Kano: Widows and Divorcees in Mass Wedding Fiesta

Kanos-wedding

History was made Tuesday, when in an unusual manner, a wholesome number of 100 couples were officially and properly wedded in a mass wedding ceremony that had all the trappings of a festival, nay carnival.

There are a thousand couples scheduled to participate in the rounds of marriages. But it was the turn of a hundred couples Tuesday, in what looks like a phased ceremony.

You may have heard of mass wedding, but the Kano wedding stands in a class of its own. And this is not so much because of the sheer breath-taking number of couples, it is in the status and personalities involved in the conjugal feast. They are, so-to-say, irregular couples.

Believing that the foundation of a sound  society stems from the order and peace of the family unit, the Director General, Hisbah Board, Mallam Abba Sa’id Sufi worked on the idea of encouraging the huge number of divorcees, widows and widowers to remarry and thus rekindle their love lives as well as fostering their family bonds.

Indeed, it is an exciting experience for all the beneficiaries as they seem to have been re-awakened from the lull and drudgery that had hitherto  characterised their lives. What’s more, the marriages, were not only initiated by the Hisbah Board, they were indeed sponsored by the government, what with all the doled-out funds to enable the couples establish a fairly comfortable home.

Beside the divorcees, widows and widowers, even the virtually-impaired also came along to partake of the sponsored marriage fiesta.
A blind couple, Adamu Maifada and Batula Umar of Garko local government area of the state, as well as a Muslim convert, Isa Boxer Gamber who hails from Langtang, Plateau State, were among the 100 divorcees and widows, who were mass-wedded yesterday.

The ceremony which attracted thousands of people, held at the Central mosque in the ancient city of Kano, while the newly wedded couples were presented with N20, 000 cash as part of government’s aid to empower them, while a dowry of N10, 000 was paid by officials of the state on behalf of the grooms to the brides. In the same vein, another N100, 000 was given to each of the couples to enable them furnish their homes.

Some of the newly-wedded couples were so excited and grateful to government for helping them get back the rhythm of their lives.  One of the grooms, Malam Dahiru Umar from Madobi local government area of the state explained that “it’s the happiest day for me today, because my mission is accomplished, which is to have a responsible partner as wife, I am very happy today and in my life, I will never forget this wonderful gift from God”.

He said “I have been searching for wife for over five years, but luckily for me with the  introduction of this mass marriage, I fulfilled the entire requirement to hook my life partner today as wife”.

Dahiru promised to abide by all the Islamic injunctions on marriage, and expressed his  gratitude to the Hisbah Board and the state government for the “wonderful exercise” that will help to reduce the population of unmarried people in the state.

It was gathered that government was keen on following all the “Due Process” in marriage as prescribed in the Islamic faith so that a good foundation is not only laid for strong families, but also to ensure that nobody will later fault the marriage process.

The wedding fatiha was performed by the Chief Imam of Kano, Professor Sani Zaharadeen who handed over the 100 brides to the Emir of Kano who later handed them over to governor Kwankwaso.

Speaking with THISDAY shortly after the marriage ceremony, the Director General, Hisbah Board, Malam Abba Sa’id Sufi, said due process was followed in the conduct of the exercise to ensure that it complies with Islamic injunctions.

Explaining the background to the mass wedding, The Director General recalled that a Non-Government Organisation, Voice of Orphan, Widows and Divorces of Nigeria (VOWAN)  headed by Hajiya Atine Abdullahi ,  had  notified the board of the existence of over 1,800 divorcees and widows who were willing and eager to re-marry. The information, Malam Sufi said, encouraged the board to commence  work on the marriage project which has resulted in the marriage witnessed yesterday. .

Malam Sufi noted that there were marriage contract certificates to be issued to the wedded couples, in accordance with Islamic injunction under the supervision of Kano State Hisbah Board, that stipulates that the husband should stay with his wife according to the teaching of Islam in love and sincerity’.

He noted that unlike before there were no contract agreement neither proper arrangement in marriage before couples entered into marriage that were among reasons most marriages collapse.

Before the marriages were accepted and conducted by the board, about 1,800 forms were given out to prospective husbands who were screened to determine their suitability for marriage, as well as also confirming their HIV statuses.