A pre-nuptial agreement (“prenup”), also known as ‘pre-marital agreement’, is a contract between a prospective husband and wife, which sets out the terms of ownership of assets acquired before and after the marriage and determines how earnings during the subsistence of the marriage will be treated and the settlement of property in the event of separation or divorce. The agreement would usually deal with the consensus of the parties on issues like debts, entitlement to retirement plans and accounts, separate and joint property, living expenses, gifts, separation and divorce, rights of parties to property in the event of death, child support/maintenance, etc.
Until recent times, the idea of a prenup was alien to Nigeria. This is because marriage was (and still largely is) considered a sacred institution created by God and initiated by love and any attempt to imply its contractual nature as evidenced in the signing of prenup (as done in “foreign lands’) was abominable. In fact, it can safely be said that people blindly entered into marriages, without discussions on crucial issues like property and finance.
One major reason for this is the magnified position of the man as the natural ‘bread winner of the family with a duty to provide for his wife and children[1]. Many women were full-time housewives. However, times have changed. Women now work and own properties like men. It is not then, uncommon to find men looking to marry women that can ‘take care of them’ these days.
Another reason was that divorce was not common because of the place of family, deep-rooted traditions and religion that held couples bound to unhealthy and sometimes, life-threatening marriages and relationships. Today, these factors’ hold on marriages has lessened. In various courts in Nigeria today, it is no longer strange to see people seeking the dissolution of marriages aged only a few months or a few years, with unbelievable tales of marital difficulties.
