The Dawn of Legal Acculturation in Nigeria—A Significant Development in Law and National Integration: Olowu V. Olowu

Abstract

The recent decision of the Supreme Court inAdeniyi Olowu &Ors. v.Olabowale Olowu & Anorto the effect that a person belonging originally to one ethnic group can by a process involving time, association, marriage, personal wishes and manner of life, become assimilated into and thereby legally acquire the status of another ethnic group, is of great significance. For it breaks new ground, gives legal backing to the promotion of social and national integration and establishes very clearly for the benefit of legal philosophers and theoreticians, that courts in fact make law.Previously, it was believed that no Nigerian could legally change his ethnic group. The prevailing attitude was “once an Ibo, always an Ibo ”, irrespective of the fact that the family of the propositus had settled amongst the Yorubas of Oyo town seven generations previously. The settler family would retain links with its “motherland” no matter how tenuous. The dead of the family would still be conveyed “home” for burial. Even if the settler family wanted to join the ethnic group of the host community, the host community would not allow them to forget that they were strangers. Thus in spite of inter-marriages and other social interaction between the settler family and the host community, the distinction and original identity of the settler family would be retained.What applies to individual settler families also applies with more force to settler communities. They retain their original cultural and ethnic identity, generations after settling in the midst of another ethnic group.