Nigerian religious culture is diametrically opposed with the Northern regions worshiping Allah, (Islam) and the Southern half of the country worshiping Jesus Christ, (Christianity).

There are twelve Muslim states situated in the northern region of Nigeria where, Sharia Law is practiced and men are allowed to have polygamus marriages and can take up to four wives, provided they are able to afford it and treated them well. However, in the Southern states which is predominately Christian, monogamy is generally practised; however there too, although the men may profess to be Christians, they often also have more than one wife, based on social reasons as opposed to reasons of religion. The Anglican Church condemns the practice as sinful and are very vocal in its disapproval. The irony is that should polygamy be outlawed the judges and court officials would all go to jail

The laws governing polygamy is weak, open to abuse and to a large extent unenforceable. One example of this is where it was recently reported that a 84 year old Nigerian man of the Muslim faith, had 86 wives and attempts were made to bring him to justice, however he escaped prosecution because the case was thrown out by the Sharia Law Commission and he was subsequently allowed to keep all his wives. The Nigerian press is littered with such stories which are reported on a daily basis.

The need for multiple wives and numerous children was originally borne out of necessity. Nigeria is an agricultural based society and at the time, it was necessary to have many hands to cultivate the land and reap the crops. Labour costs were high therefore a better and cheaper way was devised to keep labour cost to a minimum, which was to have several wives, who will give him many children, who would ultimately become useful members of the clan. Furthermore, mortality rates at the time, was very high and many children did not survive to adulthood. Therefore to ensure that there was someone left to care for him in his old age, the answer was to have a large number of children.

This practice has its roots in the rural setting, where the man would build a hut for each of his wives, however in today’s current economic climate and in an urban setting this practice has been describes as ‘the instrument of Nigeria’s destruction’.

The religion came much later. As the Islamic religion spread throughout the continent and religious leaders were seeking to increase their membership, this caused them to agreed to under-pin the practice to allow polygamous marriages within their religious fremework. However, today the situation has changed and with better health care the survival rate of children has significantly improved. However, the practise of polygamous marriage is gaining strength in the Northern states of Nigeria, because the men seem to want to continue to have multiple partners within a legal setting. An interesting observation suggests that although the men within the polygamous system have multiple wives, many still engaging in extra marital relationships.

Polygamy causes many marital break ups which have a disastrous effect on children where they are involved. Younger women who were once satisfied and content to be one of four wives and take their place in the order of things, now bring about many conflicts, where they want the man to themselves and the senior wives who has built up the household and has mothered his now productive children have no desire to lose her home nor her husband. This situation has on numerous occasions been a cause of public disorder where women fight openly in public over ‘their man’. However, recent poles amongst Nigerians seem to suggest, that there is a growing interest in monogamous marriages, even where the people polled belonged to the Muslim faith.