OLANIKE ODEWALE Lecturer, Lead City University, Nigeria & TOLULOPE ADESANYA Researcher, Lagos Business School, Nigeria

 The growing rate of divorce in Nigeria coupled with the high number of neglected children had necessitated the need for a review in child maintenance laws in the country.  It is universally believed that childhood is a period for receiving attention, love and support from their parents rather than such a deprival on the basis of maintenance and support structure or system.  We investigated ways of enforcing child support in Nigeria with multiple marriage laws. We further conducted research on the ways for enforcing the proper usage of such monies by those who receive it.

 In claiming maintenance under Nigerian laws, cognizance need be paid to the nature of marriage contracted by the parties.  Three types of marriage are recognized by Nigerian courts; customary marriage, statutory marriage and Islamic marriage.  Statutory maintenance obligation must conform with the provisions of the Matrimonial Causes Act and Rules and the Child’s Rights Act  Maintenance obligation under the Islamic law which is applicable in the Northern region of Nigeria is compulsory on the part of the father.  Rules of maintenance obligations under customary law differs.  Under most customary systems in Nigeria, women have no custody rights except of children who are still being breastfed.

 Statutory maintenance obligation must conform with the provisions of the Matrimonial Causes Act and Rules and the Child’s Rights Act  Maintenance obligation under the Islamic law which is applicable in the Northern region of Nigeria is compulsory on the part of the father.  Under most customary law systems, women have no custody rights except of children who are very young

 The major laws that deal with child support are the Matrimonial Causes Act and the Child’s Rights Act  While the MCA is applicable throughout the Federation, the CRA is only applicable to the FCT with options of domesticating same by any State which so desires.  Till date, only 26 States of the Federation had domesticated their versions of the law with various modifications  The MCA on its part was enacted forty-five years ago and did not envisage the current economic situation  An example of the flaws in the MCA is that the court has the power to commit a defaulter to terms of imprisonment or with an option of fine of 200 naira (about $1) which obviously does not serve as a means of deterrence for anyone.

 Also, in part four of the Act, reasonable steps were taken to include the maintenance of other children born by either of the party before contracting the marriage, if such a child had been a part of the family and had always lived in the family.  Section 69(C) on the other hand expressly excludes children born outside of the marriage that had been adopted by another person.  Another provision with a little ambiguity is Section 70(1) (2)&(3) of the Act, which is also supported by Section114(1) which envisages maintenance of the children of a marriage only on a condition of a pending matrimonial cause or matrimonial proceeding.

 Also, the MCA applies to parties whose marriage is celebrated under the Act  For children of customary marriages, child support is usually tied to the mode of support recognised by the custom in question.  In most cases, the father has the sole responsibility to support the child  With the adoption of CRA and domestication of same in 26 States of the Federation, family courts have been established by most of these States.  A less formal family court manned by Magistrates sits at every office of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Child Welfare with a less formal procedure of hearing

 The parties can choose to represent themselves or employ the services of legal practitioners  At these courts, emphasis is on the best interest of the child and that is the sole consideration  This procedure caters for children born both in and outside wedlock  The Magistrates act more as Mediators and Conciliators and try to appeal to the parties to consider what is best for the child(ren) in question.  There is no uniformity in the way and manner child support issues are handled in Nigeria.  There is no database to manage issues of child support and as such, many children are left uncatered for

 The lack of ICT use in management of child support in Nigeria had hindered the progress of same  Above all, the needs of the children who require child support are unmet because of lack of information  Most parents with custody are not aware of any mechanism that could assist them to ensure that a non paying parent could be compelled to pay with an option of punishment  There is low awareness level of the existing laws on child support in Nigeria  The laws on child support in Nigeria are inadequate to deal with the best interest of the Nigerian child  Child support system in Nigeria does not accommodate children who are not well catered for by their parents or families.

As the call for the adoption of the Child Rights continues, states yet to adopt the Act all seem to give ethnic and cultural reasons for its non-adoption as question of marriage age and determination of a child’s age feature prominently in their arguments. An increase in the number of children beggars and the number of Children without education is an indication that many children need actual support in Nigeria irrespective of the fact that their parents are legally married, divorced or separated.

 Since the CRA which would have been the best guarantee for the Nigerian child had failed in that it does not apply to the whole Federation, any specific law on the same issue will face the same ridicule.  The starting point will be to effect an amendment of the Nigerian Constitution to remove child justice administration from the concurrent list and place it on the exclusive list of the government such that laws relating to children will be applicable throughout the country without the option of States domesticating the National law before it can become effective  There is a dire need for a specific law on child support in Nigeria and a starting point for this will be to ratify the Hague Maintenance Convention and Protocol of 2007 and to domesticate same with necessary modifications.

Together, let’s work for the best interest of the child Thank you 谢谢