Is divorce legal in Nigeria?
Heavily restricted
Divorce is legal but requires a long period of separation.
Nigeria is one of 39 countries classified “Heavily restricted” for divorce — 39% of the 101 with data.
Source
- Taken from
- Wikipedia: Divorce law by country
- Last checked
- 15 September 2026
- How it was classified
- Read directly from the source’s own table, without interpretation.
Nearby countries
- Cameroon
- Heavily restricted Divorce is legal but requires a long period of separation.
- Ghana
- Heavily restricted Divorce is legal but requires a long period of separation.
- Burkina Faso
- Legal Divorce is legal and generally available by mutual consent without fault.
- Gabon
- Heavily restricted Divorce is legal but requires a long period of separation.
- Mali
- Legal Divorce is legal and generally available by mutual consent without fault.
- Liberia
- Heavily restricted Divorce is restricted to fault-based grounds only in Liberia.
Other laws in Nigeria
- Same-Sex Marriage
- Not recognized
- Same-Sex Activity
- Death penalty possible
- Sex Work
- Illegal
- Incest Laws
- Criminal offense
- Marriage Age
- 18+
A visual reference compiled from Wikipedia’s law-by-country articles, not legal advice. Laws change and summaries simplify — check a primary source before relying on anything here.