The Nigerian Man With The Highest Number Of Wives

How many numbers of wives can a man manage? Maybe it is actually true that it would take only 30 men to impregnate all the women in the world if all the sperm cells are viable. Polygamy is not a new thing, but Mohammed Bello Abubakar took his own to the extreme by marrying 120 wives in his lifetime. Maybe he would have married more since he claimed he manage them so well and there is peace in his home. Let’s get into the life of the Nigerian man with the highest number of wives and his polygamy controversies.

Muhammadu Bello Abubakar Masaba Bida ( born 28 January 1924) in Nigeria. Masaba is known for having stirred up controversy in his hometown Bida, Niger State due to his extensive polygamy, and for being outspoken, he was charged under Sharia law and sent to prison in 2008 for refusing to divorce 82 of his wives. Islam limits the number of wives a Muslim man can have to four, mandating they must be all treated equally. He married 120 wives, divorced 10, and fathered 203 children. At the time of his death on January 28 2017, some of his wives were believed to be pregnant.

Masaba was a teacher and imam. He lived in an entire apartment block with his family. Masaba claimed that he never pursued his wives and that he was sought by them due to his reputation as a healer. Most of his wives were younger than 30 years of age, and a few younger than his elder children. In interviews with Al Jazeera English, his wives claimed that he was a good husband and father.

The Quran states that a man may marry up to four wives mandating they must be all treated equally. Masaba claimed that when the Quran set a law, it must also set a punishment for offenders, and no punishment was given for this offence.

During a prison interview, Masaba told The Christian Science Monitor:

“If God permits me, I will marry more than 86 wives. A normal human being could not marry 86 – but I can only by the grace of God, I married 86 women and there is peace in the house – if there is peace, how can this be wrong?”

After the death pronouncement on him by the Islamic group, Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), the Bida Emirate Council and an assembly of Islamic leaders invited Masaba for interrogation. Deliberations were given in Etsu Nupe’s palace Bida and the Etsu Nupe of Bida, Yahaya Abubakar read out a verdict saying that Masaba should divorce 82 of the 86 wives within 48 hours or leave the entire Nupe Kingdom as his safety could not be guaranteed within the kingdom. At the expiration of the ultimatum, Masaba refused to divorce any of his wives and denied ever promising this.

In 2008 Bello was arrested by Islamic authorities and tried before a Sharia court. Before his trial at the Sharia court, Police in Niger State gave him a clean bill, as the state command declared that nothing incriminating was found in his house. The leader of the police team, that arrested the Islamic cleric in Bida before 27 September 2008, Deputy Commissioner of Police, John Olayemi declared:

“We found nothing incriminating in his house. There was no knife, no pistol or skull in his house when we went to invite him to the headquarters for a chat.”

DCP Olayemi explained that the command of arresting Masaba acted on an instrument of the Upper Sharia Court.

Bello Masaba had once told the BBC:

“A man with ten wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 of them.”

On 12 November 2008, a Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja ordered the release of Bello Masaba from detention in Minna Prison with immediate effect. The trial high court judge, Justice G.O. Kolawole attached no condition to his release. 

Masaba is frequently depicted by the media as “the man with 86 wives.” Contrary to some media reports that Masaba divorced 82 out of his 86 wives, he refused to divorce any of his wives.

After a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordered the release of Masaba from detention, he had 18 more children, having a total of 138. Masaba came into the limelight with another super polygamist, Ziona Chana of India in 2011. As of May 2011, Masaba had 89 wives and 133 children while India’s Ziona Chana had 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren.

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