The speaker of Kano State House of Assembly has said that the public will be consulted on a bill that aims to ban poor men from marrying more than one wife.
Alhassan Rurum told BBC Hausa that Muslim religious leaders and scholars will also be consulted on defining who can be considered to be poor.
The controversial proposal on polygamy was made by Muhammad Sanusi II, the Emir of Kano, to ensure that men have families that they are able to take care of.
Sanusi gave the hint of the revamp some laws on 20 February.
He said certain laws could be introduced to stop men from involving in forced marriages and domestic violence as well.
Sanusi said that a connection had been established between polygamy, poverty and terrorism.
“Those of us in the [mainly Muslim] north have all seen the economic consequences of men who are not capable of maintaining one wife, marrying four,” he said then.
“They end up producing 20 children, not educating them, leaving them on the streets, and they end up as thugs and terrorists.”
The emir discussed different areas to be covered by the wide-ranging family law, which he said would be passed by the Kano state government:
“The law will address what Islam says on marriage, it will outlaw forced marriages, it will make domestic violence illegal, it will put in conditions that you need to fulfil before you can marry a second wife, it will spell out the responsibilities of a father beyond producing a child.”
“It is a big law which covers a whole range of issues from consent to marriage, to maintenance to divorce, to maintenance of children and inheritance. It will be the first time in northern Nigeria that a Muslim law on personal status will be codified.”
