The National Council of Women’s Societies (NCWS), Nigeria, has called for stricter enforcement of the minimum marriage age of 18 and constitutional reform to strengthen protection against child marriage.
The National President, Princess Edna Azura, made the call in a statement issued on Sunday to mark the 2026 International Day of the Girl Child, themed “End Child Marriage and Invest in Girls’ Rights.”
Azura said child marriage was not a private family matter but a national concern that deprived girls of education, endangered their health and undermined their future opportunities.
She urged governments at all levels to implement funded, measurable interventions to end the practice, including enforcing existing child protection laws and ensuring that girls completed secondary education.
The NCWS president also called on the National Assembly to remove Section 29(4)(b) of the Constitution, which deems a married woman to be of full age for the purposes of that section.
She said the provision needed to be addressed to prevent conflicting legal interpretations from weakening efforts to protect children from early marriage.
Azura urged governments to strengthen birth and marriage registration, expand financial support for vulnerable families, and provide safe shelters, helplines and free legal assistance for girls at risk.
“A girl’s childhood is not ours to give away,” she said.
She appealed to parents, traditional rulers and religious leaders to support girls’ education and discourage child marriage, stressing that poverty and concerns about girls’ safety should not deprive them of the opportunity to grow.
“We do not point fingers at any family, any region or any faith.
“We ask only that every Nigerian and every arm of government keep the promise our laws already make: that a child will be allowed to be a child,” she said.
Azura said the NCWS would engage communities through its state chapters and affiliated organisations, identify girls at risk, and link them to education, healthcare and protection services.
She added that the council would work with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and state governments to monitor the implementation of the Costed National Action Plan to End Child Marriage.
The president said more than 24 million Nigerian women and girls alive today had been married before the age of 18.
She also cited data indicating that 33.4 per cent of Nigerian women aged 20 to 24 were married before turning 18, with the prevalence approaching 50 per cent in the North-East and North-West.
The council identified poverty and limited access to education as major factors driving child marriage and called for dedicated government funding and annual reports to track progress towards ending the practice by 2030.
The International Day of the Girl Child is observed annually on Oct. 11 to promote girls’ rights and highlight challenges affecting their development.
