By M.O.Idam, Esq.
A female child below the age of 18 is an underage girl. See section 277 of the Child’s Rights Act 2003(CRA).
No marriage may validly be contracted between a girl child below the age of 18 and any person. Her consent or that of her parent(s) is immaterial. Such a marriage is not only invalid, it is criminal too.
Section 21 of the CRA states:
“No person under the age of eighteen years is capable of contracting a valid marriage, and accordingly, a marriage so contracted is null and void and of no effect whatsoever.”
The law further provides that any person who marries such an underage girl or has sexual relations with her is liable to seven (7) years imprisonment on conviction or to a fine or both.
What is rather intriguing is that the CRA is a federal law (an Act), which is only applicable in the Federal Capital Territory and may be applied to states only when adopted or domesticated as the state’s law.
Whereas all the states in Southern Nigeria have domesticated the Child’s Rights Act, about eleven (11) states in the Northern region are yet to enact the legislation within their jurisdictions. These states are :
- Adamawa
- Bauchi
- Gombe
- Katsina
- Kano
- Sokoto
- Kebbi
- Zamfara
- Yobe
- Jigawa
- Brono
Therefore, child marriage in those states is not regulated by the CRA; it is a function of their respective states’ laws regarding marriage.
Where the age of a child is in issue, the parents stand a better chance to confirm the exact age the child was born. However, where the parents’ account is inconsistent, the Supreme Court in Eze v. State (1985) 3 NWLR (Pt. 13) 429 held that the birth certificate, medical record(dental or bone examination), school record, or even physical examination of the child will be resorted to in deciding the age of the child. See also Okon v. The State (1988) 1 NWLR (Pt. 69) 172.
Lesson: the court will not only rely on the evidence of the girl child or that of her parents, especially when they are conflicting, to form an opinion about her age. It will consider extraneous circumstances like physical appearance to form an opinion. See Akinbuwa v. State (1998) 7 NWLR (Pt. 559) 537.
M.O.Idam
