Beyond Mentors Community Care Initiatives, a Non-Governmental organization has called on the Federal Government to completely stop child marriages.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at a program hosted in recognition of the annual April 12 International Day for Street Children: a special day acknowledging the strength and resilience of millions of street children around the world, The Executive Director of the NGO, Khadijat-Abdullahi Iya said that there was a need for government and stakeholders to push more to discourage the unhealthy age-long tradition of early child marriage.
She said:
”Lack of political will and effective policies on the part of government and stakeholders to discourage early child marriage is encouraging this act. Government and policymakers need to look at child marriages urgently and totally discourage it.
”We need all stakeholders to be present there to see how we can eradicate child marriage completely in Nigeria,”
Iya observed that many girls were fond of giving birth to children they possibly lacked prerequisite parental qualities needed to train these children, adding that those were the ones ultimately capable of ”constituting nuisance in the society”.
Iya hinged on the Child’s Right Act (2003), as the law that guarantees the rights of all children in Nigeria. Notably, only 24 out of 36 states of the federation have adopted the CRA as state law, with 12 states still lagging behind.
”The Child’s Right Act (2003) must be strengthened to protect these vulnerable girls,” she said.
Iya commended the organizers of the program, along with stakeholders who are advocates of girl-child education.
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