There have been worries in many families in Igbo land when male children fail to get married when they are due. Often times, men as old as 40 remain unmarried, not because they do not want to be married, but because they lack the resources to do so.

Findings show that one of the reasons is high bride price. In many Igbo communities, it is believed that marriage is meant for mature men, not boys. Therefore, only real men who are ready and well equipped financially can pay the exorbitant bride price and provide all the items in the list brought by the family of the bride, which includes goat, bags of rice, tubers of yam, clothes and cash for various categories of people. Sometimes it is even made a condition that the bride must train one of her siblings up to the university level.

Again, Igbo men keep postponing marriage because, apart from the high bride price as noted in the preceding paragraph, the cost of traditional marriage is also high as it requires the throwing of flamboyant ceremonies as may be required by the family of the bride. For such traditional ceremonies, the groom provides money for dresses to be worn by the bride and the bridal train, the bride’s mother and her friends and provides money for the elaborate cooking that would be done.

Late marriage among our people has inevitably become more pronounced when unemployment in Igboland hit the rooftop. With a large number of Igbo graduates staying at home without jobs several years after graduation and with those who did not attain university education being apprentices for about eight years before they are settled by their masters to begin their own business, marriage becomes the least priority for our men.

Also, many Igbo girls prefer husbands who are already rich. Failure to get such husbands often attracts scorn from female colleagues and so, they would rather wait until rich men come to ask for their hands in marriage.

Feel free join the conversation… what other reasons do you know is responsible for late marriage among our youths?

Written by Dunu Okigbo