To stem the increasing under-age marriage in Enugu and various parts of Nigeria, the Women Information Network (WINET) has called on the media for partnership with the view to ending child marriage.
The NGO disclosed that an estimated 44% of girls below the statutory age of 18 get married in Nigeria.
Speaking at a media roundtable in Enugu, Tuesday, with the theme: “Budget Advocacy to End Child Marriage in two local government areas of Enugu, using Aninri and Enugu South as a pilot,” Executive Director WINET, Mrs Miriam Menkiti, said the media has a critical role to play in emphasising the importance of government making budgetary provisions to end child marriage.
The WINET director said to drive home the importance of budgetary allocation to end girl marriage, the organisation has approached two local governments in Enugu state, Aninri and Enugu South for them to increase their budget line for interventions to end child marriage by keeping girls in schools.
Menkiti said WINET was working in conjunction with a global network, Girls Not Brides, to ensure that child marriage is brought to an end because of the negative effects it has on the girl child.
She identified the cause of early girl marriage to include poverty and culture, which she said could be checked through legislation such as the Enugu State Child Rights Law of 2016, pointing out that they would continue to impress on the local governments to end girl marriage through budgetary provisions.
“We are focusing on the governments at the local government level to use their budgets to support ending child marriage provisions to support girls’ retention in school,” she said.
