Tiv Elders place ₦100,000 Limit to be spent on Traditional Weddings

Tor Tiv, Prof. Ortese Iorzua James Ayatse

The Tiv Area Traditional Council (TATC) has placed a limit on the total expenses that can be made during traditional weddings in any part of Tivland.

Daily Trust reports that the amount has been fixed at ₦100,000 to include dowries as well as sundry issues.

The council also banned parties and festivities, which it said are alien to the tribe’s culture and traditions.

The practice of holding festivities in the house of the girl’s parents popularly known as Traditional Marriage involving cutting of cake, dances, parties should be discontinued as it is alien to the Tiv way of life. Celebration of a new wife is done by the Tiv People only in the husband’s house.

Love, not money, should be the primary issue between the two families, the council, which was headed by the Tor Tiv, James Ayatse, at the TATC Chambers on Friday said.

Love should be the primary issue between the families concerned in marriage discussion and transaction but not money. Therefore, total expenses on marriage including dowry or bride price (kem kwase) and all sundry issues (Azaan a kwase) which at the moment vary from one community or family to another should not exceed One hundred Thousand Naira (N100,000.00) in Tivland.

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