A Nigerian homemaker and mother has issued a powerful rejoinder to the recent comments made by Dr. Monday O. Ubani, SAN, on the Court of Appeal’s ruling in Aguolu v. Aguolu (2025) LPELR-80269(CA), challenging his dismissal of the “50/50 myth” in matrimonial property division.
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In an open letter titled “A Homemaker’s Response to Dr. Ubani’s Comment on the 50/50 Division of Property in Divorce,” Mrs. S. U. Ibrahim, a full-time homemaker from Kaduna, voiced deep concern over what she described as the continued legal undervaluation of non-financial contributions made by wives in Nigerian marriages.
According to Mrs. Ibrahim, many women like herself have given up careers and economic independence to raise children, manage households, and support their husbands’ progress—yet find themselves unprotected when marriages collapse.
“Raising children, running the household, supporting the husband’s career, and ensuring the emotional and physical stability of the family are not minor tasks. They are labor-intensive, full-time responsibilities,” she wrote.
Responding to Dr. Ubani’s reliance on Section 72 of the Matrimonial Causes Act, which grants courts discretion to determine what is “just and equitable,” she warned that this discretion often leans in favor of the financially stronger spouse—typically the man.
“In practice, judicial discretion often favors the spouse with documented assets, financial records, and influence. The woman, who cooked every meal and nursed every child, is left to prove her ‘worth’ to a legal system that doesn’t recognize her labor in economic terms,” she argued.
Mrs. Ibrahim further defended the 50/50 principle as practiced in the United Kingdom, describing it not as a flaw but as a model of progress.
“Shouldn’t Nigeria aspire to that kind of fairness, especially as we push for gender equality in policy, politics, and practice?” she asked.
She also highlighted the unequal starting point many Nigerian women face in marriage, where they enter relationships without assets or economic empowerment and rely heavily on societal assurances that their husband’s resources are shared.
“But when that house becomes hostile and a woman has to leave with only her handbag and her children, where is the equity?” she asked pointedly.
Mrs. Ibrahim called on the judiciary, lawmakers, and public commentators to push for urgent legal reforms that better reflect the lived realities of Nigerian women. She urged that:
- Domestic labor be recognized as a valuable contribution to the marriage.
- Presumptions of equal entitlement apply in long-term unions marked by joint effort.
- Discretionary rulings be tempered to avoid inherent bias in favor of wealthier spouses.
“Until then,” she concluded, “we homemakers will continue to live in fear—fearing not just heartbreak, but homelessness.”
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