A women’s rights advocacy group, Womanifesto, has urged President Bola Tinubu’s government to protect the rights of women and children, following reports of about 100 orphaned children being coerced into marriages in Niger State. The group, consisting of over 500 organizations led by activists and professionals, highlighted these unlawful actions in a letter to news outlets. They expressed concerns over the high rates of child marriage in Nigeria, citing data from ‘Girls Not Brides’ and reports from Save the Children International and UNICEF, which reveal significant numbers of girls married off before 18 and deprived of basic education. Womanifesto criticized Niger State House of Assembly Speaker Abdulmalik Sarkin-Daji for politicizing the vulnerability of orphaned girls and widows, emphasizing that forced marriages, under the guise of empowerment, religion, or culture, are morally, culturally, and religiously unacceptable.
