UNICEF marks day of the African child

Worried by the increase in the number of girls married before 15 years of age, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has celebrated this year’s day of the African Child with a call for the end to child marriage not only in Nigeria but on the African continent.

According to the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey released in 2011, there is a five percent increase in the number of girls married by age 15 years up from 13 percent in 2007 to 18 percent in 2011.

‘Getting girls into school, and remaining in school is particularly important in a country where 10.5 million children are out of school, and more than 60 per cent of them are girls. It is a win win situation for everybody and has an impact on child marriage,’ said Jean Gough, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria.

As part of activities to mark the day, an art competition to highlight the dangers faced by children particularly the girl child in the absence of water and sanitation facilities in schools and in their communities took place in Akwa Ibom State.

Effiong Essien, General Manager, Akwa Ibom Rural Water and Sanitation Agency said the provision of water and sanitation facilities should be seen as paramount to the welfare of children.

He decried the practice in some societies where the girl child is given out in marriage before the age of 18 years saying it prevents the child from pursuing higher education and therefore robbing the girl child of her right to education.

In a lecture on the dangers of child marriage, Milissent  Edidiong, said the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria  says that a child that is below 18 years of age should not be given out in marriage adding that doing so violates the law.

She identified poverty, family pressure and religious beliefs as some of the  reasons for the practice of early child marriage and urged the pupils to focus on their education to enable them attain their goals in life rather accept to be married in an early age.

The Day of the African Child commemorates the 1976 march in Soweto South Africa, when thousands of African school children took to the streets to protest the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language.

ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK