Even though the Child Rights Act was enacted in 2003 and 34 states have domesticated it, there are still abundant issues of child abuse, child labour, child trafficking and child marriage etc. Perhaps one of the worst things that has befallen young girls in Nigeria is child marriage. Child marriage is the marriage, formal or informal, between a child and an adult or even between a child and another child. However, the countries with high rates of child marriage are Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, Central African Republic, Mozambique and Nepal. As of 2006 about 20 per cent of the school dropouts in Nigeria were the result of child marriage.

Source: The Guardian October 17, 2023 16:30 UTC