A FACILE REVIEW CONCERNING THE CONCEPT OF CONTRACT TO MARRY IN NIGERIAN FAMILY LAW

Abstract

In a society like Nigeria, where marriage is highly respected and upheld, it is not strange that people get engaged and celebrate marriages very often. The popular ‘Owambe’ happens almost every Saturday in recent times. This union of a man and a woman as husband and wife stems from a prior courtship, from here there is a proposal for a marriage to take place at a futuristic time and this is what the law recognizes as an agreement or contract to marry. Albeit, everything may seem blooming, there is a possibility that one party to this agreement reneges on his promise but owing to the fact that the law recognizes the agreement as binding on both parties, the law takes the wheel to award damages to the aggrieved party since the court cannot and will not force an unwillingly party into marriage in order to prevent future problems. This paper will succinctly explain what an agreement to marry is, when it is seen to have been breached, the remedies available to the non-defaulting party and most importantly the prerequisites to bring an action in court.