The Causes of Early Marriage in the Different States of the Niger-Delta Region

Abstract

The children's rights throughout the globe are regarded very important. But forces and early weddings have become some of the ways children's rights are abused. This paper aimed to shed more light on why girl child are victims of forced and early marriages and the impacts and implications of such marriages on the child and society. The analyzes used the basis for Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Through hermeneutical, descriptive and analytical techniques, data collected from both main and secondary sources were evaluated. The results of this article are the damaging development of early and compelled marriages, Psychological and physical implications for the child; have adverse impacts on culture and the nation as a whole; that scriptural claims in protection are merely manipulative thoughts to cover up moral failures; and that whatever reason is provided for child marriage, the catastrophic impacts on the victims outweigh them and render child marriage unquestionably a social evil. The article concludes that early and forced marriages exist in Nigeria and need to be curbed, and subsequently proposes approaches to better enforce such legislation in order to efficiently curb forced and early marriages in Nigeria.