Clerics identify factors causing marriage breakups

Two clerics on Friday identified deceit, poverty, lack of love, incompatibility, desperation and absence of family values as key factors responsible for the high divorce rate in Nigeria.

Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview, the clerics said that most couples entered marriages without having concrete knowledge of what marriage was all about.

Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), Mr Alexander Bamgbola, blamed increasing divorce cases on a lack of fear of God and passion for sin by couples.

Bamgbola argued that if a marriage was contracted without fear of God, it would never end well.

He said the increasing number of marriage collapses in recent years was worrisome.

“It used to be a thing of the western world but in the past 10 to 20 years, it has slowly crept into the Nigerian society. Reports show that there are 12,000 cases of divorces yearly in Nigeria.

“The family is the basic unit of society through which God inculcates values to children, who in turn build society and the world at large. In other words, a broken family produces broken children, which leads to a broken nation,” he said.

The Director of Communications of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Monsignor Gabriel Osu, said: “as Christians, we do not approve divorce, once a marriage validation has been consummated, there is no room for divorce.

Osu said that divorce was on the increase because such marriages were conceived in deceit.

“Simulation in marriage is a situation where one or either party goes through the process of exchange of marital vows knowing that they are not compatible.