1. EARLY MARRIAGE AND THE NIGERIAN SENATE
Uroko Favour Chukwuemeka
Department of Religion
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
Abstract
Early marriage is the marriage of a young girl less than 18 years, in Nigerian constitution,
against her wish. This practice is widespread in most cultures of the country. Early marriage
is a sure recipe for early truncating of girl child education, denying her the resultant
privileges for a safer and more efficient reproductive carrier. Child marriage, from available
statistics, ultimately hampers the efforts of these young adolescents from acquiring an
education, as sooner than later, they find it difficult to combine the onerous responsibilities of
being a wife and mother, with schooling. It is the cultural and social environment of a people
that encourages early marriage", it could be clearly deciphered that the environment which a
particular people develops influence their believe of the things they see around themselves.
Girl child marriage is largely a poverty escape mechanism. Many people might attach
religion to it, but such people simply use religion as a cloak. The issue usually is that many
parents especially in northern Nigeria cannot afford to cater for themselves or their children
that is why they give their children out in marriage at such a young age. This is rarely the
case with privileged families. Poverty also contributes to child marriage because it is the
common reason why parents may encourage a girl – child to marry. In the context of poverty,
the practice of paying bride price can encourage early marriage. The descriptive
phenomenological method of research was employed in this work. The poor state of the girl
child who engages in early marriage speaks for itself in Nigerian contemporary situation.
This study brings into light the effects of early marriage on the girl child, the family, and the
nation in general. Early marriage leads to a hike in maternal mortality and child morbidity;
and high death rate among females; increases illiteracy among the female children because
parents will conclude that no need to train their child anymore, because in the nearest
possible time she will be given out in marriage.
KeyWords: Marriage, Early Marriage, Poverty, Senate, Maternal and Infant Morbidity.