Types of Marriage in Nigeria

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Marriage is a union of a man and a woman to become husband and wife. For a marriage to be statutory, the marriage must be lawful, it must be with the consent of both parents and the parties involved, prohibited degree of consanguinity and affinity. Different types of marriage exist in the Nigeria today.
Below are types of marriage that exist in Nigeria

1. Customary marriage:
This marriage is done based on customary law. In Nigeria the payment of the bride price is an essential ingredient of a valid customary law marriage. What is bride price? ” any gift or payment, in money, natural produce, brass rods, cowries or in any other kind of property whatsoever, to a parent or guardian of a female person on account of a marriage of that person which is intended or has taken place.”
In most Nigerian communities and tribes the bride price is paid to the father and is often tagged as completion of engagement.
The payment of bride price is often followed by bride price in most Nigerian community.

2. Traditional Marriage:
Traditional marriage is a marriage in which the groom brings all that have been listed in the bridal list to officially tie the knot with the bride. The groom comes with members of his family, kindred, friends and well wishers. The brides kindred performs the traditional rites and official gives the bridegroom their blessing.

Before the traditional marriage comes the introduction. The essence of the Introduction is for both families to get aquinted to each other, the bride price is discussed and the bride list issued, a times the wedding dates are discussed in the introduction.

3. Religious wedding
It could be Christian religious marriage for Christians and Islamic marriage for Muslims.its sometimes referred to as Christian marriage especially in the Christian context. Marriage is a divine union thus it will be a good idea to back it up in the spiritual realm.

The white wedding is supposed to be a combination of the religious marriage ceremony and the wedding reception party. But some are now having white wedding without the religious ceremony but instead have the court wedding and after have a reception party.

For a religious marriage to be legal it must be licensed and recognized by the state. Usually churches that conduct weddings need to get approval from the state. This way, a person having a religious wedding doesn’t have to go to the court to register and collect a marriage certificate; this is made available to them through the church.

4. Civil wedding
This is also known as court marriage. In this context the couple register the marriage is registered under the marriage act of Nigeria with a marriage certificate issued. This marriage is compulsory as it ensures the security of the woman and the children.

Statutory marriage is compulsory in Nigeria and its done with little or no income and it saves time.

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