In a small village in southern Nigeria, Adaobi sat in the corner of her late husband’s home, her heart heavy with grief. As the days passed, what started as mourning turned into humiliation. Stripped of her belongings, shunned by her in-laws, and subjected to demeaning rituals, Adaobi began to wonder: “Do I have any rights at all?”.
Across Nigeria, many widows face similar fates, enduring maltreatment, rejection, and even violence. With Nigeria home to about 15 million of the world’s 258 million widows, many women like Adaobi are left asking if there are laws or protections in place to defend their dignity.
In a country as diverse as Nigeria, where customs and traditions vary across more than 250 ethnic groups, widowhood becomes even more complex. While some cultures offer compassion, others subject widows to harsh treatment.
As widowhood rises and the mistreatment continues, this article seeks to answer the pressing question: “What are the rights of widowhood in Nigeria?” Read on to discover the protections available and the kind of help that may support you or someone you know.
Rights of Widows in Nigeria
The rights of widows in Nigeria are often influenced by a mix of customary, religious, and statutory laws, creating a complex landscape. Under Nigerian law, widows have certain protections, particularly through the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees freedom from discrimination based on gender. However, in practice, many widows face mistreatment, especially in rural areas where customary practices prevail.
The Nigerian government has ratified international conventions, such as the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which aim to protect widows’ rights. However, enforcing these laws remains a challenge, particularly at the local level.
1. Inheritance Rights
Customary Law
In many rural areas and among different ethnic groups, widows often face significant challenges in inheriting property. In some customs, the widow is not entitled to inherit her late husband’s property directly and may only benefit indirectly through her children. In certain cases, widows are even seen as part of the deceased’s estate, subject to inheritance by male relatives.
However, reforms are slowly being introduced. Courts have started recognizing widows’ contributions to their husband’s estate, making it difficult to disinherit them based solely on outdated customs. For example, in Loye v. Loye, the court highlighted that customary laws denying widows inheritance rights can lead to severe hardship.
Statutory Law
Under the Marriage Act and the Wills Act, widows married under statutory law have stronger inheritance rights. If the husband dies intestate (without a will), the widow and their children are typically entitled to inherit the estate, regardless of any conflicting customary practices.
In cases where the husband leaves a will, the widow’s rights depend on its provisions. If the husband dies intestate, Nigerian courts have established that the estate is to be distributed according to statutory law, such as the Administration of Estates Law. In Lagos, for instance, the widow and her children are often entitled to a significant portion of the estate.
Challenges
While statutory law protects inheritance rights, challenges arise when there is no will, leading to contested claims from the husband’s family. Customary law frequently overrides statutory protections in practice.
Many widows are unaware of their legal rights or lack the financial resources to pursue justice when their inheritance is contested.
2. Right to Stay in the Marital Home
Legal Protection
The Land Use Act governs land ownership in Nigeria and seeks to ensure that land is managed equitably. While it does not explicitly focus on widows, it provides a framework for protecting all landholders, including widows, from unlawful eviction from marital homes. The Act vests land ownership in the government, but individuals retain rights to occupy and use their property with the proper titles. This implies that if a widow holds the title to the land or has rightful occupancy, she cannot be forcibly removed without due legal process.
Customary Practices vs. Legal Protections
In some parts of Nigeria, especially under customary law, widows can be forced out of their homes, especially if they do not have male children. However, the Nigerian Constitution protects individuals from gender-based discrimination, and court decisions have reinforced the right of widows to remain in their marital homes.
For instance, in the case of Onyibor Anekwe & Anor vs. Mrs. Maria Nweke, the Supreme Court ruled against the practice of evicting widows from their marital homes simply because they lacked male children. The court strongly condemned such customs, ensuring that widows retain their right to stay in their homes
Challenges
Cultural Pressures: In some cultures, widows are forced to vacate their marital homes, particularly if they have no male children. Patriarchal traditions prioritize male heirs over the widow.
Weak Legal Enforcement: Although Nigerian laws such as the Land Use Act provide protection, enforcement is inconsistent, especially in rural areas where customary practices dominate.
Family Disputes: Widows often face pressure or outright eviction from the husband’s family, who may claim ownership of the property.
3. Right to Custody of Children
In Nigeria, widows can face challenges related to the custody of their children, especially under customary law. In many traditional Nigerian customs, the husband’s family often claims the right to the children, particularly sons, as they are considered to belong to the father’s lineage.
This practice is common in both customary and Islamic laws, which grant custody to the father or his family once children reach a certain age. For example, under Islamic law, mothers usually retain custody only until boys are seven and girls are nine.
However, the Child Rights Act and several court rulings have emphasized that the welfare of the child is paramount in custody matters. Courts often reject automatic transfers of custody to the father if it is not in the child’s best interest. The case of Okwueze v. Okwueze (1989) is a key example where the court overturned a customary law ruling to prioritize the child’s welfare over tradition.
If the husband’s family seeks custody, the widow has the right to challenge this in court, where evidence on the best interest and welfare of the children will be considered.
Challenges
Customary Custody Practices: Under some customary laws, the husband’s family may claim custody of the children, especially male children, because they are considered to belong to the father’s lineage.
Lack of Legal Support: Widows may struggle to navigate the legal system to maintain custody, especially if they are financially disadvantaged or unaware of their rights under the Child Rights Act.
4. Right to Remarriage
In some Nigerian cultures, widows face restrictions on their right to remarry, including mandatory mourning periods and prohibitions against remarrying within the same family or community. Such practices often stem from traditional patriarchal systems that impose these rituals to demonstrate respect for the deceased husband.
However, modern laws and human rights advocacy are increasingly challenging these customs, advocating for widows’ rights to autonomy and freedom of choice. Societal shifts, especially in urban areas, are beginning to relax these restrictions.
Challenges
Cultural Restrictions: Some Nigerian cultures impose strict mourning periods or even ban widows from remarrying within the same community or family. These practices limit widows’ freedom to rebuild their lives.
Social Stigma: Widows who remarry may face social stigma, particularly in traditional communities, where remarrying is often seen as dishonorable or disloyal to the deceased husband.
5. Right to Employment and Financial Independence
Widows in Nigeria face significant cultural and legal challenges when it comes to employment and financial independence. Despite having the right to work and support themselves, traditional and cultural norms can often limit their opportunities, particularly in rural areas where access to education, employment, and financial resources is scarce.
Many widows struggle with the loss of financial stability following their husbands’ death, and discriminatory practices, such as being stripped of their husband’s property, exacerbate this hardship.
While the 1999 Constitution guarantees equal rights to employment and freedom from discrimination, widows still face obstacles like cultural expectations to remain in mourning or restrictions placed on them by their in-laws. These barriers hinder their ability to pursue employment or engage in financial activities independently.
The Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act of 2015 attempts to address harmful widowhood practices but has limited reach, as it has not been implemented nationwide.
Efforts to support widows economically are increasing. Various NGOs have worked on empowering widows through programs such as cooperative farming or small-scale business ventures, with some receiving international funding aimed at improving their livelihoods. However, social safety nets and governmental support for widows remain weak, and many still live in extreme poverty, particularly in rural regions where these empowerment programs have limited reach.
The slow pace of implementing protective laws and cultural norms that restrict widow independence highlight the need for more grassroots initiatives and stronger enforcement of laws to protect widows’ rights across Nigeria.
Challenges
Cultural Norms: In many communities, widows are expected to remain in mourning for extended periods, limiting their ability to work or seek employment.
Economic Barriers: Widows, especially those without education or job skills, may struggle to find employment, leaving them financially dependent on their late husband’s family or community.
Lack of Support Systems: There are limited government or social programs to help widows become financially independent. This makes it difficult for them to break out of poverty.
6. Right Against Harmful Traditional Practices
In many parts of Nigeria, widows are subjected to harmful widowhood traditional practices during mourning, including forced confinement, shaving of their heads, and even being made to drink water used to wash their husband’s corpses. These rites are meant to “cleanse” the widow or prove her innocence in her husband’s death. However, these practices are degrading and violate widows’ fundamental human rights.
The Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP), enacted in 2015, seeks to protect individuals from harmful traditional practices, including those targeting widows. The VAPP Act criminalizes these practices, imposing penalties such as fines and imprisonment for those who subject widows to such abuse. The Act prescribes a prison term of up to 2 years or a fine of ₦500,000 for anyone found guilty of subjecting a widow to harmful traditional practices.
However, the VAPP Act’s scope is limited, as it is only fully implemented in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and some states. Advocacy efforts are ongoing to domesticate this law across all Nigerian states, ensuring more widows are protected from these harmful rites. Despite these legal advancements, social and cultural changes are needed to fully eradicate these harmful customs.
Challenges
Weak Enforcement of the VAPP Act: Although the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP) criminalizes these practices, it is not fully implemented across the country. Only a few states have domesticated the VAPP Act, leaving many widows unprotected.
Community Resistance: Even when laws are in place, local communities may resist change, and law enforcement agencies may be unwilling or unable to intervene in what are considered cultural matters.
7. Social Security and Pensions
In Nigeria, widows of civil servants or private sector employees may be entitled to pensions or other social security benefits, as provided under the Pension Reform Act 2014 and various civil service regulations. These entitlements are intended to support widows and dependents of deceased workers. The provisions include a pension fund managed by Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), which is meant to be accessible to widows upon the death of their spouses. The National Pension Commission (PenCom) oversees this process to ensure compliance.
However, access to these benefits can be delayed by bureaucratic inefficiencies, such as difficulties in processing death certificates, verifying pension accounts, or issues related to the pension fund’s management. Widows may also face complications if their husbands did not contribute to pension schemes or if proper documentation was not maintained.
Some widows may qualify for survivor benefits under the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), which provides compensation to the dependents of workers who die as a result of occupational hazards. However, many in the private sector are not adequately covered, making access to these benefits inconsistent.
Bureaucratic inefficiencies and a lack of awareness about their rights often complicate widows’ access to social security benefits, requiring advocacy and legal intervention to ensure timely payments.
Challenges
Limited Coverage: Many private sector workers are not enrolled in formal pension schemes, which leaves widows without financial support. The Pension Reform Act may not fully cover informal sector workers.
Lack of Awareness: Widows may be unaware of their entitlements, particularly in cases where the pension or benefits system is not well-publicized or accessible.
8. Legal Protection
Widows in Nigeria can seek legal protection and redress under several laws and provisions designed to safeguard their rights. These include:
a. Fundamental Human Rights in Nigeria’s Constitution
The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees fundamental human rights, including:
- Right to life
- Dignity of the human person
- Freedom from discrimination on the grounds of sex
- Right to personal libertyThese constitutional protections can be invoked by widows to challenge harmful cultural practices, discrimination, and violence that they may face.
b. Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP) 2015
The VAPP Act criminalizes gender-based violence and harmful traditional practices, including those targeting widows. The Act protects widows from:
- Forced or harmful mourning rites
- Physical and psychological abuse
- Dispossession of propertyThe VAPP Act provides penalties for offenders, including fines and prison sentences. However, it only applies fully in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and in states that have domesticated it. So far, only 14 states have fully adopted the VAPP Act, which limits its reach.
c. Other Human Rights Laws
Widows can also seek redress under international conventions ratified by Nigeria, such as:
- The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol)These international agreements obligate Nigeria to protect women, including widows, from discrimination, harmful practices, and gender-based violence.
Challenges in Accessing Justice
High Legal Costs: Accessing legal services can be expensive, making it difficult for widows to challenge violations of their rights, especially if they are financially dependent.
Lack of Awareness: Many widows are not aware of the legal protections available to them, such as those under the VAPP Act, the Marriage Act, and international conventions like CEDAW.
Cultural Barriers to Justice: In some communities, widows are discouraged from seeking legal recourse due to cultural or familial pressures to resolve disputes within the family or community, rather than through the formal justice system.
Weak Enforcement of Laws: Even when legal protections exist, the enforcement of laws protecting widows is often inconsistent, with local customs taking precedence over statutory law, especially in rural areas.
9. Sepulchral Rights
Sepulchral rights encompass a range of legal entitlements that come into play in six overlapping scenarios involving disputes over the control of a deceased body. To provide a complete understanding, it’s useful to mention these categories even if not all are discussed here.
Exhumation Rights: These rights involve issues related to the unauthorized opening of graves or grave-robbing.
Possessory Rights: These protect individuals from the unlawful removal or desecration of a corpse.
Rights to the Deceased’s Condition: This ensures that the deceased is treated as they were at the time of death.
Notification Rights: These rights pertain to the obligation to inform the holder of the decedent’s death.
Right of Repose: Once buried, the deceased should be allowed to rest undisturbed.
Rights to Burial Arrangements: This involves determining the time, place, and manner of burial, which can often lead to conflicts among family members, such as between foster and biological parents, adoptive and natural parents, a son and his stepmother, or a widow and her deceased husband’s relatives.
A Nigerian widow whose husband died without a will can challenge the application of customary mortuary laws on constitutional grounds. She could argue that being excluded by customary burial laws is discriminatory based on gender. She may claim that being denied the right to bury her husband according to her wishes amounts to a deprivation of property. These rights, including protection against gender discrimination, are guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and are reflected in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
However, the property argument may not succeed, as common law generally holds that there is no property right in a deceased person’s body. The success of a gender discrimination claim largely depends on the constitutional framework of the country in question. For example, in the Kenyan case of Otieno, a widow’s gender equality argument was rejected by the Court of Appeal, which upheld discriminatory burial rules allowed under Kenya’s Constitution.
In contrast, Nigeria’s constitutional Equality Guarantee only permits gender-based restrictions in areas like appointments to State Offices, the police, and the armed forces. Therefore, this provision could support a Nigerian widow seeking to assert her sepulchral rights. The type of constitutional exemption for gender discrimination seen in Kenya poses challenges for countries like Kenya that have ratified the 1979 U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Stricter enforcement of CEDAW could lead to constitutional reforms in such countries.
Key challenges
1. Customary vs. Statutory Law Conflicts
In many Nigerian communities, burial decisions are often guided by customary laws, which may conflict with statutory laws. Widows may have limited say in the burial location or manner of their husband due to male-dominated family structures that prioritize the wishes of the deceased’s paternal family.
Statutory laws in Nigeria may grant certain rights to surviving spouses, but in practice, customary laws often prevail, particularly in rural areas, leading to disputes.
2. Family Disputes
Involvement of Extended Family: Widows may face challenges from the deceased husband’s extended family, who may claim the right to decide where and how the husband is buried. These disputes can lead to long-standing family conflicts.
Cultural Control: In certain cultures, only male members of the deceased’s family have a say in burial arrangements, sidelining the widow, even when she was the primary caregiver and partner in life.
Cultural Restrictions on Burial Rites: Certain ethnic groups may impose specific cultural or religious burial rites that could marginalize or exclude the widow. Some communities may demand elaborate rituals that are costly or emotionally taxing on the widow and her children.
Gender Discrimination: Patriarchal norms may dictate that the widow has no right to perform significant roles in the burial process, relegating her to a passive participant while male family members take control.
4. Financial Constraints
Cost of Burial Rites: Traditional and cultural expectations around burial rites can impose significant financial burdens on the widow. These may include purchasing expensive coffins, hosting large gatherings, and adhering to cultural customs that require financial outlays, such as animal sacrifices or elaborate ceremonies.
Debt and Financial Pressure: In many instances, widows are left with the responsibility of paying for expensive burial rites, even when they are already financially strained due to the loss of their primary breadwinner.
5. Denial of Rights to Decide Burial Location
Widows may want to bury their husbands in a location of their choosing, often close to their home or the children’s residence, but extended family members may insist on traditional burial grounds. This often leads to disputes that can be drawn out, delaying the burial process and exacerbating grief.
6. Exclusion from Traditional Burial Rites
In some cultures, widows are forbidden from participating in key burial rites, such as accompanying the body to the grave or performing certain religious rites. This exclusion can leave the widow feeling disempowered and disconnected from the burial process, further aggravating her grief.
7. Legal Complications in Urban Areas
In urban settings, where statutory laws may be more recognized, widows may still face challenges, particularly when family disputes end up in court. Legal processes can be lengthy, expensive, and emotionally draining. Additionally, in cases where there is no will, the widow may have difficulty asserting her rights to burial decisions due to the lack of clear legal documentation.
8. Religious Conflicts
When the deceased and their widow come from different religious backgrounds, conflicts may arise regarding burial practices. For example, one side of the family may demand a Christian burial while the other insists on traditional or Islamic rites, leaving the widow in a difficult position.
Conclusion
Widows in Nigeria face significant challenges in exercising their rights, particularly in relation to inheritance, custody of children, burial arrangements, and protection against harmful traditional practices.
While statutory laws exist to protect these rights, cultural customs, legal complexities, and financial barriers often impede widows from fully asserting their entitlements.
As a result, many are left vulnerable to exploitation, family disputes, and social stigma. Ensuring that these rights are respected requires greater legal enforcement, public awareness, and societal shifts toward more inclusive and supportive practices.
Call to Action
To safeguard the rights of widows, there needs to be a concerted effort by government bodies, civil society organizations, and communities.
Legal frameworks like the VAPP Act should be fully implemented across all states, and public awareness campaigns must educate widows on their rights.
Advocacy groups should push for stronger enforcement of existing laws while providing accessible legal aid to widows.
Communities should also be encouraged to abandon harmful customs and embrace gender equality. Empowering widows is not only a matter of justice but a crucial step toward building a more equitable society.
