THE ABJECT OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY

THE ABJECT OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY

The truth is that the average Nigerian woman has her first child before the age of twenty. The rate at which teenage pregnancy thrives especially at the grassroots’ level states that Nigeria is still a third world country and the term of ‘developing country’ doesn’t apply to her yet. These ladies or should I say girls that get pregnant before they can take care of themselves are either dropouts from secondary schools or primary schools. Some have never even seen the four walls of a school. Others just got the primary education alone. It only leaves me to wonder what the Millennium Development Goals aka Vision 2020 has achieved in Nigeria since one of the goals is to promote gender equality and empower women.                      
The issue is I’m afraid that some parents still don’t see the reason why a girl-child should be sent to school and get educated since they still believe the place of the woman is in the kitchen. The girl-child who in turn gets so much time on her path ends up doing the most feared. As the saying goes, “The idle hand is the devil’s workshop”. The girl-child who doesn’t know the left from the right also dates the person like herself an uneducated man who is suffering from poverty. The man in her life is most probably a lowlife who is a cabby or butcher. There is little or no hope for the child that comes out from the unfortunate union since the mother and father just got unlucky with the pleasures of sex.

These children in turn suffer death due to low education on or from the mother’s side, low coverage of immunization, primary health care system in some areas of the country are weak, high poverty rate and inequality and poor household practices. Maternal mortality also is a discouraging challenge to Nigeria. These girls have their vaginas to little to accommodate the size of a baby’s head. They also have too little revenue to support the procedure of Caesarian Sections. Some even lose their lives and the child due to complications during the birth of the child. The children that do survive all these hurdles are not better off. They end up reliving their parent’s life in the path of education. They don’t go to school to get educated rather they sell oranges and sachet water to feed themselves and their aged parents. The parents aged not due to age but due to their hustle and bustle to make their living comfortable enough. These children end up not being satisfied with their fundamental human rights. They also suffer child abuse which is one of the most unacceptable things to do to a child.

In conclusion, the abject of teenage pregnancy is not too far to see today in our everyday lives especially at the grassroots level.