FORMATION AND DISSOLUTION OF STATUTORY MARRIAGE IN NIGERIA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

AGBO, MARY CHIAMAKA (2026) FORMATION AND DISSOLUTION OF STATUTORY MARRIAGE IN NIGERIA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS. Other thesis, Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu.

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Abstract

This study examines the legal and institutional framework regulating the formation and dissolution of statutory marriage in Nigeria against the background of the country's plural family-law system, where statutory, customary and Islamic marriage regimes coexist and frequently collide. The research aims to analyze the rules governing valid statutory marriage, interrogate the grounds and procedures for dissolution under the Matrimonial Causes Act, and assess how present laws and institutions respond to conflicts involving consent, age, property, maintenance, inheritance and foreign divorce recognition. A doctrinal methodology is adopted, drawing on statutes, decided cases, textbooks, journal articles, treaties, policy materials and credible online legal commentary, and applying statutory interpretation, case-law synthesis, gap analysis and legal pluralism as the guiding theoretical lens. It is established in this study that while the present system aims at seeking assurance and monogamy in theory, its performance is quite uneven in practice due to archaic laws, divorce based on faults hidden under irretrievable breakdown of marriage, inefficiency in marriage registries, clash between federal and local institutions, ineffective enforcement of matrimonial offenses and maintenance orders, as well as ongoing clash between statutory marriage and customary/ Islamic marriage. The study further establishes that women and children are particularly vulnerable when it comes to property division through stringent title-based approach and when it comes to child marriage prohibition. Therefore, the study recommends reforming the Marriage Act and Matrimonial Causes Act, unifying marriageable age laws, shifting towards a truly no-fault divorce scheme, giving more weight to non-economic contributions in a marriage, regulating technologically registries, strengthening enforcement of financial remedies, and updating private international law laws for foreign divorces.

Item Type: Thesis (Other)
Subjects: K Law > K Law (General)
Divisions: Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Law
Depositing User: COMFORT AJALA
Date Deposited: 24 Jul 2026 11:12
Last Modified: 24 Jul 2026 11:12
URI: http://eprints.gouni.edu.ng/id/eprint/5930

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