The most popular forms of marriage in Nigeria

When a man and a woman decide to unite their lives by the law, they marry. Marriage is a legal union. It turns the two sweethearts into husband and wife. What forms of marriage are recognized in Nigeria? We will only be talking about marriage between a woman and a man because unions between two people of the same gender are prohibited in our country.

There are four types of marriage practiced in Nigeria. They are statutory, customary, religious, and traditional. Each form has its own features that distinguish the wedding procedure from other types of celebrations.

Civil or statutory marriage in Nigeria

This is the legal marriage described by the official Marriage Act (this document specifies all the requirements necessary for an official marriage celebration in Nigeria). It is only possible between a man and a woman and this union is monogamous. What does it mean? A statutory wedding is a voluntary marriage between two people who are in love with the exclusion of other people for the whole period while it officially lasts.

The Marriage Act outlines some important details about the marriage. Firstly, their is an age limit. Only men and women who are 21 years old or older can marry without their parents’ permission. Citizens who are under the specified age that chooses to marry without a written agreement of their guardians or parents could end up in prison for 2 years.

Other requirements and rules are also specified by the statutory marriage. Anyone who has been married to someone already cannot marry another person by statutory law unless they legally divorce their other spouse via the court system.

Sometimes exceptional circumstances are considered under the Marriage Act. However, all these situations can only be discussed with the Judge and approved by the Judge.

Any official church’s Minister can conduct the statutory wedding ceremony. It can take place in legit places of worship or in the Registry as long as the couple can provide the marriage certificate or license that authorizes their marriage.

Customary marriage in Nigeria

There are a lot of interesting wedding customs and traditions celebrated by different ethnic communities in Nigeria. Such celebrations are known as customary marriage. While each ethnic group can respect its specific customs, there are generally accepted traditions that are common for all the communities.

This type of wedding is a union of a woman and a man as well as their families. Customary wife becomes a real member of her husband’s family even though her husband isn’t recognized as her own family member in the same way. Still, there is an enduring relationship between the two families.

Customary wedding status is different from the statutory marriage which is officially monogamous. Unlike the latter, the customary law recognizes the polygamous marriage system. In other words, one customary husband can be married to more than one wife.

The marriages under customary law in Nigeria have no limit to how many wives one husband can marry. However, many couples choose to marry under both customary and statutory laws and this means their union can only be monogamous.

Usually, the future husband gives different kinds of gifts to his future wife’s family. It could be money, jewelry, property or something else. There is even the ‘bride price’ which refers to a kind of payment that a potential husband and his family has to give the woman’s family otherwise the customary marriage cannot hold.

There are also some traditions that have to be followed:

• witnesses
• drink sharing
• libation pouring
• handing the bride over to the groom and his family
• different solemnization activities

Mutual agreement between a couple and the parental consent are two must-have conditions for the customary wedding ceremony to be legit.

The customary marriage law doesn’t specify any age restrictions in Nigeria. This means that even a child could possibly be married under this law. And this was a big problem in the country until 2003. That year the Child’s Right Act was officially passed. This important document states that the only type of marriage allowed in Nigeria must be between people who are at least 18 years old.

Religious marriage

Religious wedding as one of the four forms of marriage in Nigeria can be divided into sub-forms depending on the type of religion. It can be Christian, Islamic marriage etc. Each type has its own tradition and rules that strictly depend on the religion and law.

To better describe the religious marriage in Nigeria, let’s get into details of the Islamic and Christian law marriage types.

Islamic wedding traditions

This religious form of the wedding has some similar features to customary tradition. Islamic marriage allows polygamous relationship where a husband can marry up to 4 wives. A wife doesn’t have such a right.

Sometimes the father of the family can follow his ijbar right. This is the wedding agreement which he concludes on behalf of his female children even without their permission. These rules are described under the Maliki law. The grown-up kid, however, still has the right to reject such a marriage contract.

The Islamic marriage requires parental consent as well as Muslim witnesses. Besides, the family of the bride gets the ‘bride price’ paid by her future husband’s family.

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Christian wedding customs

This ceremony is different from the Islamic wedding. The Christian marriage is monogamous. It follows some important features such as close family relationship, the processional, prayer etc.

The ceremony usually includes a lot of people, parents and grandparents of the couple, relatives and friends. The two major parts of the tradition are the processional and a prayer that is done publicly in front of all the guests. The Christian wedding is performed by the priest. The bride and groom vow to support each other always, share their own wedding promises and exchange rings. The final part is the blessing the happily married couple and the kiss between the couple.

Now the newly-wedded couple can celebrate their wedding with their guests outside of the church.

Traditional wedding

This form of marriage is a bit different from customary ceremony but it also has so many similarities. For example, the groom and bride have to wear their traditional attires. Their wedding ceremony follows all the traditions of the tribe, state or ethnic region of the couple.

There is always an Introduction Ceremony when the family of the groom visits the house of the bride and receives a long list of gifts called dowry. This list can include wedding clothing, jewelry, shoes, food, drinks etc. All these presents are to be brought by the groom's family to the engagement ceremony to demonstrate that the bride has great value to her man. It is interesting that all these gifts can be rejected by the women from the bride’s family. If this happens, the engagement can be postponed.

The traditional wedding ceremony usually includes a large number of people. The couple invites siblings, parents, and other loved ones, and the bride’s family decides where the marriage takes place.

The ceremony can last from a couple of hours to seven days. It all depends on the traditions followed by the two families that seek to unite their children in a happy love-based union. The celebration includes dancing, eating, and drinking. Besides, the traditional wedding is usually followed by the official church wedding.

Each traditional wedding is a big event in Nigeria. It is important to both families and that is why the ceremony is usually a grand celebration that involves a lot of guests.

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Source: Naija.ng