Nigeria

Nigeria: Inheritance Rights and women (iii)

This is a blog about Josephine and the work of her organization Human Angle which promotes couples to write a will so that widows and their children do not lose their right to property on the death of husbands / fathers. This link includes a you tube interview with Josephine.

Nigeria: Strategic forum focuses on women and housing rights initiatives

Women’s rights NGO and other stakeholders have formulated an action plan that aims to promote women’s access to land and housing as well as other property and inheritance rights.

Levirate marriage practices among the Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa-Fulani; consequences for a man or woman who refuses to participate in the marriage; availability of state protection

This documents refers to the fact that marriage in Nigeria take place under three legal systems, but however even when couples marry under statutory law, customary law generally prevails. Levirate marriage where “ family member inherits a married woman whose husband is dead continues to be practices under various customary law systems in Nigeria.

Rights of widows to inherit property in a civil marriage where there was neither will nor children; inheritor of the property upon her death

A legal response prepared for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada which states that Nigerian law provides for a widow of a civil marriage to be entitled to the couple's property upon the death of her husband. However, both stated that the Nigerian reality is different and that this right of the widow will often be ignored, or challenged, by the family of her dead husband.

Nigeria: Women want review of Land use Act

This article refers to women from the Agricultural and Allied employees Union of Nigeria (AAUEN) demanding from the state government to review its land use Act and other laws to encourage mass production of food.

Cross cultural comparison of practices relating to widowhood and widow inheritance among the Igbo and Yoruba in Nigeria

Bereavement is a social fact in any culture but reaction and practices relating to this vary from culture to culture. The Igbo people live in the South Eastern part of Nigeria, covering four states while the Yoruba live in the South Western part of Nigeria covering six states in Nigeria. This study explores the differences and similarities in the issues relating to the death of a woman’s husband among these two culturally different people in Nigeria.

Laws and practices relating to women’s inheritance rights in Nigeria: an overview

The Nigerian legal system can best be described as a hot-potch of Nigerian legislation, English law, customary law (including Islamic law) and judicial precedents; a system of federal and state courts, legislative power at the federal, state and local government levels, The complex interaction of this multi tiered legal structure which functions simultaneously in conjunction with very significant informal social controls based on gender, ethnicity and religion affects the status of women particularly in marriage. Invariably, a women’s right to property depends on the type of marria

Customary Law of Succession in Nigeria and the Rights of Women: Need for Reform

Nigerian women are regarded as chattel, like table, tank, deep freezer, spoon, etc and so they suffer untold hardship resulting in cumulative breaches of their human rights – civil, political, social and economic. This paper will highlight the plight of women in matters of succession under customary law to show that there is no gender equity in this area.

Women’s Inheritance Rights in Nigeria

This paper has five sections. The first will develop the normative framework for examining the issues. This framework will focus on the importance of the cultural transformation approach in informing the analysis. The second section will set out the sources of law in Nigeria, particularly focusing on the interaction between the common law, and the customary law and sharia law as the living law of the nation. It will also explain how land and marriage impact upon the bundle of rights that individuals possess regarding inheritance.