The video of the woman who allegedly tore her husband’s Nigerian passport, which has gone viral, because she has some family quarrels to settle with him, is a classical instance of how to make a domestic matter a public issue; and a public object, the cause of pain on the domestic front. What do we mean? The dispute between a husband and a wife is ostensibly a domestic affair; but a spouse tearing the other’s international passport has turned a domestic quarrel into an offence against the state.

That is so because, though the passport is issued to an individual, it is actually held in trust by the holder, since the passport under the laws of the country is the property of the state. So, the act of destroying a private passport is a crime punishable under the Immigration Act 2015. Section 10(b) of the Act, provides that any person who “unlawfully alters, tampers with or mutilates any passport or any pages thereof, is liable to imprisonment for a term of 10 years or a fine of N2 million or both.”

Even more unfortunate is that the violent act was perpetrated by the woman in front of her impressionable children. The video showed her pulling her three children away from the shocked immigration officials and other users of the airport. We wonder why the immigration officials did not pull her in for questioning immediately she tore the passport. Her action is no different from taking up a hammer and destroying the facilities at the airport. Would the officials allow her walk away in such circumstance?

Perhaps, the immigration officials were either too shocked to react immediately, or they did not know that what she did constituted a crime? Either way, the officials failed in their duties. But, having identified the culprit as Mrs Favour Igiebor, we commend them for inviting her for formal questioning, and eventual prosecution as provided by the relevant laws of our country. The consequences of her action must be in the open and hopefully travel as far as the harm she has done to the image of our country, in the social media.

In her reaction, the woman had claimed that she had been a victim of domestic abuse. She said: “This issue has been going on for a long time. And I had to do what I did. Don’t just look at my actions alone. I am not a mad woman. I have gone through many things. I have my own reasons.” She went on: “My husband is his mother’s boy, his sister’s and brother’s best brother, leaving me, the wife, to suffer.”

If that is true, she has our sympathy over her life troubles, even though that would not exculpate her from the consequences of her action in tearing the passport. Still, the issues she raised should be of concern to the public. She alleged that she has been a victim of domestic abuse by the husband and his family members. No doubt, family members sometimes constitute a cog in the relationship between a husband and wife, but who knows whether her testimony represents the true state of affairs, since the husband has not gone public with what ordinarily is a domestic dispute.

Our simple counsel to married couples would be that they should not allow family members be the source of friction in their marriage. And where there is a dispute that the couples cannot settle within, they should seek professional help from marriage counsellors. When couples bottle up their anger, they may resort to violence at the slightest provocation. Mrs Favour Igiebor’s action however seems to be premeditated. In the video, she said her intention is to ensure that her husband does not travel out of the country again.

All said, we would want the immigration officials to also investigate the purported claim by the husband that the entire matter was a skit and update Nigerians appropriately. Whether it is true or false, the public must get to the root of the matter because what is in the public domain cannot simply pass off any longer as a family affair. (The Nation Editorial)

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