Equal inheritance rights is a panacea for national development

Earlier this year, 35-year-old Nnenaya Onu was reported to have lost her life to men alleged to be her cousins who beat her up, strip her naked, dismembered and burnt her alive in her father’s compound. Her only crime was demanding a share of her late father’s properties.
News of her death which occurred on December 23rd, 2021 only came to the limelight four months later, sparking outrage after the nation’s human rights commission filed a petition calling for investigations into the circumstances surrounding her death as the identity of her killers.
To date, no arrest has been reported and justice seems far-fetched for the deceased and her 65-year-old widowed mother left with just one out of eight children who all died mysteriously for reasons related to a family dispute over inheritance.
Apart from Nnennaya who paid the ultimate price, a lot of women in Nigeria especially those from the Igbo tribe go through similar discriminations, hardships and unfair treatment which never make it to the news.
For such women, seeking Justice is like fighting an already lost war as no single person can defeat an entire community bound by age-long traditions and cultural beliefs.
According to UN figures, daughters and sons in 39 countries do not have equal inheritance rights and Nigeria is one of such countries especially in the Igbo culture where Nnennaya is from and where daughters are totally excluded from their father’s inheritance.
Aside the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that women should get the same rights as men and be treated equally, Nigerian constitution frowns at such gender-based discrimination. Yet, many still stick to their deeply-rooted traditions which forbid a woman from inheriting whatsoever belonged to her father.
In 2014, Nigeria’s Supreme Court ruled that the Igbo custom which conflicts with the Constitution was illegal stating that it was discriminatory to exclude female children, “whatever the circumstances of their birth” from sharing in the parents’ estate. The Supreme Court only stated this while delivering judgement in a case that lasted more than 20 years involving a Nigerian lady who took her family to court for disinheriting her.
But not every woman is courageous enough to get involved in such a case considering how financially draining and time-consuming it is. Hence, they seek redress from kinsmen or traditional rulers who will ultimately be on the side of culture. This has continued to fuel a culture of silence among victims who would rather move on with their lives in perpetual dependence on assistance from men thereby further exposing them to more violations and exploitation.
This harmful practice which promotes gender inequality does not only exist in the Igbo tradition, some other regions in the country and Africa at large also prohibit women from sharing family property.
Findings from research which analysed the problems of intestate inheritance under customary and Islamic laws in some selected jurisdictions in Africa found that despite the plethora of laws protecting women’s rights against all forms of discrimination in most African countries, the continued subjection of women to oppressive and anachronistic cultural practices in inheritance cases still persists.
Nigeria’s Marriage Act of 1990 provides that in the event of the death of her husband intestate, a woman is entitled to a certain percentage, at least one-third, of the deceased’s estate.
Similarly, the nation’s Constitution states that women must be able to inherit in the same way as men, but this law is only for women who are married under statutory law and only if there is a will. It does not apply to women who are married under customary or Muslim law and so some customary laws and statutory laws in some parts of the country say that wives and daughters do not have the right to inherit anything.
Nigeria is a complex nation occupied by diverse people who hold their cultural beliefs with high esteem and value it above everything else. It is also a patriarchal society where descent is traced through males. Therefore, adherence to these constitutional stipulations remains a far cry.
It is no doubt that this continued gender inequality in the form of culture which deprives women of their constitutional and natural rights has contributed to generational poverty, impoverishment and total dependence of women on men since their success most of the time is tied to the benevolence of such men.
This has also contributed to gender economic imbalance which gives rise to more poor women and more rich men. For instance, a woman whose husband dies intestate is bound to live at the mercy of her male children who shares her husband’s properties regardless of her contributions towards acquiring such property. It is even worse for women who do not have male children as the property is taken over by the man’s male relative(s).
It is a known fact that women constitute untapped potentials waiting to manifest if they are relieved of the numerous laws, traditions and religious ideologies which has continued to limit them.
Ownership of real estate and properties empowers women and gives them income and financial security without which she is prone to poverty which in turn prevents her from providing her family with basic needs.
A publication by World Economic Forum posits that children whose mothers owned lands are more than 30 per cent less likely to be severely underweight than children whose mothers did not own lands. The same publication added that women who owned lands are up to eight times less likely to experience domestic violence.
Conclusively, as stipulated in the World Bank’s 2012 World Development Report, greater gender equality can enhance economic productivity, improve development outcomes for the next generation, and make institutions and policies more representative.

This article is part of the African Women in Media (AWIM) Graduate Trainee Programme in collaboration with Fojo Media Institute