 |
A
ceremony in 2012 at the emir of Kano's palace was put on to marry off divorcees
and widows
|
More than 10,000
Muslim women have registered their desire to be married at a mass
ceremony in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, religious official Abba
Sufi told reporters.
BBC
Africa Live report continues:
The
Hisba board, the main Islamic authority in the predominantly Muslim state,
arranges the ceremony in a bid to reduce the number of
single women.
It
introduces the women to possible husbands and leaves them to make the final
decision.
Some
of the women told me they had searched but couldn't find
a suitable partner. They had, therefore, turned to the Hisba for
help.
Others
said they had turned down marriage proposals because
they couldn't afford the cost of a wedding and have now decided
to marry at the Hisba-organized ceremony.
Mr Sufi,
who is a senior Hisba member, told me he expected the number of women
seeking to marry to rise by the time the next ceremony takes place.
No
date for it has still been set.
A
total of 5,000 men and women have been married since mass
weddings were introduced in Kano in 2012.
Cash Crunch Hits
Mass Weddings In Kano
 |
| Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje |
Vanguard
reports that 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 10,000 women have registered
for the state-sponsored programme in Kano, said Abba Sufi, director-general of
the northern city’s “morality police”, the Hisbah.
“At
the moment we have over 10,000 women who have registered for the mass wedding
programme and are waiting to be introduced to prospective suitors when the
project resumes,” he told AFP.
“The
women include divorcees and girls of marriage age registered in person and via
social media platforms we operate.” The matchmaking programme began in 2012 to
help divorcees 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 1,111 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.
– Funding problems –
Nigeria,
one of Africa’s main oil producers, depends on the sale of crude for 70 percent
of government revenue but income has been slashed since prices plunged around
the world two years ago.
State
governments have struggled to pay public sector wages; the naira has weakened,
causing a shortage of foreign exchange, hitting investment and key imports of
goods, fuel and food.
At
the same time, inflation has soared to nearly 11-year highs, with predictions
of more devaluation to come and further rises in the cost of living.
“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 she registered to find a husband
two years ago but has been frustrated because of the lack of funding.
“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,” she
said.
– Widespread poverty –
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 and creating the highest unemployment of rate of any of
Nigeria’s 36 states.
The
economic decline has had a direct impact on families, leading to divorces in a
mainly Muslim society where 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 falling into crime and drugs.
“I
can’t afford to provide the furniture, which is an essential provision for
marriage in our culture,” said one divorcee, who asked not to be identified.
“I
have been divorced for five years and I so much need to remarry. I registered a
year ago… it’s worrisome the mass wedding has been delayed due to the economic
downturn.”
– Private sector –
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 prefer 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 stopping it altogether unthinkable despite the economic crunch”, said Sufi.
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