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14-year old Special* is from North Central Nigeria

Discrimination against girls is a major problem in Nigeria. Some girls do not go to school because their fathers think they end up in the kitchen anyway so it’s a waste of time. Some boys struggle with their sisters going to school. They would laugh and say ‘sit down there your education ends in the kitchen.’ 

Early marriage is also a big problem. When a girl is married, her life changes. She wouldn’t go to school anymore and her husband will need her to have a child, stay at home and do chores.

A girl should be married when she is at least 24 or 25 years old, that's when she is mature enough and able to carry a child in her womb.

If someone said to me that I’m not allowed to go to school I wouldn’t agree because I know the value of education. I want to bring solutions to the world. I want to have a future.

It’s important to listen to girls because we are the future and without us there will be no growth or development. We feel it is our right to express our views. We want people to listen and help us actualise our dreams.

Read Special's poem below.

Goats

Carried and sat upon

Springs out in a friendly spring

Her minds rotating in the deep

Oh! What a life

Of hiding in a hive

Afraid to be killed like a goat

 

Scared of being carried away

In the slippery mirrey clay

Down to where I would be slayed

Oh. What a life

Of staying in the dark

Leaning against the wall with my back

 

Waiting and struggling to eat

But yet caught and beaten

Then tied up and down a seat

Dragged and put down by force

As If I was a curse

Shaking to breathe and be freed

Oh what a life

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Read more poems written by girls from Nigeria.