Future Of Bride Price

In the wake of incidents of high bride price, the question has been what to do with this fractional institution. Some have called for its outright abolition on the ground that it adds nothing tangible to the institution of marriage. The propone nth of this view point out that in other parts of the world like Europe and America, bride price is not a necessary mgredient of marriage. They, however, leave unanswered the practical problems of outright abolition. One obvious consequence of such action is that communities will continue with the practice irrespective of the abolition. There are instances where this has happened as for example, the statutory abolition of osu system. In that case, there is a wide difference between the law as slated in the statute book and the actual practices of the people. Again it is not advisable to sweep off in one stroke such an important and fundamental aspect of the social and cultural life of the people.

A contrary view contends that rather than outright abolition the best approach is to, control the quantum and incidents of bride price. This line of thinking has been adopted in most governmental actions with respect to bride price, it is not, however, free of problems. Experience has shown that the regulatory provisions of the Limitation of Dowry Law, 1956 are widely disregarded in actual practice. Strict enforcement of the Law is almost non-existent except in cases which have come before the courts. To regulate bride price successfully, the social practices which surround its payment have to be re-examined and re-structured. For instance, high bride price has been influenced by the custom whereby parents give presents to their daughter who has been taken in marriage. Traditionally, such gifts constituted of basic inexpensive household property. But with time, the range was expanded to include expensive electrical household goods, cars, expensive wardrobes and even large sums of money. Parents who are expected to make such gifts in rum demand high bride price in order to be able to meet the obligation. The situation was apdy put by the Imo State Government statement on the Report on Bride Price in Imo State by the National Council of Women:'

On bride's gifts from parents. Government is of the opinion that the practice of parents donating items of household property to the bride should be stopped as this is one of the practices that give encouragement to nigh bride price. For example, consider the case of a man who pays Nl,000.00 to his inlaws and they give him their daughter. The couple decide to 'man y in the church*. On the day of wedding, the parents who received N1000.00 must make gifts to their daughter. These include cookers, sewing machines, bicycle, kitchen equipment, beds, animals and sometimes cash gifts. In the end, the parents spend more than the N100000 they received. Thus, to keep up with the Joneses, parents are forced to spend a lot of money buying items of household property as gifts It) their daughters being given out in marriage Parents who do not do this are ridiculed. Government considers this practice obnoxious as it forces parents to demand high bride price in order to meet up with the costs of the gifts. Government is therefore firm in its decision that no donations of items of household property should be demanded by the husband or ostentatiously displayed by the parents.

The problem outlined above applies not only to statutory or church marriages but also to puiely customary law ones.
Another aspect of the incidence of high bride price relates to the practice of graduating the amount payable according to the educational qualification of the bride-to-be. The more educated she is, the higher the bride price.
To be effective, statutory regulation of bride price must be accompanied by the education of the society on the ills of that practice, co-operation of well placed and enlightened people, community leaders and religious organisation.