The Anambra State Commissioner for Health, Dr Afam Obidike says, governor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration is poised to ending child marriage in the state.
Dr. Obidike disclosed this during a press briefing to kick off an awareness and sensitization programme against early marriage in Anambra East and West Local Government Areas, held in Awka.
Child marriage is any formal or informal union carried out between a child below the age of eighteen and an adult or another child, before the girl is physically, physiologically and psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage and childbearing.
According to the Commissioner, Governor Soludo’s administration is working tirelessly to end gender inequality, which is one of the reasons for child marriage, as the Governor has declared that in Anambra, marriage can wait but education cannot wait for a girl child.
Dr. Obidike further listed some causes of child marriage to include the Fear of social stigma due to child’s pregnancy, Poverty, lack of educational opportunities, among others and made it clear that the current administration in the state would not leave any stone unturned in checkmating the ugly situation.
The Anambra state Director of Public Health and Disease Control, Dr. Afam Anaeme said that the ministry wants to ensure that what is happening in the northern part of the Country, over child marriage did not rear its ugly head in Anambra state, hence the imperativeness of the sensitization in the state.
For the State Coordinator of Reproductive Health, Dr. Uju Okoye, statistics have shown that Anambra East and West have the highest prevalence rate of child marriage in the state, which is why they will kick off the sensitization in the council areas.
There has been report of cases of child marriage prevalence in Awka North, Anambra West, Anambra East, Ogbaru, Ayamelum, Oyi as well as Orumba North and South Local Government Areas.
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