Marriages must comply with relevant Act for validity, says Dambazau

Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, has said that for marriages contracted in Nigeria to be valid, they must comply with all the formal requirements in the Marriage Act 1990 Cap 218 of the Laws of the Federation.

Dambazau spoke in Abuja at the launch of a book entitled, Companion on Contracting Valid Statutory Marriages in Nigeria.

The Director of Human Resources Management in the ministry, Patrick Ejembi, who represented Dambazau said: “The Ministry of Interior is statutorily charged with the mandate for issues relating to marriages among others. A marriage contracted in Nigeria is not valid until it has complied with all the essentials and formal requirements in the Marriage Act 1990 Cap 218 of the Laws of the Federation as amended.”

According to him, most socio-economic problems across the globe derive directly from the family units, stressing the need for governments to take issues relating to marriages and family units seriously.

The book, authored by a serving director in the Ministry of Interior, Oladele Emmanuel Temilade, provides insight into the procedure for contracting valid marriages under the Nigerian legal system.

Oladele, who said that marriage was essentially crucial in any social setting, said: “When the issue of marriage is judiciously harnessed in human race, all other economic, political, technological and environments of human panorama will be entrenched.”

Meanwhile, Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, who was represented by Ndubuisi Ozigi, said the occasion was apt and a challenge to the civil servants to deploy their untapped potential in the areas of entrepreneurship culture and establishment of commercial behaviour in providing service.

“Problems are obvious source of entrepreneurial opportunities. Every problem or challenge in the civil service should be seen as an opportunity to generate revenue for government,” she said.

While commending the author’s dexterity in writing the book, Oyo-Ita stated: “The entrepreneur mindset is a fertile ground of constructivism where challenges are considered, solutions proposed and through which new products are birthed.”

She said an epic civil servant must not shy away from the mastery of innovative techniques for enhanced revenue generation, which becomes handy upon retirement from service.