Joint Accounts: Yay or Nay?

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A very interesting discussion took place in my office yesterday and I tried to write about it immediately, but there’s just always one form of distraction or the other these days. I have a couple of half written posts and I had to make a mental resolve not to let this one suffer the same fate as my other half baked posts.

To be honest I’m not sure how that Monday morning office conversation went from sitting with your wife in church even when it means being confined to the nursing mothers section of the church, to using your spouse to wade off advances from the opposite sex, to Joint Accounts.

Joint Accounts are usually a sensitive topic for discussion. Couples try to agree on whether to have Joint Accounts prior to getting married or once the dotted lines are signed. I just assumed it was common place to discuss whether or not to have Joint Accounts. And I might as well add that even when people agree to have a Joint Account, sometimes they never get around to opening one. But nonetheless, even though I’m quite familiar with the concept of Joint Accounts and the fact that couples maintain one, the perspective from which the subject was discussed in my office was quite intriguing and left me with a question. Wait for it.

One of my ‘male’ bosses from the North could not fathom why you would use your spouse to wade off advances from the opposite sex, and as if the both subjects were related he suddenly scoffed at the concept of a Joint Account. “Why would you have a Joint Account, what are you joining account for? Why do you need a woman to help you with your responsibilities, it is laziness to even suggest a joint account with your wife.” Recalling the conversation as I type is getting me even more intrigued. Without letting us get a word in, he continues “So you want your wife to contribute towards your responsibility, do you go into labour with your wife, do you wake up at 2am with her? So why should you make plans on her money? If you have a wife, you should provide and if you know you cannot provide, then don’t marry.” GBAM!

My Yoruba colleague enters midway into the conversation and exclaims “So it is the man that should die?” that’s when it hit me, and which is where my question comes in, is the concept of Joint Accounts a western thing? Have Yoruba men found a way to hedge their pride by making the woman contribute financially to their desired lifestyle?

I had never considered the cultural perspective to Joint Accounts. My boss from the East admits that it is his responsibility to provide, but once in a while he can ask his wife for help. What commenced with a casual remark soon resulted in a debate on the rationale for joint accounts. Apparently our northern brothers have no business with their wife’s money; they regard it as being in the driver’s seat and are not opposed to their wife chipping in financially if something happens in the course of the marriage which prevents them from providing. The one thing they are against is deciding from the start of the marriage that your wife will contribute financially.

Of course there are downsides to the way the home is run in every tribe, but some of these points had me thinking; While a Hausa man won’t touch his wife’s money and won’t be insecure if she has more money, An Igbo man will drive a golf and give his wife the Jeep; if there is no car, the Igbo man will take the public transport with his wife and carry the baby bag or the baby proudly on the road, According to YMC, my Yoruba brothers can express all the love in the world and not give you a dime. There are exceptions no doubt, the preponderance of opinion however seems to be that our Yoruba brothers are comfortable if the woman decide to spend her money even where the man has more money.

Again, this is merely meant to generate responses from various perspectives, especially from my Yoruba brothers out there. Does having a Joint Account imply that you expect your wife to contribute financially? I did try to argue that having a Joint Account was merely to encourage a savings culture, but nah, my brothers from the North would have none of it. I do think there is more to the rationale for deciding on a Joint Account, and Accountability is perhaps the most convincing of all. But then again, does having a Joint Account even mean, ensure, or signify anything? Is there a cultural perspective to Joint Accounts?

So to every brother from Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, Lagos, Kwara, and some Kogi brothers, what say ye to Joint Accounts? Yay or Nay? And why?