Tiv traditional council sets up panel to slash bride price, burial costs
The Tiv traditional council has set up a 15-man committee to look into the high cost of bride price and high cost of burials with the aim of reducing them.
According to NAN, James Ayatse, chairman of committee, said the high bride price was hindering bachelors and spinsters from getting married.
He said in some cases, young men resorted to acquiring resources through unacceptable means to meet up with the challenge.
Ayatse said the committee would also evolve ways of reducing the cost incurred during burials.
He lamented that burials have now been turned to ceremonies which were totally alien to Tiv culture.
The committee chairman spoke of the need of addressing the problem as the trends of expensive marriages and burials have inflicted poverty on families.
He called on relevant religious bodies and stakeholders to help in eradicating such borrowed cultures, values and traditions that are not “beneficial to the growth and development of Tiv land”.
He said the committee would suggest measures that would check the indiscriminate sales of ancestral land by some family members as such acts were responsible for incessant communal clashes in the area of recent.
Marriage is made simple by God for mutual coexistence and understanding of agreed matured/responsible men and women. Its a choice that we make for posterity of generation sustenance. Its not meant for exploitation of those are not financially capable but has what it takes to keep a home.
No body celebrate the lose of valuable assets, hence, loosing someone we love should not be an avenue of party and glamour if we really feel the pains of loosing a loved ones. Its time for us to have a rethink
This is a great move by Tiv people,worth emulating. Akwa Ibom Elders Traditional council should do the needful. Greed is the cause of extravagant and extortic bride price,hence leaving the vulnerable matured youths to engage in illegimate marriage.