The reason why many women would rather die in abusive marriages than seek divorce or even speak out was accentuated on Wednesday morning at a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where the presiding judge asked the petitioner’s counsel whether she advised her client that “husbands are scarce.”
Not a few Nigerians have expressed outrage over a bizarre incident which occurred in open court leaving lawyers and litigants alike stunned.
In a post shared on a number of WhatsApp platforms, the lawyer had this to say:
“Talking about the judiciary. I am in court now for a matrimonial matter. Seeking to move the motion to serve Respondent via email. Judge says no that he doesn’t grant such applications in his court.
“I said the court should be guided by the rules of court and read out the relevant portion that says service can be done via email. He now asked whether the Petitioner is the husband or wife and I said wife. He asked if she was in court and I said no.
“The Judge says, did you advise her that husbands are scarce and hard to come by? He goes on to say that a woman that is not married is like a goat in the market that anyone can approach.
“And I quickly told him I was glad my client wasn’t in court to hear him say all the things he was saying.
“I further said I had discussed with my client and she would not miss whatever benefits marriage confers on women since she hadn’t enjoyed them in a long while.
“The Judge continued oo. He only stopped when he asked me if he was making sense and I said I wouldn’t want to say no!”
Describing the judge’s remarks as scandalous, several public affairs analysts noted that Nigeria has a long way to go in combating gender prejudices.
Lawrence Agbo a social justice advocate posited that how a presiding Judge could jump into the arena and make such a statement so callously in open court is mindboggling.
A female lawyer who does not want her name in print added: “They bring their religion, culture and patriarchy to court to oppress women. I find that this is a big problem with male Judges in matrimonial proceedings especially when the woman is the petitioner. This is just unacceptable.”
Another lawyer who also spoke under anonymity, disclosed that a high court judge has failed to give a ruling in a motion she moved since April requesting a virtual hearing for children in a matrimonial cause petition she filed in 2022 considering that one is in a boarding school and the others outside the country.
