to adolescent girls’ rights to existence and right to choose their partners as enshrined in most international human right documents.

NURA IRO MAAJI
A VOLUNTEER ADVOCATE WITH ADVOCACY NIGERIA.
http://www.nuramaaji.blogspot.com/
nuramaaji@gmail.com
+2648032601697