Traditional and Religious Leaders Knowledge of Medical and Health Consequences of Early Marriage in Sokoto State Nigeria

Traditional and religious leaders play a key role in addressing many vital social problems including girl child marriage. A girl child marriage is a marriage conducted before the age of 18. This study identifies traditional and religious leader’s knowledge of medical and health consequences of early marriage in Sokoto state, Nigeria. The study is purely qualitative and employed In Depth Interview (IDI) to interrogate traditional and religious leader’s knowledge on medical and health implication of girl child marriage. Interviews were conducted with a total of 48 respondents made up of 18 religious leaders and 30 traditional leaders. The study found out that early marriage has both medical and health consequences to girl child. The study recommend that there is a need to develop methods to protect girls at risk of child marriage and to address the concerns of girls and women who are already married by ensuring the fulfillment of their right to a full education and providing that with life skills based training to ensure that they can earn a livelihood.