Well, at least there’s a man somewhere who believes in marriage. Really believes in marriage.

Mohammed Bello Abubakar was first sentenced to death by an Islamic court in Nigeria, the Jamatu Nasril Islam, if he didn’t divorce all but four of his wives.

How to choose? It’s a much tougher question than what CD’s you’d take to a desert island.

Abubakar argued that nowhere in the Koran is a man limited to four wives, and that none of his wives or 170 children had been forced to beg. The court in its fatwa said that he was guilty whether “out of ignorance” of the law or “by mistake,” and urged him to seek forgiveness or prepare to die.

He defied the court. “Some of these are people I have married and stayed with for over 30 years,” he told a local newspaper. “How can they expect me to leave them within two days?"

In the face of international coverage, the court lifted the death sentence.

Then it said Abubakar and his 86 wives and his 170 children would be evicted and banished from the state, if he didn’t divorce all but four of his wives.

Local sources told the media that Abubakar has agreed finally to go to court and get a mass divorce. He said he needed a few days to return all of the wives to their families. (Does he even know all their names? And what about child custody?)

But before the world could absorb that news, this just in. Abubakar, who has become a Nigerian cult figure in the space of a month, has now announced that not only will be not divorce his current wives, he plans to marry more.

At 84, he took his most recent wife, Hajia Monsura, in February. She is 30.

It’s not only folks in Nigeria who are wondering what Abubakar has to offer, other than supreme self assurance. But sometimes that’s enough.