The Fight Over Marriage Registries – TheNigerialawyer

The power of the federal government is
excessive

In a new development to the disagreement between the federal
government and some local government areas over who has the right
to conduct marriages in the country, the former has published the
marriage registries and places it has licensed to conduct statutory
marriages across the country. This vexatious issue illustrates the
excessive presence of the federal government in our lives. It also
nudges at the heart of millions of Nigerians who are outraged by
the present arrangement and have been calling for a restructuring
of our federation.

The aim of setting up of such marriage registries, according to
the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Georgina Ehuriah,
was to ensure uniformity in the conduct of statutory marriages. The
ministry, she added, is presently considering some recommendations
like extending the validity period for licences issued to places of
worship for the celebration of marriages, as well as downward
review of the fees payable by couples for conduct of statutory
marriages in federal marriage registries. “Machinery has also been
put in place for the amendment of the Marriage Act to adequately
meet the needs of the 21st century,” said Ehuriah to rationalise
the controversial decision.

This is an unnecessary controversy. Marriage registration ought
to be a local government responsibility. Data for marriage, like
that for birth and death, should derive from local governments
nationwide. If there is an existing law conferring on the federal
government concurrent powers on marriage registration, the National
Assembly should quickly amend such to stop this laughable
confrontation. The hunger for revenue at all levels of government
should not make the federal government descend to picking peanuts
at the roadside which the idea of marriage registry represents.

There is no denying the fact that Nigeria practices a weird form
of federalism that is not only antithetical to growth and
development, but also suffocating. It is federalism with highly
unitary tendencies, where almost all powers are concentrated at the
centre as the federating units. The states and local governments
are reduced to mere appendages. For the nation of its size and
population, a local government in Yenagoa or Gusau looks up to
Abuja for police protection.

The federal government collects a disproportionate amount of the
revenue accruing to the nation and uses a revenue formula
allocation system designed more to encourage laziness instead of
productivity, equity, fairness and justice. The system also allows
for little or no accountability with waste and needless
duplications at practically all levels. The federal government is
recruiting teachers for primary schools that are under the control
of local governments. And now it must register people who
marry!

The overbearing power at the centre is also what makes the
contest for the Nigerian presidency – perhaps the most powerful in
the world – a ‘do or die’ affair. The power wielder uses his
position to dispense favours or ill-will to whomever he pleases,
the type that has helped create many war zones across the nation
today. Yet, the federal system inherited at independence was one
which allowed the federating units to retain their autonomy to
raise and retain revenues, promote development, and conduct their
affairs as they saw fit, while engaging in healthy competition with
one another.

It is unfortunate that after 20 years of democracy, the country
is yet to wean itself of the large doses of unitarism injected into
the system by its military rulers. That is why the federal
government will be fighting with local government over registration
of marriage, ordinarily a local affair. That perhaps explains why
restructuring the polity is an issue we cannot afford to be
complacent about any longer.

Culled from Thisday Editorial

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