Judicial And Scholarship Dilemma In Statutory and Customary Law Divorce In Nigeria

Abstract

The current practice on marriage in Nigerian is that most who marry under the customary law go further to marry under the Act, and vice versa. This paper argues that legal challenges are bound to arise if the parties seek dissolution of the marriages because the different regimes of marriage laws in Nigeria provide for different ways of terminating the two systems of marriage. It makes the argument that there is no conversion of customary marriage (polygamous de jure) to statutory marriage (monogamous de jure) by the process requiring dissolution of only the latter as invariably dissolving the former. It questions the legality of the current practice is whereby the parties dissolve only the statutory marriage and assume it to invariably dissolve the customary marriage. It contends that the legal basis for the regulation of marriage and divorce in Nigeria are the province of different laws, making it impossible for the termination of a preceding statutory marriage to end a previous customary law marriage by the same parties.