Premature Marriage and Its Attendant Risks

Premature Marriage and Its Attendant Risks

Forcing young girls into marriage is a social evil that some parents engage in to the detriment of their daughters. This phenomenon is commonly practised in the northern part of the country. Parents who are guilty of this practice are presumed to be illiterates, and as such, they cannot appreciate the value of education. They cut short the educational pursuit of their teenage daughters, killing their dreams for the future in the process. That is aside from forcing them to marry men who are old enough to be their fathers or grandfathers in most cases, as was the case with Senator Sani Yarima’s celebrated marriage to an Egyptian teenage girl.

Parents who engage in the habit of forcing their young daughters into premature marriage often do so for the pecuniary benefits they stand to enjoy from their sons-in-law, and this blinds them to the psychological trauma their daughters would suffer as a result of their selfishness and insensitivity. Even when the affected girls protest against their parents’ decision, their pleas and protests fall on deaf ears for obvious reasons.

This habit of forcing young girls into premature marriage sent a 19-year-old girl into her early grave in Kwado village, Kastina state some time ago. The Senior Secondary II (SS 2) girl, Asmau Ibrahim, had dreams of completing her secondary education and forging ahead to become a university graduate, but her parents had a different life planned for her. They told her to forget her education and begin preparing to move into her husband’s home as they were already in the process of contracting the marriage. She protested, threatening to commit suicide if they forced her into the marriage, but her parents dismissed her threat as an empty one. When it dawned on Asmau that her parents were bent on ruining her life, she made good her threat. To her, it was better to die than live in frustration. It was a tragic end for such a young visionary girl. And only God can tell how many geniuses such parents as Asmau’s have hurried into premature marriages, burying their talents that the nation so much requires.

Aside from the psychological effects of this inhuman act of forcing teenage girls into premature marriage which could lead to suicide as in Asmau’s case, juvenile marriages are dangerous to the health of the victims. Young girls who marry at unripe ages are likely to end up with Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), a medical condition which causes a patient to continuously discharge urine involuntarily. This condition is often caused by prolonged labour during childbirth. Early marriage has been found to be the main cause of VVF, as majority of the patients are women below the age of 30, many of whom are under 13. Imagine a girl of 13 or below being given out in marriage by her parents. What does she know about marriage and how can she cope with the rigour of childbirth? She herself is still a child that needs to be cared for by her parents, and now, she becomes a mother who is expected to take care of her children. What does she know about child care?

These underage girls develop VVF at childbirth because their biological constitution cannot cope with the demands of pregnancy and delivery. Nature has a way of preparing a woman’s body for the challenges of reproduction when she attains adulthood, but the system of a minor has not been prepared for such, so she easily develops complications if she ventures into childbirth prematurely. And when the girls end up with VVF, their husbands abandon them to their fate in most cases. That is the most painful part of the story. The men cannot cope with the way urine drips from the women, causing them to smell continuously, and as such, they put an end to the marriage. So, what have the parents of those girls who pushed them into early marriage achieved? They only succeeded in ruining the lives of their innocent daughters. It is absurd for parents to give out their daughters in marriage before they attain adulthood, and unimaginable for men to marry minors and have sexual relations with them.

This unfortunate situation is reportedly on the increase, as between 500,000 and one million VVF patients are said to live in Nigeria, with about 20,000 new cases being reported every year. Parents must be sensitive to the wellbeing of their children and refrain from forcing their young daughters into early marriage. Even though the times are hard as a result of the extravagance of our leaders, parents should not see their female kids as a source of income or wealth especially when they are still minors. Mothers have a great role to play in dissuading their husbands from pushing their daughters into the misery that premature marriages represent.

The federal government should also step in to safeguard the health of our young girls by coming up with a law that prohibits juvenile marriages. It was widely reported in the infamous marriage of Senator Sani Yarima to his teenage Egyptian wife, that the marriage could not be contracted in Egypt because the law of the land forbids marriages involving minors. So, he brought the girl and her people to Abuja to contract the marriage! This is a serious indictment on our government which failed to put the right laws in place. It shows how lawless our society is. Even where laws that protect the rights of the child exist, they are observed in the breach. And now, something has to be done to stop these 20,000 new cases of VVF recorded every year in a country where facilities for treatment are grossly inadequate. Available statistics show that only 16 centres offer surgical care to some 4,000 VVF patients per year, leaving more than 90 per cent of cases untreated. The time has come for our leaders to treat the wellbeing of Nigerians as paramount by making relevant laws to protect the citizens from agony and frustration and ensuring that such laws are fully complied with.

By Nike Oluwole.

(First published on August 12, 2010)