LET’S TALK DIVORCE (Pt. 1)

I know. I know, we do not want to talk about it, not a nice topic, but it is reality. Divorces happen. Marriage, the blissful union of two persons utterly in love with themselves, sometimes fail. No happy endings. No golden jubilees.

In April 2022, one of the Judges of the High Court of Lagos State announced in open court that he had close to 400 divorces cases in his docket. This further ground the fact that people are quitting their marriages at alarming rates, and judges are having tough time dealing with these cases that are a fallout of these failures.

In reality, divorces play out a lot differently than they do in Nollywood and Hollywood. A divorce proceeding (the process of ending a marriage) is nothing like the script you are perhaps familiar with. First out the window, there is no such thing as “divorce papers”. You don’t sign divorce papers. A divorce proceeding ends in a court order ending the marriage between the parties.

The process of getting a divorce is often hard and long-drawn out. The peculiarities of the Nigerian judicial system often result in divorce proceedings lingering for longer than envisaged at the time of filing the process.  At this point, it is to state that proceedings given their emotional nature are often heartbreaking as a number of things can play out differently than projected by the parties, Regardless of this, divorce proceedings must be resorted to when the need arises.

In this write up, I want to tell us the ground upon which the Court can dissolve (grant divorce) a marriage. This simply means that the Court will not just dissolve a marriage because both parties just feel like. You have to tell the Court the reason(s) why you are fed up of the union, and why it is necessary for the Court to grant your application for the divorce.

Also note, that there is a time limit. I have had clients come to me and say that they want to dissolve a marriage that is barely up to a month. Laughable. In which Court? The rule is simple, the couples must have been married for at least two years before the Court can consider dissolving the marriage. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule which are quite minimal.

In bringing this overview to a close, it is important to note that divorces must be commenced by filing a petition at the High Court. The petition can be filed at the high court of any state, regardless of the state in which the marriage was conducted.