BATTA BOX VIDEO - Are Nigerians "Education Snobs" - can we marry non-Graduates?

Education in Nigeria is extremely important - passing through school and then university is often essential to most careers and provides a boost when searching for work... but what about love? BattaBox headed out to the streets of Lagos to find out if Nigerians can marry non-graduates...

"It must be a graduate because I'm a graduate - love does not supersede everything," says one woman. "Our level of thinking will be very different."


It does not matter what the qualification is, or if the person we ask is a graduate but instead we wanted to find out how important university degrees are outside of the educational and business sphere of life in Nigeria.

"I don't think I could marry a non-graduate because of the level of understanding," says another woman. "Maybe if love is there, but everything will not be possible."

It does appear for many Nigerians - not having a certificate limits the possibilities of a marriage.

Except for men:

"I can marry a non-graduate," says one man. "I can marry someone and educate her. My father educated my mother."

The education system in Nigeria faces enormous challenges - with massively overcrowded institutions, very little funding and investment, challenge from overseas and private education systems - and then finally a scarcity of jobs when the graduates finally leave university.

"There are some places we would go and he would have inferiority complex about not being a graduate," says one lady.