As the world marks the International Day of the Girl Child, Southwest Bureau Chief BISI OLADELE reviews Nigeria’s successes and failures in her journey towards protecting and helping the girl child to maximise her potential.
Out of Nigeria’s 2021 estimated population of 211 million, the World Bank points out that women account for 109 million. Girl children and female young adults could make up to 60 per cent of the women’s population, going by the 2018 estimate that children and youths, up to age 35, account for 65 per cent of the country’s population.
These figures accentuate the number of girl children and their importance for policy consideration and Nigeria’s social and economic growth.
Being a member of the United Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and other multi-state organisations, Nigeria is a signatory to several treaties, charters and conventions that protect and guarantee human rights, education and economic development of the girl child.
But has the country made significant progress in this global effort to eradicate cultural and social harms against the girl child and gender inequality?
A review of the government’s efforts at achieving this will show that Nigeria is making some progress in addressing the issue. The country has enacted the child rights law, free and compulsory education for children up to junior secondary school, relevant laws against sex offenders and initiated campaigns against female genital mutilation (FGM).
The country also established girls-only unity schools in many states some decades ago to deliberately promote girl education and bridge the gap between them and their male counterparts. This effort has given a boost to the population of girl children in secondary schools, which has also resulted in a sharp rise in the number of girls moving on to acquire university and other tertiary institutions education in the last 30 years.
However, it is not yet freedom or total independence for the Nigerian girl child. There are still many hurdles to surmount in terms of overcoming many stereotypical views against girl children and many negative cultural practices against them such as child marriage, sexual abuse, child labour and trafficking for the prostitution business.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Nigeria is rated to have one of the highest rates of child marriage in Africa. The 2020 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) indicated in its development report that 43 per cent of women from age 20 to 24 had been married by age 18 in Nigeria.
The organisation attributed the trend to the failure of the federal and state governments to adequately enforce laws to prevent it.
The African Director of HRW, Maui Segun said: “Although the Federal Child Rights Act (2003) prohibits marriage below the age of 18, the Nigerian Constitution contains provisions which appear to conflict with this position.
“States with Islamic legal systems have also failed to adopt both the federal law and 18 as the age of maturity for marriage. Some Southern states which have adopted this position have failed to take adequate steps to carry it out.
“It is disturbing that almost two decades after the Child Rights Act was passed, Nigerian girls are still being forced into child marriages.”
The HRW has called on Nigerian states to urgently act to adopt, implement, and align existing laws with the provisions of the Child Rights Act which criminalises marriage before the age of 18 and which also protects girls’ rights.
For the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), every day, hundreds of thousands of girls around the world are harmed physically or psychologically, with the full knowledge and consent of their families, friends and communities. Without urgent action, the agency says, the situation is likely to worsen.
Guided by its several research findings, the UNFP concluded that parents who subject their daughters to harmful practices are often well-intentioned.
According to the agency, harmful practices are rooted in gender inequality and serve the purpose of controlling girls’ bodies, sexuality or sexual desires.
“Globally, the number of girls and women affected by these practices is staggering–and even, in some cases, growing. This year, 4.1 million girls are at risk of FGM. One in five marriages these days involves a child bride. And son preference has resulted in a deficit of some 140 million females,” the agency said.
It further explained that harmful practices are widespread, cutting across countries, cultures, religions, ethnicities and socio-economic levels, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely worsening child marriage and FGM.
Many child sexual cases of abuse are unreported in Nigeria due to the stigma and protection of offenders who are mostly friends and relations. This socio-cultural consideration hinders the law from punishing offenders; a culture that serves as a positive reinforcement for predators and other paedophiles. Where it is reported, a weak judicial system in form of lack or poor diligent prosecution provides safety nets for offenders.
Many young girls also suffer forced labour with parents and guardians who make them hawk items or participate in petty trading instead of sending them to school or undertaking such after school hours. Sights of child hawkers, mostly females, are commonplace in Nigerian cities either during holidays or school days and weekends. Economic hardship has been adduced as one of the reasons for the illegal act.
Enforcement of relevant laws against child labour has been very poor in Nigeria due to cultural considerations and the government’s lackadaisical attitude to enforcing the law.
Proffering solutions to the myriads of challenges confronting the girl child, the UNFP believes that lasting solutions will require changes to social norms rooted in gender inequality.
A UNFPA expert in the area of harmful practices and culture, Nafissatou Diop said: “Beyond providing information and creating spaces for discussion, there is a need to collectively, deliberately and explicitly agree to improve the health and well-being of girls and communities, which will support the movement to end the harmful and discriminatory norms.”
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Working in line with these solutions, the Girld2Women with Ease Foundation (G2W); an Ibadan-based non-governmental organisation is tackling menstrual health for young girls and women.
The foundation educates girls and women on the need to use proper sanitary pads during menstruation. It also distributes sanitary pads to girls and women that cannot afford them.
Its founder, Dr Olufunmi Adegbile said people will be shocked at the level of illiteracy on menstrual health among Nigerian girls and illiterate women. She also said the percentage of them using rags, toilet rolls and even exercise and textbooks for menstruation is high.
Her foundation visits public secondary schools and popular markets to educate girls and women and also distributes free pads for better menstrual hygiene.
She said she established the foundation after discovering, through pastoral counselling, that many wives suffering from infertility have the origin of their medical condition in poor menstrual hygiene during their younger age.
She said: “For about three decades, I have been in the position of counselling young couples in early marriage, mid-age and over time, I discovered that a handful of these couples have infertility problems. After counselling and praying with them, I will refer them to medical practitioners and they will return and say their wives have infections.
“We go from one secondary school to another and we do two schools in a month, majorly public schools. Sometimes, we go to private schools to do the awareness but we work more in the public schools and it is not only in Oyo State, but we have also done some awareness in the North as well and that one is more horrible.
“My passion is to stamp out the use of rags but we can’t just go to the school and ask them how many of them are using rags, we thought that they would be ashamed.
“The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended that sanitary towels should not last for more than six hours,” she said.
The Coordinator of Women’s Research and Documentation Centre (WORDOC) Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Dr Sharon Omotoso said: “As of 2021, half of the Nigerian population is aged under 19 years. Statistics reveal that the female population amounted to approximately 104.25 million, while the male population amounted to approximately 107.15 million inhabitants.
“Education for the girl child is still unstable; they are in school today and out of school the next day due to civil unrest, family crisis, menstrual hygiene issues, mental health challenges and more. These days, the girl child in Nigeria is at risk of being subjected to street hawking, surrogacy, baby factories, ritual and organ harvesting, terrorist acts and child marriage.
“With pockets of states adopting the Violence against Persons Prohibition Law (VAPP), two major challenges to address are awareness and enforcement. We implore the government to increase awareness of the laws available for girl-child protection; put them into fliers, place them on social media platforms and ensure that offenders are punished. “This is another effort towards speeding up on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The whole essence of such efforts is to establish that as much as our world needs saviours, the girl power is a saviour in whatever sector it is deployed.”
To overcome some of these challenges, the state governments need to open sex offenders’ register, shield those who report sex abuses, implement the free and compulsory education Act which mandates every child to be freely educated up to JSS3, deliberately prevent child marriage by implementing the law and punishing offenders, promote the campaign against boy child preference and open more opportunities for the girl child in Nigeria.
When properly groomed, Nigerian girls will fly higher like their counterparts in other countries. They will be poised to break boundaries and barriers, and become strong voices in the campaign against inequality, climate change, violence and child marriage, among others.