CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Divorce is the legal dissolution of a marriage. A male divorcee is called divorcé, while a female divorcee is called divorcée, also, marriage is the formal union of a man and a woman, typically as recognized by law, by which they become husband and wife (Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th Edition, 2009). Divorce is the dissolution of a marriage by judgment of a court or by accepted custom. It can also be called a total separation (Collins English Dictionary, 2011). It is also a legal way of ending marriage (Macmillan School Dictionary, 2011)[1].

        The family occupies a pivotal place in every society and in the Africa continent at large. It is indeed the bedrock of the state, nation, continent, and world at large. Healthy families produces a healthy nation and healthy continent while weak families breed weak, corrupt, and a disarray nation and continent. For a nation and continent or the world at large to be at peace, it must first be settled from the family. The sanity in the continent will never rise above that of the family. Divorce in Africa is a persistent event which effects into immediate and a continous results. Before divorce can be treated in Africa as a continent, it must be traced out from the developed continents like Europe[2]. Majority of the countries in Africa are referred to as developing countries, therefore, the level of globalization is still on a crawling stage. A developed nation is described as a nation that critically examines the external environment in order to sort out the positive and the negative impacts that such externalities can cause when been imbibed and then find a way of imbibing the positive aspects of it. A developing nation simply imbibed the externalities without critical examinations and as a result of this, the rate of divorce in many African homes increases rapidly.

        According to Musa (2008) “organization, coordination and distribution of societal wealth, is only easy and possible through an established system, and no system is more realistic than the family.” Culture and tradition in Africa have shown that a person is honoured and becomes responsible if he marries. Marriage accelerates and enhances social relationships between people. Marriage is a lifelong activity, if it is made with the acceptance of both the two parties. But there are certain natural and artificial instances that occur and bring about marital instabilities in marriage activities whose end results are divorce. Divorce is mainly caused by political, economic, social and religious factors. Abdullati (2002) is of the opinion that conflict between couples is inevitable especially when they come from different societal setting. Spouses can no longer live in harmony and have lost mutual regard for each other; for obvious reasons, husbands search for slight fault from their wives to seek for a divorce. Musa (2008) highlighted that divorce is a dissolution of a marriage contract which may be effected either by the act of the husband or by demand from the wife or by mutual agreement or by operation of the law. Lemu {2005} explains that dissolution of marriage brings about the disintegration of the family unity[3]. Yahaya (2008) is of the opinion that divorce leads to broken homes, children in these homes suffer from lack of parental care and love, poor socialization, which in the end leads to delinquency, to criminal acts and to the spread of other social ills in the society[4].

1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Ibadan Oyo State is a typical Yoruba setting where majority of the people live in their homes. It is an area where married and divorced couples are easily known or identified. From the data gathered in the area, divorce rate is increasing arithmetically especially during harvesting seasons. This is why divorce is becoming increasingly problematic and noticeable as a result of the gross negativity of its effects on the society. The perceived causes of divorce are classified into religious, social, economic and political factors. From the religious factor, is observed that many couples are not committed to their religious practices. They are ignorant to their obligatory responsibilities as husbands and wives. They respect culture at the expense of their religious practices. Those that are having the knowledge are not putting the knowledge in their marriage activities. Radda (2001) shade more light as they said in their findings that ignorance, parents’ inability to train their children and cultural predomination are the major religious factor causing divorce in most of the Yoruba societies. From the social factor, people have the opinion that communication gap, early marriage and with little or no experience of withstanding marital challenges, lack of love, care, lack of motivation, frequent travelling by husbands with little or no time to the wives, excessive smoking and drinking of alcohol are vibrant instruments that cause divorce. (R. I. Okorodudu and C. N. Okorodudu 2004) observation is in line above assertion as their finding reveals that communication gap is a common problem in almost all marriages in Nigeria. Modo (1996) so also in his research work explained that the common feature among the Christian house wives is that they all married before the age of 19. These innocent wives have no option than to see their husbands as fathers and would not express themselves freely. Economic is another factor that causes divorce Yoruba communities. It is observed that, poverty, house mismanagement and selling of food stuff by wives cause divorce. Lack of sufficient supply of food stuff in the house, lack of welfare packages to the wives by the husbands, and inability for the husbands to take care for the training of their wives make divorce easily. Musa (2008) added that the husbands, that cannot satisfy the financial needs of their wives, certainly stand to face problems from them.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of the research work is to carry out an investigation into the causes, effects and prevention of divorce among young couples in Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study are:

1. to determine the root causes of divorce among young couples in Ibadan, Oyo State
2. to determine the effect of divorce on children in Ibadan, Oyo State
3. to determine the relationship between socio-economic and cultural background and divorce rate among young couples in Ibadan, Oyo State
4.  to investigate the factors responsible for divorce among couples in Ibadan
5. to recommend ways to prevent divorce among young couples in Ibadan Oyo State

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study covers on an investigation into the causes, effects and prevention of divorce among young couples with focus on couples in Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria. The study also covers the religious and cultural aspect of divorce among young couples.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study on an investigation into the causes, effects and prevention of divorce among young couples will be of immense benefit to young couples and those that are still single. The study explores the concept of divorce and identifies the effect of divorce on couples and children in Oyo state. The study will serve as a guide to marriage counselors in Nigeria on how to handle issues that has to do with divorce. The findings of the study will throw more light on the meaning and purpose of marriage. The study will also serve as a repository of information to other researchers and students that desire to carry out similar research on the above topic. Finally the study will contribute to the body of the existing literature on the causes, effects and prevention of divorce among young couples.

1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In order for us to achieve the stated objectives of this study, information for the study were derived from secondary data, through content analysis of documents, articles, international journals, magazines, monographs and books related to the study. This was largely due to the fact that data were obtained from libraries, archival sources and the internet.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

DIVORCE: the legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body.

MARRIAGE: Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally recognized union between people, called a spouse that establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws.

COUNSELING: “give advice to (a person) on social or personal problems, especially professionally.” and. “the process of assisting and guiding clients, especially by a trained person on a professional basis, to resolve especially personal, social, or psychological problems and difficulties.”

COURTSHIP: Courtship is the period of development towards an intimate relationship wherein a couple gets to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement, followed by a marriage

[1] S. KESSLER, supra note 8, at, 20. Kessler describes this stage as a time of personal growth: "Wiser, more aware of self and others, more effective in his or her dealings with others, the person in this last stage has capitalized on the pain of divorce and transformed it into strength." Id. at 45. See also M. KRANTZLER, supra note 127, at 27

[2] See generally S. KESSLER, supra note 8, at 43-44.

[3] Id. at 44.

[4] The diaclectic model was first presented in an earlier article. See Kaslow & Lieberman, supra note 142. For a more detailed discussion of this model, see Kaslow, supra note 1, passim.