Background of the Study

The growth and development of contemporary society in Nigeria and present social, political and economic pains being have had grave or adverse effect on the life span and sustenance of marriages in general. The consequential hardship and challenges existing in many marriages today violently push the edges of the enclosing envelope of survival of most marriages, leading to greater number of cases of separations or outright divorce. Invariably, issues relating to the dissolution of marriage generally, and the ancillary reliefs of custody and maintenance of the children (if any) of such failed marriages have once again been pushed to the front burner of legal discourse. This is particularly true of the dissolution regime of marriages contracted under Sharia law, features of which are not as rigid and formal as statutory marriages. Nigeria, being a country of diverse people and culture, presents a deluge of customs, usages and traditions governing marriage, divorce and custody relative to each community. Within this diversity, unity is evident. So that there can be distilled some rules regarding marriage in the areas under consideration that are common to or similar in most of these communities.

In Nigeria the law of marriage and divorce is characterized by a distinctive legal pluralism. One finds statutory law, based on English law, and largely taken over from colonial times with few important changes; and customary law, consisting of a great number of different local customary laws of the various ethnic communities in Nigeria. In the North, Islamic law is mainly applied, which constitutes, in theory, a separate body of law, but in practice its rules are heavily influenced by the respective customary laws. Consequently,