Hajia Aisha Buhari, the wife of Nigeria’s President-elect, is seeking the legislation against child marriage in Nigeria.
Mrs Buhari disclosed this while speaking at the Global Women
Conference held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, shortly after her
presentation on the dangers women and girl child face every day.
According to reports by Channels TV, Mrs Buhari pressed for a
legislation that would protect women and the girl child as discussions
at the conference bordered around women empowerment and social
inclusion.
According to her, the key to solving most of the problems women face
is global legislation. She further put a call to government and
international organisations to upsurge the participation of women in the
decision making process.
Other Nigerian delegates at the event were Hannatu Ngilari, Hajo Sani and Mariyya Zayyan.
It should be noted that northern Nigeria has one of the highest rates
of early marriage in the world. The Child Rights Act, pa$$ed in 2003,
raised the minimum age of marriage to 18 for girls which is yet to
implemented in all 36 states of Nigeria.
According to UNFPA, in Nigeria, ’20 percent of girls were married by
age 15, and 40 percent were married by age 18.22 Child marriage is
extremely prevalent in some regions; in the Northwest region, 48 percent
of girls were married by age 15, and 78 percent were married by age
18.23.
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