TheCable

BY JERRY OBANYERO

When it comes to matrimonial matters and causes, Nigeria practices what I would like to colloquially refer to as a “dual system”. This system recognises two marriages — Islamic/customary marriage and statutory marriage.

The Islamic/customary marriage allows for polygamy. Under Islamic law, you can marry more than one wife. A man can marry up to four wives. The condition is that it should be practised by men who can manage it successfully and treat their wives equally (see, Surah 4:129). Similarly, men who choose to marry under the customary law can marry several wives. Unlike Islamic law, there is no limit to the number of wives you can marry in the customary law.

On the other hand, statutory marriage, or what is referred to as “marriage under the act” or “court marriage”, is a marriage contracted and regulated by the Marriage Act and Matrimonial Causes Act. It is the “voluntary union of one man and one wife to the exclusion of others” otherwise known as “monogamy”. The marriage is celebrated either in the marriage registry or in the licensed place of worship which is usually in a church after the issuance of a registrar’s certificate. Little wonder, some call this kind of marriage a “white wedding”. Once marriage is contracted pursuant to this, the man cannot marry another wife while the marriage subsists. 

Most times people mistake double-decker marriage for a specie of marriage that gives the man the right to contract statutory and customary marriages to several wives. This is a misconception. Double-decker marriage simply means the contraction or celebration of marriage by the same couple first under customary law and subsequently under the Act. This only allows the same couple the benefits of enjoying both systems of marriage. Double-decker marriage allows only the same man to marry the same woman customarily and statutorily. 

Recently, Yul Edochie, the Nollywood actor and politician, came online to announce to the utter consternation of his fans that he has a second wife, Judy Austin Muoghalu, and she has delivered a baby boy.

Although we have little information about the status of his first marriage, that is, if it was statutory marriage or contracted under the customary law. However, the actor is a self-professed Catholic who might have contracted his marriage in the catechism of the Catholic Church which supports monogamy or statutory marriage.

Assuming without conceding that Yul Edochie’s marriage to his first wife, May Yul Edochie, was contracted under the Act, his subsequent marriage to his supposed second wife becomes bigamy and void. Marrying a second wife while his first marriage subsists is a criminal act and he is liable to five years imprisonment by virtue of Section 46 of the Marriage Act and seven years for the same offence under Section 370 of the Criminal Code Act. Additionally, the act between his second wife and himself that produced the new baby can as best be described as adulterous. 

In conclusion, polygamy itself is not a crime but it becomes a crime when a man takes another wife when there is subsisting marriage under the Act. We can only hope that Yul Edochie is not guilty of such. 

Jerry Obanyero, a legal practitioner, writes from Lagos. You can reach him at [email protected]