As Nigerians join the rest of the world to mark the 2025 International Widows Day (IWD), it is important for stakeholders to recognise the impediments—discrimination, poverty, and social isolation that are placed against women who lose their husbands in the country. From being made to undergo barbaric ritual practices to being disposed of joint property by greedy in-laws or losing their inheritance if they remarry, the patriarchal nature of our society makes life difficult for widows. We therefore call on authorities, at all levels, and members of the civil society to rise in defence of widows in Nigeria.
In many communities in Nigeria today, widowhood is associated with trauma. Some of the customary laws and cultural norms that impede our widows, according to the founder of Widows Development Organisation (WIDO), Eleanor Nwadinobi, include harmful traditional practices such as forced shaving of the hair, varying periods of confinement and stigmatising dress codes. Some widows are forced into ‘levirate’ marriages — where they are inherited by a surviving male in the family.
In addition, widows may face eviction from their homes and denial of their inheritance rights to land and other property for which they would have jointly worked for with their husbands. To Nwadinobi, there is no homogeneity with widowhood considering age and circumstantial differences. A widow could be an older woman whose husband died after many years of marriage, or a young girl forced into early marriage with a much older man.
“Among the categories of women who face barriers but have been so ignored are widows of all ages and wives of the disappeared. Some widows may suffer isolation, loneliness and even contemplate suicide,” said Nwadinobi on the challenges of widowhood. “The psychological and mental health consequences of grief are different depending on how they deal with grief. There is a no closure without grief.”
We agree with Nwadinobi that access to justice and poverty leave many widows in our country suffering from silence, stigma and shame, although the situation is changing gradually. The Violence Against Persons Act (VAPP) signed into law in 2015 by President Goodluck Jonathan includes provisions on the plight of widows. According to Section 15 of the law, any person who subjects a widow to harmful traditional practices commits an offence and liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years or a fine not exceeding N500,000 or both. The law also criminalises attempts to subject widows to such harmful practices. A few states have also enacted legislation in support of widows’ rights.
However, beyond socio-cultural factors, what is also unfortunate is that some commercial banks put stringent conditions for widows to access money in their deceased husbands’ accounts even when designated as next- of- kins. While we enjoin Nigerians to imbibe the idea of having a Will in case of sudden, unexpected death, we urge the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to intervene on this vexatious matter.
The International Widows Day being marked today was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, to address the social injustices faced by millions of widows around the world and to promote their rights. To safeguard Nigerian widows from denial of property rights, forced marriage and other practices that undermine their dignity and general wellbeing, there have been moves by some members of the National Assembly to amend the VAPP Act 2015 to incorporate more provisions. We endorse the idea.
