Social norms is the biggest driver of child marriiage in Nigeria apart from poverty and other factors, National Coalition of Civil Society to End Child Marriage has said .
The National Co-chair of the coalition, Kolawole Olatosimi who disclosed this during a media engagement in collaboration with Girls Not Brides in Abuja, said part that poverty, ignorance and quest to belong to a certain class were reasons behind some parents marrying off their daughters off at a young age, social norms has continued to drive the numbers in Nigeria.
” Social norm is a big issue because it does not look at education or how rich you are. Social norm has eaten deep and is contributing to child marriage in Nigeria because we have believed them to be normal. We need to start addressing it.”
According to Olatosimi there is the need to imbibe deliberate positive social practices to change the ugly narrative, stressing that the media was key to changing the mindset, mentality and behaviours responsible for child marriage in Nigeria.
“We need to start coming up with positive social practices. There are lots of anomalies in our society; we need positive policies to deliberately end child marriage in Nigeria.
” We don’t need more laws and policies on child marriage if the media can talk more on implementation of existing laws in Nigeria.
“We can’t use the law alone to fight child marriage. If we do not know how to chang social norms, there will still be problems. Child marriage should not be a part of our society, we need to start creating a critical mass.”
He further called for a conscious collaboration between government, media CSOs and private sector to end the menace of child marriiage in Nigeria
Quoting the Multiple Indicator Survey (MICS) 2021, he stated that 30.3 % of girls in Nigeria were married off before their 18th birthday, adding that 12.3% of girls in Nigeria were married before they turn 15.
He however disclosed that 73.8 % of women aged 20 to 24 in Bauchi State were married before they turned 18 adding that 49.2% of women in the state were married to men that were at least 10 years older.
Speaking on the high rate of teenage pregnancy in the country , He said an undisclosed community in Ondo State, Olatosimi maintained that the Coalition was committed to fostering greater engagements and enhancing collective advocacy towards ending child marriage in Nigeria.
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