Controversial Nigerian billionaire and polygynist, Ned Nwoko, made the following points in his trending BBC Igbo interview:
1. Our (non-Muslim) cultures supported and at times even encouraged polygamy but European Christian missionaries quashed it.
2. It is better to practice polygamy than to have a hypocritical system of one man, one wife, and six mistresses.
3. There is a serious contradiction when a [patriarchal] society defines female honor and respectability solely in terms of marriage and yet insists on one man one wife [in a culture where women are prohibited from marrying more than one husband at a time. Unless men outnumber women by a large margin, which is not the case, the equation is grossly unbalanced].
4. In a society in which power, resources, and opportunities are disproportionately in the hands of men, marrying more than one wife if you can afford it may help to empower some women who may otherwise be socioeconomically disenfranchised and end up selling their bodies.
5. Igbo people (Southern Nigerians?) should marry more wives and have more children if they don't want the demographic gap between them and the Muslim north to further widen.
Apart from number 5, which is highly problematic as Nigeria is already suffering from the effects of overpopulation and because of its flawed premise of demographic competition, is any of Nwoko's points above in serious dispute?
P.S: I have taken the liberty to paraphrase his points and I have added clarifying additions in parenthesis.
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