Marriage In Nigeria Research Articles

Girls not brides : ending child marriage in Nigeria

Girls not brides : ending child marriage in Nigeria

Legalities of child marriage in Nigeria: Implications on health and strategies of prevention

Legalities of child marriage in Nigeria: Implications on health and strategies of prevention

Marriage in Nigeria Across Ages: Problems and Prospects

The Family the building block of societies. Thus, marriage is an important element of the family and therefore necessary for societal existence. This paper aims at exploring the religio-legal aspects of the marriage institution in Nigeria from the perspective of mainly Christianity, Islam & Customary law marriages. The paper underscores that Marriage as a legal contract is interwoven with complexities in Nigeria due to its tripartite legal system. The Paper therefore explores intricate aspects of marriages in Nigeria. It attempts to do this by providing a comprehensive overview of the religio-legal and social character of marriage in Nigeria. Furthermore, the paper also provides a narrative of the history of marriage laws in Nigeria.

Shariah and Human Rights Perspectives on Interfaith Marriage: Challenges Impeding Its Practice in Nigeria

Within the context of Nigeria, this paper investigates those principles of Shariah that regulate marriage, particularly interfaith union. This is with the goal of explicating certain limitations placed by Islam on the ability of Muslim women to marry non-Muslims. In particular, it is considered whether these limitations prejudice the right to freedom of religion guaranteed in the Nigerian Constitution. Ultimately, the paper establishes that marriage in Nigeria is usually solemnised in a manner reflective of the country’s diversity. This investigation is motivated by the recent controversy surrounding the right of Nigerian Muslim women to enter into interfaith relationships. The paper uses a library-based, doctrinal research method to argue that there are several challenges associated with interfaith marriage in Nigeria, all resulting from the multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic makeup of the country. It is concluded that, though interfaith marriages exist in Nigeria, parties entering into such marriages must agree on some salient issues in order to sustain conjugal bliss.

Shariah and Human Rights Perspectives on Interfaith Marriage : Challenges Impeding Its Practice in Nigeria

Within the context of Nigeria, this paper investigates those principles of Shariah that regulate marriage, particularly interfaith union. This is with the goal of explicating certain limitations placed by Islam on the ability of Muslim women to marry non-Muslims. In particular, it is considered whether these limitations prejudice the right to freedom of religion guaranteed in the Nigerian Constitution. Ultimately, the paper establishes that marriage in Nigeria is usually solemnised in a manner reflective of the country’s diversity. This investigation is motivated by the recent controversy surrounding the right of Nigerian Muslim women to enter into interfaith relationships. The paper uses a library-based, doctrinal research method to argue that there are several challenges associated with interfaith marriage in Nigeria, all resulting from the multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic makeup of the country. It is concluded that, though interfaith marriages exist in Nigeria, parties entering into such marriages must agree on some salient issues in order to sustain conjugal bliss.

Survival Analysis and Determinants of Timing of First Birth after Marriage in Nigeria

This study assessed the dynamics of First Birth Interval (FBI) after marriage, its determinants as well as relationship between fertility and FBI among women of reproductive age in Nigeria. We right-censored FBI of women aged 15-49 years using 2013 Nigeria DHS data, used Kaplan Meier survival function to monitor the timings and Cox Proportional Hazard (CPH) and Generalized Gamma (GG) regression to model factors affecting FBI. The median FBI in Nigeria was 1.75 years and decreased with delayed age at marriage. Women with higher education have shorter FBI (TR=0.86(95% CI: 0.85-0.88)). Urban women were more likely to have earlier FBI (HR=1.28 95% CI: 1.24-1.32)). Fertility was significantly associated with FBI. The longer the FBI the lower the fertility level and vice versa except for women aged 15-19 years. Age at marriage, educational attainment, wealth status and residence were the main determinants of timing of first birth after marriage in Nigeria.

A Socio-Legal Inquiry into the Perception of Divorce among Married Couples in Irhirhi Community, Southern Nigeria

The rate at which people seek for the dissolution of their marriages in Nigeria is becoming quite alarming. Why would a couple who celebrated their union with so much fanfare, pomp and pageantry suddenly find themselves incompatible? The study was carried out in Irhirhi Community, Southern Nigeria using a triangulation of the qualitative and quantitative methods. A total of four hundred and fifty respondents and thirty-five interviewees were sampled. The study used the functionalist perspective to explain the perception of married couples on the issue of divorce. The findings of this study revealed that there were several causes of divorce amongst which are childlessness, adultery, financial difficulties and incompatibility of the couples. It was also discovered that divorce does not occur at the snap of the fingers but is an accumulation of happenings which were left unattended to. Interestingly, the study found that the married couples in Irhirhi Community, Southern Nigeria are basically not aware of the existence of laws on divorce. Based on these findings, the study recommended that the Religious, Non-Governmental Agencies, the family and the mass media should wake up to their responsibilities by inculcating the right family values in their members. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n4p454

Women's Rights and the Incidence of Marriage in Nigeria

The family is a social group. The family, is in fact, a community in itself, a small relatively permanent group of people, related to each other in the most intimate way, bound together by the most personal aspects of life; who experience amongst themselves the whole range of human emotions; who have to strive continually to resolve those claims and counter-claims which stem from mutual but often conflicting needs; who experience continual responsibilities and obligations toward each other; who experience a sense of ‘belonging’ to each other in the most intimately felt sense of that word. The members of a family, most times, share the same name, the same collective reputation, the same home, the same intricate, peculiar tradition of their own making and the same neighborhood.

Forced And Early Marriages: Moral Failures Vs Religious Nuances

The rights of the child all over the world are considered to be very important. But forces and early marriages have become some of the ways the rights of children are being abused. This paper aimed at shedding more light on why children are victims of forced and early marriages and the effects and consequences of such marriages on the child and the society. The analyses employed Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework. Data gathered both from the primary and secondary sources were analyzed through the hermeneutical, descriptive and analytical methods. The findings of this paper are that early and forced marriages have harmful developmental, psychological and physical consequences on the child; have negative effects on the society and the Nation at large; that scriptural assertions, in defense, are mere manipulative ideas to cover up moral failures; and that whatever reason is given for child marriage, the disastrous effects on the victims outweigh them and undoubtedly make child marriage a social evil. The paper concludes that early and forced marriages do exist in Nigeria and needs to be curbed and thereafter suggests strategies that will make for a better implementation of such laws to effectively curb forced and early marriages in Nigeria.

Inter-Ethnic Marriages, 'Indigeneship,' Women's Rights and National Integration in Nigeria Since 1979

This paper investigates gender inequalities relating to indigene-ship in Nigeria. The growing population of mixed ethnic marriages in Nigeria has created challenges relating to indigene-ship especially with regards to women who have married into ethnic groups other than theirs. The growing population of women who are not living in their states of origin due to inter-ethnic marriages encounter discrimination that is both gender and ethnic bound. These forms of discriminations are mostly enshrined in customary laws which need to change in order to initiate a bottom up approach to dismantling the system. The study uses the federal character principle as a frame of reference for analysing the extent of discrimination against women beginning from the federal level to the local council levels. It argues that the principle should be interpreted as an instrument of affirmative action for women and a provision should be made for redefining the indigene-ship of women in inter-ethnic marriages. From federal statutory discrimination, the paper narrows its discourse to how this form of discrimination impacts on rural women especially those in inter-ethnic marriages. Land is central to indigene-ship, however most communal societies in Nigeria uphold customary laws that do not encourage land ownership by women in inter-ethnic marriages and women in general. This will invariably affect both ethnic and economic integration of women who are the bulwark of food security. While utilising the historical methodology, the study also incorporates surveys conducted by other researchers. A critical review of the federal character principle and gender biased customary laws is suggested. This recommendation is largely based on findings that point to the fact that although a good amount of advocacy regarding the gender component of the federal constitution has been on for some time, no concrete actions have been advanced by government to solve the problem.

Impact of globalisation on domestic family law: multi-tiered marriage in Nigeria as a case study

ABSTRACTThe concept of globalisation is commonly discussed as an issue in international law. However, little attention is paid to its influence in domestic family law. As a result of the growing trend of globalisation, legal and cultural norms of the host culture and the foreign culture are fused, thereby, leading to cultural homogenisation or cultural hybridisation, depending on the level of accommodation of the foreign norm by the host norm. One of the areas where hybridisation or homogenisation of cultural and legal norms manifests, especially in African countries including Nigeria, is in the marriage system, particularly in the conclusion of marriage contracts. In Nigeria, one of the impacts of cultural hybridisation is the evolvement of multi-tiered marriage, where a couple combines marriages under the statute law, customary law and religious law, especially Islamic law. This paper is an exploratory study of how globalisation impacts on how and why multi-tiered marriage is contracted in contemporary Nigeria. The paper also briefly discusses how the combination of marriages as a response to globalisation affects the operation of family law rules in Nigeria as well as the rights of the parties involved, especially the women.

Formality of Statutory Marriage in Nigeria: Need for a Policy-Driven Construction of the Marriage Act

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LEGALITY OF CHILD MARRIAGE IN NIGERIA AND INHIBITIONS AGAINST REALISATION OF EDUCATION RIGHTS

Early marriage forces girls into adulthood before they are emotionally and physically matured, leading to a range of harmful effects on their health, education, economic and social development. For many countries, eighteen is the legal age of marriage. Nigeria has undergone fierce constitutional battles to establish a minimum age for marriage. This paper examines the controversies surrounding the legality of child marriages conducted in Nigeria. The paper observed the high prevalence of child marriage among the Hausa-Fulani communities in northwest Nigeria in spite of international and domestic legal instruments outlawing child marriage. The paper observed that, child marriage in those communities is predicated on Islamic marital jurisprudence. The paper found loopholes in the law as the major rift lines in the conflict of laws of marriage in Nigeria. The paper suggests a harmonisation of laws and improved education for girls to strengthen the prioritisation of policy against child marriage.

Legality of Child Marriage in Nigeria and Inhibitions Against Realisation of Education Rights

Early marriage forces girls into adulthood before they are emotionally and physically matured, leading to a range of harmful effects on their health, education, economic and social development. For many countries, eighteen is the legal age of marriage. Nigeria has undergone fierce constitutional battles to establish a minimum age for marriage. This paper examines the controversies surrounding the legality of child marriages conducted in Nigeria. The paper observed the high prevalence of child marriage among the Hausa-Fulani communities in northwest Nigeria in spite of international and domestic legal instruments outlawing child marriage. The paper observed that, child marriage in those communities is predicated on Islamic marital jurisprudence. The paper found loopholes in the law as the major rift lines in the conflict of laws of marriage in Nigeria. The paper suggests a harmonisation of laws and improved education for girls to strengthen the prioritisation of policy against child marriage.

Human Identity: Child Rights and the Legal Framework for Marriage in Nigeria

Colonial English heritage and its interaction with local customs in West Africa have been the subject of much debate. Its impact runs through the fabric of the life of the nation, from religion to sociological and sociolegal frameworks. The tension engaged is most profound within the framework of marriages and its effect on children's rights. Illegitimacy, for instance, as understood in Common Law is a concept unknown to Nigerian customs. In Nigeria, customary law allows and envisages polygamy, and a man's adultery is perceived as “a heroic feat.” This is not so for a woman, translating to a tension on premarital and postdivorce relationships expressed in diverse ways. It is easily verifiable that in Nigeria, births out of marriage are attributable more to the nature of the marriage structure and patriarchy than to juvenile delinquency. For women, this single motherhood is often a question of self-preservation or survival. Although strengthening welfare systems and according equal rights to children seem to have been effective in catering to the welfare of children and reducing the number born out wedlock in some jurisdictions, this approach is likely to yield the opposite result in Nigeria. Recently, retention of the Common Law doctrine of illegitimacy was canvassed as “punishment for the misdeeds of parents,” which seems to indict misconduct in the question of birth out of wedlock in Nigeria. This article examines the validity of this claim in the light of Nigeria's sociolegal milieu vis-a-vis the right of a child to identity, origin, and self-actualization. It concludes that although discrimination may have short-term benefits for a privileged class, equality provides a society with an enduring platform for conversation, dialogue, cohesion, and realization of developmental aspirations. The article proffers recommendations on reform and policy direction that allow for growth of customary law in relation to family and child rights while engaging masculinity in a constructive manner.

Child marriage in Nigeria: (Il)legal and (un)constitutional?

The article refers to a recent article on child marriage in Nigeria, published in this Journal, as a broad context to examine two issues. The first is the statutory elaboration of the constitutional protection of children, and the second is the suggestion that religious marriages trump children's rights in Nigeria's constitutional jurisprudence. These issues are discussed together in the context of the belief that the absence of statutory protection of children is not fatal to their human rights protection, and that neither an Islamic nor any other religious marriage trumps the rights of children in Nigeria. The article recommends a negotiated consensus in determining the minimum age for child marriage, given Nigeria's plural and religious constituents.

Early Marriage: A Gender–Based Violence and A Violation of Women’s Human Rights in Nigeria

Child marriage customs occur all over the world, whereby children are given into marriage well before they attain puberty in most cases or even the age to get married as defined by several laws in Nigeria and other countries of the world. It is a common thing today to find a prevalence of such practices widespread in several parts of the world particularly in Africa, Asia, and South America. Often times, child marriages are frequently associated with marriages that are conceived and arranged by parents, whereby, only one marriage-partner usually the female is a child. This practice has prevailed despite the fact that many countries in Africa have a legal regime on the minimum age for marriage which is either pegged on 16 or 18 depending on the country. Some reasons adduced in favour of the practice like conflict, poverty, religion, and tradition escalates incidence of early marriages in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria, A significant number of early marriage is prevalent in most cultures in the country with most girls married off by age 15, and several others married off by the time they attain the age of 18. This practice is extremely prevalent in some communities in the Northwest region of Nigeria. However, in recent times it is noteworthy that the activities of human rights groups condemning child marriages and highlighting its attendant consequences have considerably brought about a remarkable decline of the practice in several parts of Nigeria.In this paper, we examined the high incidence of early marriage in Nigeria and argued that despite the availability of legal regime on early marriage as well as Nigeria’s international human rights obligations, much more work is needed to eliminate the detrimental cultural practice of child marriage of young girls in Nigeria and proffered a solution to its menace.

Spatial Pattern and Determinants of Age at Marriage in Nigeria Using a Geo-Additive Survival Model

Age at first marriage, after controlling for socio-economic and demographic variables, varies across regions and districts. A geo-additive hazard model allows for measuring spatial effects. The nonlinear and baseline effects are modeled by Bayesian penalized splines; spatial components are treated as correlated random effects following a Markov random field. Application is based on data from 1999, 2003, and 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys. Age at first marriage is positively associated with education and urbanization and depends on religion. It presents a north-south divide.

Child Marriage: The Danger within Part 1 Section 61 of the 1999 Constitution and its Barrier to Legally Protect Children Against Child Marriage in Nigeria

Although the Nigerian government has tried to stamp out child marriage with the enactment of the Child Rights Act 2003 (CRA), the practice of child marriage is still very prevalent among the Hausa-Fulani (predominant Muslim tribe) who occupy Northern Nigeria and where Sharia law is in force. While the CRA is a law with sharp teeth, it has no bite because each state in Nigeria has to enact the CRA under its own state laws before it is enforceable. What this means is that a social evil such as child marriage can be practised in a state which has yet to pass the CRA as a domestic law. While this article presents arguments outlining the reluctance of some of Nigeria's Northern states to enact the CRA, the author maintains that the right of the girl child in relation to marriage is not adequately protected. This inadequacy lies in Part 1 Section 61 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As a result, this article proposes three steps to legally ensure the protection of a girl child against child marriage: firstly, Part 1 Section 61 of the 1999 Constitution should be modified; secondly, there should a uniform age set for a child in all of Nigeria's legislation that deals with children; thirdly, while pressure should be put on all Nigerian states which are yet to domesticate the CRA, there is a need for a new act (Prohibition of Child Marriage Act) which, if enacted, should automatically apply to all states in Nigeria in order to legally protect the girl child.

Requirements of a Valid Islamic Marriage Vis-À-Vis Requirements of a Valid Customary Marriage in Nigeria

This paper will consider the legal requirements to validate a customary law marriage as applicable in Nigeria and compare with the legal requirements to validate an Islamic marriage.