OMG!
So… is this all it takes now?
Years of quiet distance.
Separate roofs.
Separate lives.
No shouting.
No fighting.
No dramatic exit.
Just… drift.
And the law says—enough.
But wait.
Can a marriage truly die by silence alone?
By absence?
By mutual indifference?
Let us ask properly.
Who are we to romanticise endurance when the law speaks in cold sections and subsections?
Who are we to insist on misery where the statute requires only proof?
Enter the case.
HOPE EVBAGUEHIKHA AJAYI v. GLORIA ONYEKA AJAYI
(2025) B/767/2023, High Court of Edo State.
Look at it again.
Married in 2010.
Living apart since 2018.
No protest.
No resistance.
No objection.
Eight years married.
Seven years separated.
Silence from the Respondent.
And the Petitioner knocks—politely—on the door of Section 15(2)(e) & (f) of the Matrimonial Causes Act.
The law listens.
The questions before the court were simple, almost embarrassing in their simplicity:
Can living apart for years—alone—prove irretrievable breakdown?
Does silence from the other spouse matter?
The court answered—calmly. Firmly. Without sentiment.
Yes.
Yes.
Because the Act does not ask for tears.
It does not demand scandal.
It does not require hatred.
It requires facts.
Two years or more of continuous separation.
Plus non-objection.
That is all.
And the court said it plainly:
“Where parties have lived apart for a continuous period of two years or more and the respondent does not object, this fact alone is sufficient proof of irretrievable breakdown of the marriage.”
No poetry.
No morality lecture.
Just law.
The court reminded us—almost sternly:
“A court cannot dissolve a marriage unless one of the grounds listed under Section 15(2) is established to the reasonable satisfaction of the court.”
Here, satisfaction was achieved.
Quietly.
Decently.
And so, a Decree Nisi was granted.
Three months to finality.
Then—Decree Absolute.
Marriage ended.
Not with fire.
Not with blood.
But with time… and silence.
What is the lesson?
That Nigerian matrimonial law is not emotional.
It is statutory.
Measured.
Predictable.
Live apart long enough.
Let the other party raise no objection.
And the law will not force together what life has already pulled apart.
To all Nigerians, the message is clear:
Dates matter.
Continuity matters.
Non-objection matters.
Evidence, not drama, wins these cases.
For couples drifting in quiet separation, the law is watching—patiently.
And when the conditions are met, the court will say, calmly:
Enough.
Case closed.
No appeal to nostalgia.
No review by regret.
Such is the law.
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