JUNE 23 was the United Nations’ International Widows Day. Many interests and non-governmental groups, in Nigeria, took to the streets with placards calling for an end to crises and violence, the major sources of widowhood – especially among young women.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, while bemoaning the worldwide incidents of human rights violation of widows, such as disinheritance, denial of right to land and property of their dead spouses, absence of social safety nets and outright denial of sources of livelihood, called on countries to invest more efforts in reducing conflicts and violence. He also wants more protection for widows.

The problem of widowhood is universal but of particular concerns are horrifying practices in Africa and Nigeria against widows. In most communities, once the man of the home passes on either through illness or accident, his wife or mother is usually accused of being responsible for his death. She is cut off from possessions of the family under the guise that she is in mourning.

It would not matter if she contributed her money, sweat and initiative to the acquisition of the property.
Harmful traditional practices, such as keeping her in seclusion for months or years, making her drink the water with which the corpse was bathed, being forced to remarry are invoked. Her children could drop out of school due to poverty or lack of care from the husband’s relations. The widow and her children bear the double tragedy of losing their family head and facing untold marginalisation and stigmatisation.

We support Moon’s call for a universal resolve to “end all discrimination against the world’s widows and to enable them to enjoy their full human rights”.

One way of protecting widows is by law. The 1999 Constitution provides for such protection, under provisions that award basic human rights, but the specific laws to achieve these are inadequate.

Human rights violations against widows are entrenched in ancient cultural practices that have managed to survive the times.  Widowhood often forces women to go through unimaginable hardship as they struggle to provide for the needs of their children. The larger society is poorer by denying some of its members their rights.

We call for the enactment of laws to protect widows and their children, provide some social benefits for them and ensure that they are not denied access to possessions of their dead family heads.

Places, whose traditions are against widows, can initiate the changes by weighing the losses to their communities through these practices. Traditions are meant to enhance societies. Where they become harmful, society should change them.

Attitude change towards widows could be a faster solution than the rigours of legislation.