Low global oil prices have hurt Nigeria’s economy, taking it to the brink of recession. But the resulting cash crunch has also had a more unexpected effect — on mass weddings.
More than 10000 women have registered for the state-sponsored programme in Kano, said Abba Sufi, director general of the northern city’s “morality police”, the Hisbah.
“The women include divorcées and girls of marriage age, registered in person and via the social media platforms we operate.”
The matchmaking programme began in 2012 to help divorcées remarry in Kano state, which has the highest divorce rate in Nigeria.
Under the scheme, the state government pays the bride price and provides furniture and household utensils for the newlyweds.
A total of 1111 couples tied the knot in an elaborate event at Kano’s main mosque in December 2013. At the time, the Hisbah said it had arranged 4 461 marriages since the programme began.
Nigeria, one of Africa’s main oil producers, depends on the sale of crude for 70% of government revenue but income has been slashed since prices plunged around the world two years ago.
“The cash crunch has compelled us to halt the programme, which has resulted in a huge backlog of women intent on getting the right husbands to marry through the matchmaking process,” said Sufi.
Hajara Umar, a divorced mother of three children, said: “We are calling on the authorities to resume the mass wedding. We are not asking for too much, just the basic things we need to start a new married life.”
Widespread poverty has been blamed for the rising number of divorces in Kano city and the surrounding state, as well as the decline in traditional marriage ceremonies between men and women.
Kano’s economy declined sharply in the 1980s because of electricity shortages, which forced up production costs, high bank lending rates and competition from cheap foreign imports.
More than 400 of Kano city’s 500 textile factories were forced to close, leaving thousands jobless.
The economic decline has had a direct impact on families, leading to divorces in a mainly Muslim society in which polygamy is prevalent. With no access to education and parental care, children from broken homes have ended up on the street, fending for themselves and also often falling prey to crime and drugs.
The mass wedding project was seen as a solution to the situation and also at preventing Boko Haram Islamists from recruiting disaffected and impoverished youth for their violent insurgency.
The north’s conservative culture gives a husband absolute powers in marriage but men have often abused it and divorced their wives at will.
Under the matchmaking project, couples can only divorce with the explicit consent of the state government and the Hisbah. Any man who unilaterally divorces his wife risks going to jail.
“The security the mass wedding programme provides for the wife makes many women to pre- fer getting married through the programme because she knows the husband cannot divorce her at will,” said Sufi.
To resume mass weddings, the Hisbah wants funding from the private sector and wealthy individuals, but in the current climate that is proving difficult.
“We can’t allow the programme to crash because of its immense social benefits, which makes stop- ping it altogether unthinkable despite the economic crunch,” said Sufi. — AFP