The average Nigerian wedding today takes four phases basically, which obviously does not mean getting married four different times to four different persons, but to the same person in four different ways, as dictated by religion, culture, tradition, and civil law.
Surprisingly, a recent wind of returning the Bride Price to the groom’s family has swept across the land; in the light of not selling the Bride . Bride Price is slowly but surely becoming alien and unwelcome in the 21st century, because the practice is misconstrued as such a dehumanizing practice to women, especially from a Western philosophical point of view.
It is most often a matter of social, cultural, symbolic and economic reciprocity, being part of a long series of exchanges between the families. A symbol of sincerity and good faith connected with a woman’s reputation and esteem in the community. A token that highlights a degree of commitment and chivalry in a man and shows he does not only value his bride, but also holds a high regard for her family. No amount of money can buy a wife; her value is inestimable in human terms.
Finally, Phase Four happens in The Church: This is the one all the other three above eventually lead to. No thanks toand all the fairy-tale cartoons that have stirred the fantasies of many little girls of someday marrying a Prince in a Castle garbed in a flowing white dress, with all the shimmering splendour all over them. This is where a minister claims to represent God and joins the two together in matrimony by a Holy Ordinance.
I hope the return of the bride price is this dramatic too