•Paying woman’s bride price qualifies a man to lay claim to a child’s paternity —Imo monarch.

•Only fulfilment of traditional marriage formalities qualifies a man to claim paternity of a child —Oldest man in Umuagu Okija.

•Whoever paid the bride price and performed the marriage rites is the husband of the woman—Imo Royal Prince.

Only payment of bride price entitles a man to claim to be the father of a child — Abia Community leader

•Marriage rite grants man ownership of child in Igbo land — Nze Amadi

•Where custom clashes with the Constitution, the latter supersedes — Imo community leader.

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By Anayo Okoli, Vincent Ujumadu, Chimaobi Nwaiwu, Ugochukwu Alaribe, Alumona Ukwueze, Emmanuel Iheaka & Chinonso Alozie

WHAT qualifies a man to lay claim to paternity of children born to him, according to Igbo custom and tradition?

This contentious issue was triggered by a recent judgment of an Akure Magistrate Court which declared as “barbaric, evil and ungodly,” a part of Igbo custom which denied a father access to his children for reason of non-payment of bride price to the wife’s family.

Ruling on a divorce case between Prophet Theophilus Obayan and his estranged wife, Prophetess Chibuzor Lilian, Magistrate Segun Stephen Rotiba of Akure Magistrate Court, Ondo State, condemned that aspect of Igbo custom as unacceptable.

Prophet Obayan is a Yoruba while his estranged wife is Igbo. They were heads of a church located in Ladipo, Lagos State.

According to reports, Prophetess Chibuzor left her husband to marry one of his spiritual sons, Abua Obi, and changed her children’s surname from Prophet Obayan’s to Obi, the new husband on the grounds that Obayan, according to her, did not pay her bride price. She contented that Obi, her new husband, paid her bride price and therefore has the right to have the children bear his name in accordance with Igbo custom.

Granting Obayan’s prayers to dissolve the marriage and have custody of his four children, Magistrate Rotiba said: “I find the Igbo custom exuded by the respondent and her witnesses that the children of the union can bear Abua Obi as their surname, atavistic, barbaric, evil, ungodly, irrational, unsensational, crass, gross, crude, unwary, provocative, ungodly, discriminatory and insensible.

“The custom that tends to punish one person when two consenting adults are involved in the act is nothing but the highest element of insensitivity and servitude. I condemn this custom in the strongest terms.

“The Court hereby declares persona non grata, the custom of the Respondent (the woman) awarding paternal personality to a man who is not the biological father of the children.The Court hereby invalidates and renders null and void, the publication changing the surname of the 1st and 2nd children from Obayan to Abua Obi.”

SEV shares the reactions of Igbo leaders and stakeholders.

Paying woman’s bride price qualifies a man to lay claim to paternity of children —Imo monarch

The traditional ruler of Umuneke-Nna Ugiri, in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State, Eze Jude Onyenagbaru, said a man can lay claim to a child if only he pays the woman’s bride price.

Said Eze Onyenagbaru: “Traditionally, any child that his mother’s bride price was not paid, that relationship is illegal. What makes a man to claim a child is to pay all the marriage rites, most importantly, paying the bride price of the woman. If a man does not pay bride price, he cannot lay claim to a child from that woman.

“It means that they are just in a friendly relationship not marriage; so, if you are in an ordinary relationship with a woman and she lives in your house, both of you continue to bear children, I want you to take note, any day you separate from her, that man cannot lay claim to the children.

“That woman will go with those children. One of the reasons is that it is only a woman that can say the truth who the father of her child is. So, in Igbo land, the only thing a man can do to claim a child is to pay the bride price of a woman. That is simple.

“Once he pays, those children belong to him. Another thing, if a woman gets pregnant from another man, and another man comes to pay her bride price, what it means is that the man who paid her bride price can lay claim to that child,” the monarch said.

Fulfilling traditional formalities can qualify a man to the paternity of a child

The oldest man in Umuagu, Okija in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nze Nwabuikwu Okorafor explained that only a man who performed traditional marriage rites on a woman can lay claim to any child or children from that union.

He argued that a man has no right to a baby born out of marriage, which he said, is the reason people rush to perform marriage rights once they discover that the women they intend to marry had become pregnant.

He said: “The basic requirement in Igbo land is that once a man shows interest in a woman, he should start marriage formalities by first ‘knocking on the door’ of the family of the woman.






“If this is not done and the woman becomes pregnant, the child does not belong to the man even if they are living together.

“Also, if by any chance the man wants to start the process of marriage ceremony when the woman is already pregnant, our custom is that the man should be asked to wait until the baby is delivered because we do not give out a pregnant woman in marriage.”

Okorafor said in occasions where a family decides that the daughter should stay to give the family children to ensure family continuity, the man responsible for the pregnancy can never lay claim to the child.

“So it is not in all situations that a man’s child belongs to him,” he said.

Only payment of bride price entitles one to claim paternity of children—Abia Community leader.

A community leader in Aba North Council Area of Abia State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ogbugo, also said that only the payment of bride price and fulfilling of other marital rites entitle one to claim paternity of a child. He stated that a marriage cannot be validly contracted until the man fulfils the marital rites by visiting the woman’s family to pay her bride price.

Ogbugo insisted that any child produced through a relationship where a woman’s bride price is not paid, belongs to the woman’s family until such bride price and marital rites are fulfilled.

“What qualifies a man to claim ownership of a child or children is the payment of accepted bride price on the woman’s head and fulfillment of other marital rites which is specific to a defined area. Note that word “accepted” which means it was consensually accepted by the girl’s family. Now, any baby born in a man’s house when the woman’s bride price has not been paid is the woman’s father’s child, if the family of the girl accepts such.

“In Igbo land, nobody recognises you as an in-law until you pay a woman’s bride price and fulfill other marital rites. Even the woman cannot be legally recognised as a married woman anywhere.

“However, there are exceptional cases where the man after living with the woman and has children will later come to pay bride price and fulfill the marital rites.

In Igbo custom, you have no genuine claim to a child if you didn’t pay the mother’s bride price; you are only seen as a male concubine until you pay the bride price. In fact, there is a saying in my area that a concubine has no claim to a child,” he explained.

Marriage is a contract in Igbo culture and the agreement is sealedupon payment of bride price —Prince Muo

Prince Christopher Muo, an Onitsha-based legal practitioner and Amauro Royal Prince in Okigwe, Imo State, explained that marriage is a contract in Igbo culture and the agreement is sealed upon payment of the bride price.

“So whoever paid the bride price and performed the marriage rites is the husband of the woman in question. Hence, when you marry a pregnant woman, the child is your own not the child of the “sperm donor.” It also removes the issue of bastard in the lineage.

“The man must have paid the woman’s bride price and performed all customary marriage rites in accordance with the custom of the Igbo community of the woman before the child is born. Failing which the man does not have a claim over the child born by the woman,” he said.

However, if the child whose mother got pregnant before her bride price was paid by another man grows up and discovers that the man who paid his mother’s bride price is not his biological father and decides to go for or follow his biological father, the person is at liberty to do so as a man in so far as the biological father acknowledges him as his son.

Marriage rite grants man ownership of child in Igbo land —Nze Amadi

The Nze of Obokwe, Obetiti Autonomous Community, Nguru, Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State, Nze Collins Amadi, said a man is qualified as a father of a child in Igbo land if he has performed the marriage rites.

Amadi stated that the Igbo do not recognise a man who hasn’t performed marriage rites as a legitimate owner of a child.

He noted that the Igbo tradition gives room for a man who had a child outside marriage to approach the family of the woman for marriage rites in order to be recognised as the father of the child.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanguardngr.com/2023/11/reactions-trail-court-judgment-condemning-igbo-custom-on-fatherhood/amp/

The man is clearly not suitable for the role of a judge.

Truth be said some of these cultural and customary activities are outdated, bland primitive and barbaric, hence the government should put them into checks for some readjustment

Granting Obayan’s prayers to dissolve the marriage and have custody of his four children, Magistrate Rotiba said: “I find the Igbo custom exuded by the respondent and her witnesses that the children of the union can bear Abua Obi as their surname, atavistic, barbaric, evil, ungodly, irrational, unsensational, crass, gross, crude, unwary, provocative, ungodly, discriminatory and insensible.

“The custom that tends to punish one person when two consenting adults are involved in the act is nothing but the highest element of insensitivity and servitude. I condemn this custom in the strongest terms.

Such uncivilized people.is this culture or what? Don't come for me because I won't hold back at all

Seun, I want you to take note of the subtle attempts of this Op to drag NL back to the old days of tribal hate and bigotry.
I also want to let you know that there's a limit to what those who are restrained can take.Two can play the game. Please call this Op to order.

Gosh the words of the judge shows a deep hatred and is unprofessional. Why don't he ask the pastor why he didn't pay brideprice even the bible that he read does not approve half union. I don't support the woman fully but dat judge shouldn't be in court with that kind of hatred

Fighttillvictory:
Gosh the words of the judge shows a deep hatred and is unprofessional. Why don't he ask the pastor why he didn't pay brideprice even the bible that he read does not approve half union. I don't support the woman fully but dat judge shouldn't be in court with that kind of hatred

The woman is a criminal. Gbajue...

I find it worrisome that a Magistrate decides to denigrate the way of life of over 40 million people based on her personal senses.

Native laws and customs are law, and can be adjudicated on by customary courts.

She is overreaching and needs to be cautioned. She can make her judgement without casting those aspersions.

Sctests:
If you impregnate an Igbo girl without doing the marital rites and paying the bride price. That child DOES NOT belong to you. You are just a SPERM DONOR. The child belongs to the man who is responsible and values the woman enough to pay the bride price.

God save you if that lady dies during childbirth, then you will visit hell and back, because you must pay that price and 'marry' her corpse befittingly before she is lowered into earth. Else you won't sleep when the whole village send their deity after you. YOU KILLED HER. Who wants to go to the spirit world with shame? An Igbo daughter?

The Akure judge should concentrate on stopping Royal cannibalism that is customary to yoruba people.

It is common knowledge that when a king, Alaafin, Ooni, Oba or Baale dies in yorubaland, it is customary for the succeeding monarch to eat the heart (cardiac muscle) of the dead king uncooked. Ask any honest yoruba traditionalist. In fact type 'yoruba royal cannibalism" in Google and research it.

More so, after the death of a yoruba king, human sacrifices are made and head hunters are sent out in the dead of the night to hunt for human head as part of their Oro practice before the late king is buried.

Let the Akure Judge face these barbaric customs of his people and stop meddling in a foreign custom that is older than his 10th great-grandfather and ancestors.
He can't win. Let him remove the wool in his own people's eyes first..

He can't dare go to the muslim North and try to stop them from marrying 10-year old girls, without his head being cut off from his shoulder with matchetes, but he wants to flex judicial muscles here in the South.

The Igbos are not your plaything. Respect their customs and stop meddling in their traditional affairs.

Don't you know that once it is about Igbos, southern lawyers find their voices?? But they're all afraid to question the barbaric acts being perpetuated in the north!

The foolish magistrate couldn't even condemn his brother who claims to be an apostle, yet was sleeping and having children out of wedlock with his lover. All he was concerned about was condemning a peoples tradition that has existed before his ancestors were born.

Nigerian constitution recognizes customs and traditions of a people that is why we have the customary Court.

That magistrate loathes the tribe of the woman, that's why he had to use such words to describe her customs. Why can't he simply tell her that the constitution don't subscribe to her defense instead of using such words to describe her customs.

In the context of disputes within the Igbo tribe, this custom might be effective if the affected party doesn't pursue legal action. However, if the disagreement involves interactions between Igbo and other tribes, legal proceedings will definitely override this custom, as the constitution prevails in such cases.

Know this...know peace..

Where a state governor dey sack king/emir...

Lol

DNA will prove whom the father is when you get to the Supreme Court. How Igbo culture will now supercede the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is what I am yet to fund out

Sctests:
If you impregnate an Igbo girl without doing the marital rites and paying the bride price. That child DOES NOT belong to you. You are just a SPERM DONOR. The child belongs to the man who is responsible and values the woman enough to pay the bride price.

God save you if that lady dies during childbirth, then you will visit hell and back, because you must pay that price and 'marry' her corpse befittingly before she is lowered into earth. Else you won't sleep when the whole village send their deity after you. YOU KILLED HER. Who wants to go to the spirit world with shame? An Igbo daughter?

The Akure judge should concentrate on stopping Royal cannibalism that is customary to yoruba people.

It is common knowledge that when a king, Alaafin, Ooni, Oba or Baale dies in yorubaland, it is customary for the succeeding monarch to eat the heart (cardiac muscle) of the dead king uncooked. Ask any honest yoruba traditionalist. In fact type 'yoruba royal cannibalism" in Google and research it.

More so, after the death of a yoruba king, human sacrifices are made and head hunters are sent out in the dead of the night to hunt for human head as part of their Oro practice before the late king is buried.

Let the Akure Judge face these barbaric customs of his people and stop meddling in a foreign custom that is older than his 10th great-grandfather and ancestors.
He can't win. Let him remove the wool in his own people's eyes first..

He can't dare go to the muslim North and try to stop them from marrying 10-year old girls, without his head being cut off from his shoulder with matchetes, but he wants to flex judicial muscles here in the South.

The Igbos are not your plaything. Respect their customs and stop meddling in their traditional affairs.

It happened in Ondo so you are the one being disrespectful here.


If it happened in Anambra or Enugu you might have a point.


In Yoruba land , Yoruba culture supercede

Mordecai:




I find it worrisome that a Magistrate decides to denigrate the way of life of over 40 million people based on her personal senses.

Native laws and customs are law, and can be adjudicated on by customary courts.

She is overreaching and needs to be cautioned. She can make her judgement without casting those aspersions.

Igbos are FAR more than 40 million people.

killsmith:


People wey dey bury their kings with 7 human heads dey call others barbaric.

Like how can you kill 7 people and cut off their heads so that you can decorate the grave of just one person?

That has long being abolished a long time ago.

It is you people that are regurgitating it just to find something negative to say about Yoruba culture, there's no culture in the world without it ugly and negative side but it's the willingness to change and abolish it that matter even Chinese, Japanese, Korean cultures etc all have its ugly side

Egyptians practiced it and they are still one of the most civilise society in ancient times.

Sctests:
If you impregnate an Igbo girl without doing the marital rites and paying the bride price. That child DOES NOT belong to you. You are just a SPERM DONOR. The child belongs to the man who is responsible and values the woman enough to pay the bride price.

God save you if that lady dies during childbirth, then you will visit hell and back, because you must pay that price and 'marry' her corpse befittingly before she is lowered into earth. Else you won't sleep when the whole village send their deity after you. YOU KILLED HER. Who wants to go to the spirit world with shame? An Igbo daughter?

The Akure judge should concentrate on stopping Royal cannibalism that is customary to yoruba people.

It is common knowledge that when a king, Alaafin, Ooni, Oba or Baale dies in yorubaland, it is customary for the succeeding monarch to eat the heart (cardiac muscle) of the dead king uncooked. Ask any honest yoruba traditionalist. In fact type 'yoruba royal cannibalism" in Google and research it.

More so, after the death of a yoruba king, human sacrifices are made and head hunters are sent out in the dead of the night to hunt for human head as part of their Oro practice before the late king is buried.

Let the Akure Judge face these barbaric customs of his people and stop meddling in a foreign custom that is older than his 10th great-grandfather and ancestors.
He can't win. Let him remove the wool in his own people's eyes first..

He can't dare go to the muslim North and try to stop them from marrying 10-year old girls, without his head being cut off from his shoulder with matchetes, but he wants to flex judicial muscles here in the South.

The Igbos are not your plaything. Respect their customs and stop meddling in their traditional affairs.

I wanted to give my input in this but you finished work. I'm proud of you.

Who is Akure Judge?
Is it Eba? Is it agbado?

You see am?.. Yoruba versus Igbo marriage wahala.

Why didn't the prophet abi na pastor get accustomed to the customs of the place he married from?.. now in-laws will have their own ruling, magistrate too will have his ruling.

Elemosho478:



It happened in Ondo so you are the one being disrespectful here.


If it happened in Anambra or Enugu you might have a point.


In Yoruba land , Yoruba culture supercede

When you were shoving your miserable dick into the Igbo girl, you didn't know there were caveats and clauses.

All customary laws are equal befall the eyes of the law and are enforceable anywhere within Nigeria..

The Igbo customary law comes into play here. Those kids do NOT belong to the promiscuous irresponsible Pastor who can't pay bride price.

The Igbo lady's family own those kids she carried for nine months until another man pays her bride price and cater for the kids.

In Igboland there is no notion of bastard, every child has a father, biological or not. Maybe that's why there is a lesser prevalence of agberoes, omo oniles and social misfits in Igboland, compared to your region..

So when she was giving birth to 1,2,3,4 children, she didn't pack and leave for becos her brideprice wasnt paid. It's when she now starts her runs with her husband boy, she remember shey dem dey pay brideprice. Does she think that if she wasn't alive her new guy will care her grown up children like his own?
Everything he would do for the kids is becos her, take her out of the equation, he has no attachment to them. Their father knows them from birth, they have urinated on his body, kept him up at night, bought pampers, clothes and he has paid school fees from day 1. So all of that goes under the bridge just becos some guy paid some merge amount to her family. Most importantly sef, customary law is subservient to constitutional law. The biological father of a child has first right over that child except he forfeits it or is found to be unfit to excerise his responsibility. A gene is the basic unit of genetic inheritance. Elementary biology. All those people who are insulting the magistrate do not have sense. You wanna place emotions over reason? Irrational customs over logic? Do animals pay brideprice? Them no dey born?

Sctests:


When you were shoving your miserable dick into the Igbo girl, you didn't know there were caveats and clauses.

All customary laws are equal befall the eyes of the law and are enforceable anywhere within Nigeria..

The Igbo customary law comes into play here. Those kids do belong to the promiscuous irresponsible Pastor who can't pay bride price. The Igbo ladies family own those kids she carried for nine months until another man pays her bride price and cater for the kids.

In Igboland there is no notion of bastard, every child has a father, biological or not. Maybe that's why there is a lesser prevalence of agberoes, omo miles and social misfits in Igboland compared to your region..

That's only in Igbo land.

In Yoruba land there's nothing like that.

Some people dey drink tribalism as water