In separate interviews on Sunday, some residents of Lagos State advised that traditional weddings should not be jettisoned.

The advice was on the backdrop of controversies over traditional weddings gradually becoming irrelevant in the wake of modern religious beliefs.

A lawmaker in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Bonu Solomon (APC -Badagry 1), said traditional weddings held significant cultural, social, and symbolic values in many societies.

According to the lawmaker, it connects couples to their roots, honours ancestral customs and traditions, and often involves the entire community, fostering unity and strengthening social bonds.

“Traditional weddings are often less expensive than white weddings, focusing on meaningful customs rather than elaborate decorations,” he said.

Lateef Rasheed, the chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association, Badagry chapter, said traditional weddings trace the roots of the bride and the groom and expose the lifestyles and characters of both parents and their backgrounds.

“Before traditional marriages are conducted, the families of the bride and bridegroom would have established a certain level of relationship; this is not done in white or conventional weddings.

“In conventional marriages, it is not compulsory that the two families meet or know each other; what is mostly required is the consent of the parties marrying each other with two witnesses.

” However, It must be noted that both traditional and statutory marriages are recognised under Nigerian law,” he said.

Hakeem Odubeko, a 67-year-old general merchant in Ikorodu, said traditional weddings were preferable to white weddings because they gave the bride more respect and added to her ability to endure challenges in the union.

Mr Odubeko said both couples would be guided by the principles and laws of their traditions with caution to live up to the expectations of both families.

Adewunmi Ajayi, a trader in the Ijede area of Ikorodu, said there was nothing like white or conventional weddings in the past; couples were traditionally married.

“The colonial masters introduced the new style of marriage, white wedding, to abolish the traditional wedding,” she added.

Babatunde Ajose, the chief executive officer of WestGate Resources Development Centre, Badagry, said, “The church, Nikhai and court weddings that we take as important are other people’s culture; they were imported with religion and colonialism.

” The features do not recognise some of our cultural beliefs like polygamy, submission to marriage tenets, taboos, existence and roles of family members in the success. This has led to incessant cases of divorce and violence in marriages.”

Adejoke Alogba, a trader in Alogba Estate, Ibeshe, said the traditional wedding was preferable to the white wedding because it allowed the bride to understand her husband’s culture more.

Mr Alogba said traditional weddings fostered long relationships between husband and wife because it encouraged payment of dowry and discouraged separation, which in turn made divorce a bit difficult.

Abdulrasak Osho, former chairman, Iponri Housing Estate, Surulere, Lagos, said that in traditional weddings, things that both families forbade were made known to the new couple.

(NAN)