The Federal Marriage Registry, Ikoyi, Lagos is unarguably Nigeria’s most patronised registry. Taiwo Abiodun spent a day watching proceedings.
As early as 7am, the Federal Marriage Registry, Ikoyi’s compound had started receiving visitors from all walks of life. It’s the dawn of another business day. By 8a.m. the premises had become jam-packed with a crowd of intending couples, relations, friends and well wishers. In and outside the premises were hordes of exotic choice cars decorated with ribbons and tagged About To Wed or Just Wedded in place of their number plates.
Some of the cars, however, had no decorations, they remained simple or rickety with no indication that they came to the registry. As some couples were disembarking from their exotic cars and stepping into the compound others too strolled in to consummate their wedding and tie the nuptial knots. The Event Halls in the compound were filled to the brim by those who came from all corners of the country. It was a Thursday.
Tying the knots
In a jiffy, the hall of the registry and the compound were filled with friends, family members and well-wishers bearing their gift items to present to the newly wed couples who either wore their English wedding gowns and suits or were there in their traditional dresses. While the Registry officer was announcing the next number of intended couples to come in and perform the “ritual’’ one after the other, their families happily followed them into the inner room where they would be joined together and become husband and wife!
While some of the well wishers were dressed in fanciful traditional attires others were in uniform known among relatives as aso ebi. They added colour and panache to the occasion. In their happy mood and joyous moment the well wishers danced along with the newly weds, singing praises to the Lord who made the day to come to pass without any hitches. To liven the occasion and pep it up dancers and traditional drummers who are officially attached to the Ikoyi Registry joined in the celebration with their native drums, and beaded gourds [sekere] and gongs drumming, singing praises of the couples. They sang to high heavens and the shouts of Hallelujah rent the air. The couples and well -wishers in return ‘sprayed’ money and pasted different naira denominations on the fore heads of the drummers and dancers who entertained and thrilled them. While the official photographers attached to the Registry also took photograph of all. Officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria who launched campaign against what they called “abuse of the naira” may perhaps need to pay a visit to this place to see how our currency is treated.
The Registry is the ultimate leveller. Both the high and the low of different status, different ages and from all ethnic groups and nationalities assemble to sign the dotted lines, after saying the usual “I do’’. After this ritual, the couple would hug, kiss and take photographs with their family members and well wishers. All these protocols over, the merriment go into full gear.
Some of the couples in their happy mood would display their wedding certificates!
Throughout the week there are no dull moments. In fact, one is tempted to ask whether it was a weekend or not, for it was all fun throughout. The idea of holding weddings at weekends has become a thing of the past as weddings are consummated from Tuesday through Saturday! Outside the Registry is a big billboard which is the centre of attraction of all patrons. Many eyes are focused on the bill board as they turned it to a model house or studio taking several photographs at different postures. The young and the old irrespective of their ages posed in front of the bill board. Many of the couples posed in front of the billboard as evidence of their presence at the Federal Registry, Ikoyi, which is believed to be the only Registry with authentic and recognised marriage certificate outside the country.
Photo opportunities
The question on most lips is: Are all these wedding ceremonies genuine? How do we know the real ones? What is the intention of the new couples? And why did they prefer Federal Registry, Ikoyi to the ones runs by local governments? Questions in search of answers.
However, investigation reveals that most of all these wedding ceremonies were consummated for one reason or the other, while very few are genuine, others are said to be ‘arrangee ’, fake and full of insincerity and deceit as there is a motive behind most of them. But deep in the couples’ minds they know what they are doing! To cap it all, with serious scrutiny and for someone with eagle’s eye one could observe how and why the newlywed after signing the dotted lines or after the wedding event struggle to take photographs of different postures and pose with the giant billboard placed at the entrance of the hall and making sure the words on the big billboard : Federal Marriage Registry, Ministry of the Interior Ikoyi –Lagos is conspicuously seen.
Welcome to the Federal Registry Ikoyi, where marriage activities take place four times in a week. It is considered to be the Marriage Registry that attracts more clients than any other one in the country!
Posted on the office boards of the Registry are: passport photographs and information about the intending couples bearing their names and addresses, status [single or divorced], and religious affiliation. All these are conspicuously displayed on the notice board. According to one of the officials of the Registry, this is the first step to inform the public of the couples’ intention to get married. This must be displayed for a mandatory 21 working days. This is to allow any member of the public with any objections to the marriage to state so. This, according to the official is very important. “On the notice board here, one could see intending couples from different professions, ages, and status (i.e. divorcees or singles). This is necessary in case there may be any objections to it , so 21 working days is enough to inform the public of their intention to get married,’’ a male official told The Nation. However, how effective this is yet to be seen. For instance, a person living in Badagry that comes to Ikoyi to wed may not get any objection within the stipulated 21 days because he/she is not in a place where he/she is known!
At the Registry there is more than meets the eye. Take the case of a woman who is about 60years old planning to be the wife of a 35- year old bachelor or a man of 55 who is marrying a 20-year -old girl!
‘Arrangee’ marriages
Many who come to the Registry for one purpose or the other reduce their age, and many of the intending couples are either of the same blood or they are from the same parents but needed to ‘perfect’ their travelling papers with their ‘husbands’ or ‘wives’ to enable them travel abroad.
An, old man, Mr. Yemi [not real name] who came as one of the witnesses for the wife could not stop laughing seeing a ‘couple’ whose husband could either be 30years older than his wife. The old man burst into laughter and said “All these fake marriages are done just to have access to travelling documents, now people have been forced to bear all sorts of names to reflect the names they gave the whites and over what they are going for.’’ Another man who came to celebrate with a couple interjected, “It is not new, we are used to it,” the two again burst into laughter.
As the clerk calls another number for the couple to come into the inner hall, to go and sign the dotted lines the well wishers burst into songs while the officials seized the opportunity to squeeze money out of the couple and family members asking them to dole out money meant for different kinds of celebrations such as money for special prayer (owo adura), money from well wishers, among others.
The most surprising thing is that the ages of some of the couples, especially the brides are either under-aged or too old for marriage, while some of the grooms are either very old or too young to marry the bride. In a nut shell, some are of no match. Some are even blood relations as they look alike and from their conversations one could notice the relationship between the intending ‘couples’.
According to the officials in the Ministry of Interior, there are some prerequisites which all intending couples must fulfill before they are joined together as husband and wife. The official who does not want his name mentioned said, “For a couple living in the country, they must pay a fee of one thousand naira and this has to be paid into the bank. Later they would pay N5,000 for the oath of marriage and that is the financial aspect of it. However, for the intending couple living abroad and who wants to come home to marry legally here, they must bring their documents revealing their status and their identities for example, whether the man was a bachelor, and to affirm the woman’s status as a spinster too. They must also in addition bring their birth certificates of which must be from the National Population Commission [NPC], certificate of origin, a bio data page of their international passport and evidence of living in United Kingdom or wherever they live. They must also bring along SOA [Seen On Arrival] and which must have been stamped at the point of entry at the airport, all these must be in coloured print. On the financial aspect of it, the sum of N34,000 must also be paid along with it, while another N20,000 has to be paid for the approval to the administration, all the money to be paid. in a specified banks.
“If anyone of them had divorced , he or she must bring proofs like Nissi, which is the first divorce letter given to any one of them and [this is the divorce letter given to a party to think about the intended divorce for three months in case they might want to change their minds] while another divorce letter called ‘Absolute divorce’ will be presented, before the wedding takes place, if the couple have both divorced they must bring their divorce certificates.’’
The official continued, “An amount of N1000 is paid to the Registry if the wedding is to take place during the week days [Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday] but if it is on Saturday the couple will have to pay N3,500 only, since it falls on weekends.
About 50 intending couples are joined together in a day. Each intending couple is called upon one after the other. And sometimes they finish at 3pm depending on the number of couples that booked for their wedding on that day.
A man confided in this reporter and said,“ I had been here over six hours and my sister who came from America was yet to be called to the room to sign the dotted lines, her husband whom she had married for a long time cannot join her in the US because of marriage certificate, they have done the traditional wedding but the embassy demanded for marriage certificate which must be from the Federal Ministry of Interior .That is the reason why his wife had been in the country and his wife who is my sister will soon go back to file for him since this is the only acceptable and recognised certificate outside Nigeria .’’Another lady who came with another couple said “We came all the way from Alimosho local government to do this wedding here, because the Embassy demanded for wedding certificate and that is the evidence of marriage .’’ She added “You can see how people are using style to pose with the signboard of the Ministry , this will convince the oyinbos the more, and that is what they want.’’
Another couple who many believe are brother and sister, because of their striking resemblance, could not stop people from laughing when they could not hug as husband and wife! They struck a wrong cord as husband and wife.
Another scene that sent everybody reeling in laughter was a ‘couple’ which when asked to hug themselves, only pecked each other’s cheeks! In a hushed tone someone from the crowd said “This wedding na wa o, just to have access to America!’’
Since some of the marriages last for a few hours and in order to save cost most of the items brought are rented! Items such as wedding gowns, men’s suits etc. These go for between N5000 and N8,000 while flowers are provided for a fee of N500, a wedding gown is rented for between N5,000 and N8,000.
A woman who rented out wedding gowns said categorically that “There is no need of going out there to sew a wedding gown for huge amount of money when one would use it for only few hours! Our business is to rent out the wedding gowns.’’
Worn -out wedding gowns
Interestingly some of the wedding gowns have become brown and dusty, they are no longer white and sparkling, showing that they had seen good old time and overused. That is not all, the men’s suits are of different sizes and hues. For this too, grooms can pay as little as N4,000 to rent one.
The entertainers had FMR boldly written on their uniforms showing they are registered officials working in the vicinity of the Registry. On how much they charge, one of them said “We don’t charge, we collect whatever they give us and we make our cool money here.”
True to what this reporter was told, immediately after the wedding, some of the brides removed their rented gowns, and changed to what they wore to the venue.
They have achieved their aim and are no longer in need of the wedding apparel; they have taken pictures with them and posed with the signboard of the Registry in order to add it to their travelling documents!
The day is over and the wedding is ended. Thus ended the reporter’s day at the country’s most -famed marriage registry!!!
