Removing the blight of underage mothers

The United Nations Children Fund’s recent lamentation of the prevailing increase in the number of adolescent children becoming mothers before the age of 18 years requires action from Nigeria’s various governments. To help, the agency has committed $1 billion over the next five years to back its call for an immediate and comprehensive intervention by the three tiers of government. The federal and state governments should swing into action.

The Chief of Health at UNICEF Nigeria, Eduardo Celades, announced the package during the stakeholders’ forum on Adolescent and Youths Health Policies in Africa with the theme: “Fostering International Partnerships to Contribute to Adolescents’ and Youths’ Health in Nigeria.”

He said the crisis of adolescent health in Nigeria was beyond substance abuse, encompassing issues like insecurity, mental health, malnutrition, and climate change.

He said, “We are facing a massive crisis affecting our adolescent population. One in 10 girls in Nigeria is projected to become a mother before the age of 18, with a disproportionate impact in the North-Central and North-West regions, where 50 per cent of young girls, particularly in states like Bauchi and Gombe, are expected to have a child by the age of 18.”

UNICEF studies indicate that half of Nigeria’s adolescent girls are unlikely to complete secondary school, saying that while “a staggering 43 per cent are already married. Of these, a significant portion has partners older than them, impacting their decision-making autonomy.”

In Nigeria, teenage pregnancy is a major crisis. One of its chief causes is underage marriage. Backed vociferously by the Northern elite, this problem has remained intractable. Another is rape.

Nigeria currently holds the pathetic record of the country with largest number of child-brides in Africa, having about 23 million girls and women married as children, according to UNICEF.

Globally, 650 million girls and women alive today were married off at childhood; half of the cases happen in Brazil, Ethiopia, India, and Nigeria, reported the United Nations.

The Pew Research Center named Nigeria as having the third largest number of child marriages worldwide after India and Bangladesh with 3.3 million. In 2020, Statista recorded 3.74 million child marriages in the country, indicating a rise despite sustained NGO sensitisation activities. Although Nigeria’s 18.43 per cent prevalence (percentage in relation to total population), is much lower than in Niger Republic, whose 75 per cent prevalence is the world’s highest, or Chad, Bangladesh, and Guinea with between 63 and 68 per cent prevalence, its toll in absolute figures is very concerning.

Stubbornly, several Nigerian states have failed to domesticate the Child Rights Act, which forbids child marriages and promotes the right of children to at least nine years of basic education.

Problems associated with teenage pregnancies are debilitating. The World Health Organisation says adolescent mothers (aged 10-19) face higher risks of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis, incontinence, and systemic infections than women aged 20–24 years. The babies of adolescent mothers also face higher risks of low birth weight, pre-term birth and severe neonatal condition.

The government at all levels should therefore wake up to their responsibilities and protect the girl-child. The menace of teenage pregnancies should be stamped out.

Adolescent pregnancy tends to be higher among those with less education or of low economic status. Girls, most especially in educationally disadvantaged areas across the country, should be enlightened and encouraged to embrace formal education.

The states and local governments should work with NGOs, communities, and faith-based organisations to ensure the domestication and full enforcement of the CRA in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.