IMO STATE, Nigeria – A non-Muslim governmental official in the Southeast Nigerian state of Imo has appealed to men to marry two or more wives to reduce prostitution.

“I am not forcing you, but just encouraging you to marry two or more wives to reduce on women staying without husbands,” said Imo state Commissioner for Happiness, Oghechi Ololo, World Top News reported.

Ololo was speaking at a conference in Owerri which was attended by about 14,000 men, who were receiving training in various life skills.

According to the commissioner, Imo state has more women than men, forcing a lot of unmarried women to commit adultery with other people’s husbands.

She cited statistics saying that out of approximately 3.9 million Imo state indigenes, 3 million are women and only 900,000 are men.

“Our women are crying every day due to lack of men to marry and support them economically, hence they engage in prostitution,” Ololo said.

“So please try to work hard and be productive so that you can help our women by marrying two or more wives, provided you are able to provide for their basic needs”.

“As government, we shall be giving some small incentives to such men, provided you don’t abuse your wives,” the commissioner added.

Marriage is a highly recommended act in Islam in general and is the practice of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). But its status might differ from one person to another.

Scholars stated that marriage takes the five different rules of Shari`ah, i.e. obligatory (fard or wajib), recommended (mandub or mustahabb), permissible (mubah), disliked (makruh), prohibited (haram);

Multi marriage of one man and multiple women (or polygyny) takes almost the same rules of marriage furnished above. Meaning, it could be obligatory for the one who could not obtain his chastity with only one wife while being able to afford it, as well as to be just with his wives, recommended for…etc.