A former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Professor Joy Ezeilo (SAN), has called for urgent legal reforms to criminalise marriages involving extreme age gaps in Nigeria. She stated that such unions, even when the girl is legally above 18, are inherently exploitative.
Speaking to mark the International Day of the Girl Child, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria stated that marriages with age gaps of 20 to 25 years as unequal relationships. She made referenced to a recent case involving a former senator and an 18-year-old girl, warning that such extreme disparities compromise consent through economic pressure and social inequality.
According to a report by Sahara reporters, Ezeilo argued that girls in these marriages face high reproductive health risks, interrupted education, psychological harm, and lifelong economic dependence.
“Such unions are not partnerships; they are power-imbalanced relationships where consent is compromised by age, vulnerability, economic pressure, and social inequality.”
Ezeilo recalled her experience in Egypt, stating that the North African country adopted legal measures under former President Hosni Mubarak to curb extreme age disparities in marriages. She urged the Federal Government to adopt similar protections to unmask sexual exploitation concealed as marriage.
The legal luminary proposed legislative actions against such marriages as potential trafficking especially when financial inducement, coercion, or manipulation is involved. She added that the proposed reform is not to police relationships, but to protect vulnerable children from adults who use wealth and influence to secure sexual access.
Ezeilo also stated that education must precede marriage to end exploitative practices, stressing that girls deserve safe schools, quality education, protection from violence, opportunities to thrive, and freedom from harmful practices that limit their futures.
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