A new analysis released by UNICEF today to mark the 2021 International Women’s Day has revealed that the gains of 25 million child marriages averted in the last decade is under serious threat as
ten million additional child marriages may occur before the end of the decade.

According the analysis, “COVID-19: A threat to progress against child marriage – released on International Women’s Day – warns that school closures, economic stress, service disruptions, pregnancy, and parental deaths due to the pandemic are putting the most vulnerable girls at increased risk of child marriage.

 
“Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, 100 million girls were at risk of child marriage in the next decade, despite significant reductions in several countries in recent years. In the last ten years, the proportion of young women globally who were married as children had decreased by 15 per cent, from nearly 1 in 4 to 1 in 5, the equivalent of some 25 million marriages averted, a gain that is now under threat.”

However, the UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said, “COVID-19 has made an already difficult situation for millions of girls even worse. Shuttered schools, isolation from friends and support networks, and rising poverty have added fuel to a fire the world was already struggling to put out. But we can and we must extinguish child marriage”

“International Women’s Day is a key moment to remind ourselves of what these girls have to lose if we do not act urgently – their education, their health, and their futures.”  

Girls who marry in childhood face immediate and lifelong consequences. They are more likely to experience domestic violence and less likely to remain in school. Child marriage increases the risk of early and unplanned pregnancy, in turn increasing the risk of maternal complications and mortality. The practice can also isolate girls from family and friends and exclude them from participating in their communities, taking a heavy toll on their mental health and well-being.

COVID-19 is profoundly affecting the lives of girls. Pandemic-related travel restrictions and physical distancing make it difficult for girls to access the health care, social services and community support that protect them from child marriage, unwanted pregnancy and gender-based violence. As schools remain closed, girls are more likely to drop out of education and not return. Job losses and increased economic insecurity may also force families to marry their daughters to ease financial burdens.

Worldwide, an estimated 650 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood, with about half of those occurring in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India and Nigeria. To off-set the impacts of COVID-19 and end the practice by 2030 – the target set out in the Sustainable Development Goals – progress must be significantly accelerated.

“One year into the pandemic, immediate action is needed to mitigate the toll on girls and their families,” added Fore. “By reopening schools, implementing effective laws and policies, ensuring access to health and social services – including sexual and reproductive health services – and providing comprehensive social protection measures for families, we can significantly reduce a girl’s risk of having her childhood stolen through child marriage.”

The war against the use of narcotics and other dangerous drugs amongst the youths by the Federal Government may be difficult to win until Nigerian mothers rediscover their pivotal role in nation-building starting with maintaining a God-fearing home.

Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye gave this assertion in her message to the Nigerian mothers to commemorate the 2021 International Women Day.

She opined that mothers should endeavour to be vigilant by paying more than passing attention to their children wellbeing and the kind of friends they keep both in and out of school, stressing that many children from God-fearing homes join bad gangs through the bad company they keep in school.

Adeyeye, in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja by NAFDAC Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola on Sunday noted that the role of mothers in the home cannot be over-emphasized. She said the Nigerian mother has always been closest to the children since the father is more often than not out there working tirelessly to provide for the needs of the family.

She added that many of the Nigerian youths from good homes become addicted to narcotics and other dangerous drugs due to the care-free attitude of their parents, particularly, the mothers.

The NAFDAC boss however, noted that the Narcotics and other allied drugs directorate of the Agency has been strengthened and empowered to enforce extant laws against the use of narcotics and other dangerous drugs by the youths of this country.

She further stated with dismay the preponderance of secret cults in the nation’s tertiary institutions, while stressing that many of our undergraduates are introduced to dangerous drugs and bad behaviours as members of the cult groups.

She however, blamed the uncontrolled influx of narcotics and other dangerous drugs which negatively impacted on the society in terms of public health and safety, security, and terrorism on the absence of NAFDAC at the nation’s ports from 2011 by the order of the then minister of finance.

She added that, ‘’The challenge of internal security within the country was traced to uncontrolled influx and use of psychotropic medicines such as tramadol and chemicals that could be diverted for terrorist activities’’.

While adding that NAFDAC’s absence at the ports was highlighted as one of the factors and as such there was a dire need to return the agency back to the ports in 2018 as part of the efforts at strengthening regulation and control at the Ports shortly after she resumed office as DG NAFDAC.

Adeyeye urged mothers to lay less emphasis on acquisition of worldly things at the expense of the future of their children. According to her, many mothers would leave home as early as 5 am and would not return home until 9pm under the guise of looking for money, exposing their children to the whims and caprices of youths of different shades and colours in the neighbourhood.

She however, commended the Nigerian women for being resilient, industrious, and caring. Prof Adeyeye noted that the Nigerian woman has contributed immensely to the development and growth of the nation’s economy.