Nigerian widows’ rights should be respected
International Widows Day
TODAY, as the world celebrates International Widows Day themed, “Accelerating the Achievements of Gender Equality (with emphasis on strengthening land and property rights),” the plight facing the rights of widows in Nigeria and scuttling their welfare needs to be thoroughly acknowledged and tackled.
First recognised by the United Nations in 2011, the IWD is an annual powerful reminder of the challenges faced by widows worldwide who have been robbed of their basic human rights and dignity.
“Experience from the past,” says the UN, “shows that widows are often denied inheritance rights, have their property grabbed after the death of partners, and can face extreme stigma and discrimination.” This is the harsh reality of millions of widows across the world, especially in Nigeria.
The UN factsheet estimated that nearly one in 10 of the over 258 million widows globally live in extreme poverty. In 2019, the International Women’s Society pegged the number of widows in Nigeria at 15 million with emphasis placed on the fact that they struggle daily to survive.
In addition to being devastated by the death of their partners, many widows are denied access to the inheritance of their husband’s property, and bank accounts, and cut off from access to pensions, which can have significant financial impacts on them, their children, and future generations. Patriarchal cultures across the country cruelly consign widows to remain unseen, unsupported, and forced to navigate their experiences of grief, loss, or trauma without social welfare or justice.
Not only are widows saddled with economic insecurity, discrimination, and stigmatisation, they have been subjected to sexual violence and harmful, degrading, and life-threatening traditional practices as part of burial and mourning rites.
Statistics indicate that as of 2023, the life expectancy for men is 60 years while women’s is 64 years, according to Statista. The World Bank notes that while 1.0 per cent of Nigerian men are widowers, 9.0 per cent of women are widows. Yet, due to a wrong and deeply ingrained cultural perception and gender disparity, widows are frequently accused of being the prime suspects behind their husbands’ deaths.
From discrimination to disinheritance, most women at the death of their husbands have been stripped “naked” physically, financially, and socially in the name of culture. The UN Women noted that in many countries, widows do not have equal inheritance rights, as they are often evicted from their homes or even separated from their children.
In August 2020, the Supreme Court of Nigeria upheld the right of a female child to inherit her father’s property. This decision has voided an age-long law and custom in certain parts of the country which forbade a female child from such inheritance.
However, little has changed for widows in the country as their rights continue to be violated and their humanity robbed by poverty and discrimination owing to the belief that inheritance follows blood, as widows are not blood relatives of their husbands.
In Nigeria, many widows are forcibly passed on or inherited by their late husband’s relatives, thus, denied rights to bodily autonomy and dignity in life after loss.
They are incarcerated, starved, bodily scarred, forced into “ritual cleansing,” tortured, neglected, accused of “witchcraft,” and banished from communities. Consequently, many widows have opted for suicide and have succumbed to death due to their suffering.
With economic hardship and poverty biting hard, widows in Nigeria face more hurdles in their survival battles.
As part of measures to safeguard the rights of widows, the World Bank has advised governments and policymakers to “adopt social and economic reforms to improve widows’ access to inheritance, land pensions, and social protections.”
The provisions of the 1999 Constitution which address issues of discrimination based on gender and make practices that disfavour women’s inheritance unconstitutional should be enforced. While the Nigerian constitution generally protects the rights to female inheritance, there should be legal reforms that will curtail customary practices that foster gender disparities in inheritance laws, especially for widows.
The Violence Against Person (Prohibition) Act of 2015, aimed to “eliminate violence in private and public life, prohibit all forms of violence against persons and provide maximum protection and effective remedies for victims and punishment of offenders.”
Section 15 subsection one of the Act states, “A person who subjects a widow to harmful traditional practices commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years or to a fine not exceeding N500,000 or both.” This law should be enforced to enhance the welfare of widows in Nigeria.
Widowhood should not be a death sentence. To this end, the House of Representatives should sponsor a bill that will eliminate all forms of repressive cultural practices against widows, uphold the protection of their fundamental human rights, and abolish all forms of harmful and degrading practices while prosecuting their perpetrators.
The federal, state, and local government tiers should create schemes that provide economic, social, and financial support for widows, and provide their children with education.
Non-governmental organisations, faith-based organisations, and corporate bodies should support initiatives that give widows priority in employment, adult education, business capital, healthcare, and psychological counselling.
There should be an increased emphasis on women empowerment and education which will improve the chances of widows to access material and social welfare. There should be a general campaign that prohibits the mistreatment of widows under the guise of culture or tradition.
More resources should be deployed towards exposure, education, and information to counter the culture of silence and secrecy which remains the reason for the downward transmission of the culture of abuse against widows.
