FG’s New Marriage Policy: It Negates Principle Of Federalism – Babatunde Fashanu SAN

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Babatunde Fashanu, said it was
an anomaly that the Federal Government, rather than the states
which are closer to the people, was in charge of English-type
marriage.

The SAN said, “When you are talking about the English style of
marriage, either in church or marriage registry, that is under the
Exclusive Legislative list for the Federal Government. But when you
are talking of Islamic or customary marriages, the state can also
handle those ones. That is the law, but my own opinion is that it
negates the principle of federalism.

Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Norrison Quakers, said it
was time that marriage be moved from the exclusive legislative list
to the residual legislative list to give the states total
control.

But, a Catholic Priest and former Director (Church and Society),
Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Rev. Fr. Evaristus Bassey, said,
“Actually in the Catholic Church the code of canon law directs that
marriages should follow the laid down laws of the land. Even the
code recognises that not all churches are registered for marriages.
I think at some point, the government got confused and lax and
wasn’t issuing licences or printing the tripartite certificates
that churches use as well.”

Also, an Islamic scholar and lecturer at the Al-Hikma
University, Ilorin, Ustaz Sanusi Lafiaji, said the government was
overstepping its boundaries by seeking to regulate how weddings
were conducted in worship centres.

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