Women Rights Advocates:-Women should have rights for inheritance

Culled from saharareporter by allcitynews.ng,

Apparently dissatisfied with the pains and languish women are subjected to, two women advocates have demand  for rights of women  to inherit property to be enshrined in the constitution.

The two leading women’s rights advocates have called for an express constitutional provision to guarantee the rights of Nigerian women and widows to inheritance.

The statements came out of an exclusive interview with the National Coordinator of the Nigerian Network of Women Exporters of Service (NNWES), Barrister Nkiru Joy Okpala-Perkins, and a US-based Nigerian medical practitioner at the Greater New York/Gotham Health, Dr. Mrs. Chinwe Nduka had with Rudolf Okonkwo on 90MinutesAfrica penultimate Sunday, to mark the commemoration of this year’s Women’s History Month.

“We are advocating extensively for it to be enshrined in the law that a woman has equal rights to inheritance,” Barr. Nkiru said.

She explained that although there have been several court pronouncements asserting the right of the woman to an equal share of her family inheritance and of widows to their late husbands’ properties, there is a huge problem with the implementation. The legal practitioner further argued that access to inheritance will improve the financial inclusion of women in society.

On her part, Dr. Chinwe said since it is important to legally guarantee the woman’s right to inheritance, it is also essential for the man to be open and transparent about his assets to the wife and establish legal safeguards for her to assess the properties in the unfortunate situation of his demise.

She said such will protect the widow from family members that would otherwise deprive her of the assets. She also called for awareness for women in cases of divorce.

“A lot of women leave the house with nothing after separation, and this should not be happening. That is why there should be awareness, and there are a lot of NGOs in Nigeria that are helping women with this.

“You can’t have five children in the family, and you get kicked out because the man decides today that he doesn’t want you anymore, and everything you have worked for is left for somebody else,” the medical doctor stated.

The duo also weighed in on female education in Nigeria and expressed delight that female school enrollment at the primary level is actually improving. They, however, called for concerted effects to bridge the gap at the university level. “The school enrollment is improving,” Dr. Chinwe said.

“I know so many charity organizations that are advocating to stop the practice of marrying girls off at as low as 11 years because there is no money to educate them.

“Some are being sponsored through scholarships that have been given. Even people from the alma mater are donating to their past schools just to help the girls get back to school,” she explained.

However, the National Coordinator of NNWES believes that the policies of free primary education and the school feeding program contribute to the increased primary school enrollment.

“So girl child enrollment in school is improving at the primary level. There is also improvement at the secondary level, but when it gets to the tertiary level, discrimination is very prevalent.

“They will tell you that the money to send the girl child to the tertiary institution is not there, so they would rather send the boy to school and tell the girl that she is of age to get married. So there is a terrible gap in the tertiary.”

The guests also frowned at the tendency, especially within the political space, to use the wrongdoing of a few women as a yardstick to judge all women. “We can’t use the case of people like Betta Edu to conclude that women are not good. We know that women are better handlers in terms of managing the home, managing the society and managing political offices,” Barr. Nkiru Okpala-Perkins insisted.

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