Causes Of Divorce In Nigeria

Marriage can be defined as a legal union between husband and wife.  It is recognized by all and publicly accepted by the society as a pre-condition for the formation of the family. According to Osuafor (1990) marriage is the approval of social pattern whereby two or more persons establish a family.  Marriage can then be said to be the process through which a social union is formed between a man and a woman or women for the purpose of procreation, which is bearing and rearing children. Leneman (1999) defines marriage as legally recognized agreement between a man and a woman making them husband and wife, the state of being married.  In most studies, it has been observed that the single most important ingredient of marriage is companion in doing things together with the husband as the most valuable aspect of marriage.  It is also noted that emotional support is an important ingredient of marriage for wives.  Both parties expect each other to encourage themselves in difficulty, sympathize with each other on failure, celebrate in success, embrace their friends and defy his enemies and to be calm when the other is angry.  Emotional security is an aspect of emotional support.

However, marriage being a union is found to be characterized by certain demands and expectations on the part of the couple.  In addition, such demands and expectations embrace issues like loyalty in marriage, faithfulness, acceptance of responsibilities, emotional security, companionship and so on.

One may observe that a marital relationship devoid of above factors often face a lot of problems and generate a lot of stains like marital discord, lack of emotional closeness to ones partner, psychological separation, lack of mutual understanding, role conflict, financial conflict, lack of effective communication, sexual conflict and unhappiness which obviously can lead to divorce.

Divorce also known as dissolution of marriage or the end of a marriage before the death of either spouse has been an issue on ground now both in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. South and Lioyd (1995) posited that divorce is the legal abrogation of a valid marriage contract.  It does not only end the right of the couple to cohabit and limits the legal abrogation of the husband but also permits remarriage.

The world Book encyclopedia (1972) defined divorce as the ending by law of a valid marriage.  It is usually distinguished from an annulment, which is a declaration by a court that marriage is invalid (not legally binding) because of some defect at the time of marriage ceremony.

Divorce is a severe family disorganization and a common topic of gossip in out society.  This is due to the fact that divorcees are regarded by the society as the worst people in morals, deviants and insatiable elements.  A divorced woman is regarded as being of such bad character that a man cannot think of remarrying her within a short space of time in the same community.  It is the belief of most people that once the first marriage fails, it is never easy to be successful with other subsequent marriages. Divorce has been shown to have some socio-psychological after effects on both partners and their children.  For instance lack of parental role model (Goode, 1975) or even emotional anxiety and negative attitude towards life.

Based on the above overview, one may observe that divorce as a socio-psychological problem is quite common in most societies and cultures.  Hence the researcher intends to investigate on the factors influencing divorce as regard to couples and their children.