The chairman of Reports and Documentation does his best to find a pairing. “It’s usually a match,” said that chairman, Adam Haruna Bayaro, who has arranged more than 100 couplings that way.
There is a catch: All men must agree not to leave the wife without approval from the Hizbah. And yet, men keep signing up.
So do women, albeit sometimes under duress. Police recently arrested about 20 prostitutes and gave them a choice between jail time or marrying a government-selected partner, said Mrs. Akilu. Their husbands weren’t informed of their profession.
On a rainy afternoon last April, the government married Jamila Lawan, then 17, to a taxi driver, 35. Five months later (and five months pregnant), Mrs. Lawan showed off what she bought with the money: a sewing machine.
Older couples also have tied the knot, said Mr. Usman, who helped match a man in his 80s to a septuagenarian bride.
“He wanted to have somebody,” Mr. Usman recalled. “You know, a wife is really important.”
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