Every girl forced into marriage before finishing school is evidence that Nigeria is failing to protect childhood where it matters most.

Development Diaries reports that fresh data released by UNICEF show that two in five Nigerian women aged 20 to 24 were married before turning 18.

While the 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey puts the national average at about one in three, the figure rises to almost one in every two girls across the northeast and northwest, with rural communities carrying the heaviest burden.

The figures show that despite years of laws and policy commitments, Nigeria is still failing to keep girls in school, even though education remains the country’s strongest defence against child marriage.

UNICEF Nigeria found that the median age at first marriage rises from 16.6 years for girls with no education to 21.7 years for those who complete secondary school.

However, an estimated 7.6 million girls remain out of school, about half of them in northern Nigeria, while roughly 10.2 million Nigerian children are currently out of school nationwide.

Even for many who attend school, the quality of learning remains poor, with only 27 percent of children aged seven to 14 demonstrating basic reading skills, contributing to Nigeria having more than 23 million child brides, the highest number in Africa.

The failure sits squarely within child protection and basic education. The country has spent years debating 12 years of free, compulsory education and ending the disarticulation policy, but millions of girls still face a choice between classrooms that do not inspire confidence and marriages they never chose.

Where education should delay marriage, weak schools, poor funding and weak enforcement often push families in the opposite direction.

Responsibility rests with the Federal Ministry of Education, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the Government of Gombe State, which is documented as the only state yet to domesticate the Child Rights Act, and the states that have adopted the law but continue to enforce it inconsistently.

The Child Rights Act of 2003 fixes 18 as the minimum age for marriage, while the Universal Basic Education Act guarantees free and compulsory basic education.

Nigeria is also bound by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Maputo Protocol. Every girl forced into marriage before adulthood represents a failure to uphold each of those commitments.

The burden falls most heavily on girls who already face the greatest disadvantages. Rural communities across northern Nigeria continue to record the highest rates of child marriage, while poverty leaves many families choosing between survival today and education tomorrow.

UNICEF estimates that 81 percent of children living in the country’s poorest households experience multidimensional poverty, and girls with disabilities face even greater barriers to remaining in school. Development partners have equally shown that if every girl in northern Nigeria completed secondary school, child marriage could fall by almost two-thirds while adolescent pregnancy would decline sharply.

That makes the debate less about culture than about opportunity. Communities are far more likely to keep girls in school when schools are accessible, affordable and capable of delivering the future they promise.

Parents’ associations and community groups should monitor school enrolment and dropout rates within their communities and report persistent cases to their State Universal Basic Education Boards. Citizens should also demand that the remaining northern states domesticate the Child Rights Act without further delay.

The Government of Gombe State should domesticate the Child Rights Act without further delay, while every state government should publish a fully costed plan showing how it will enforce the law and deliver twelve years of free and compulsory education for every child.

Every girl sitting in a classroom instead of preparing for an unwanted marriage is proof that laws work only when governments choose to enforce them.