Nigeria Has 8m Neglected, Suffering Widows, Ekiti Female Lawyers Lament

Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

The Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA) has decried the recurrent neglect of widows in the Nigerian society, saying the country has over eight million grossly disadvantaged and suffering number people in this category.

To reverse the trend, FIDA, therefore, called for holistic implementation of the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Prohibition Laws and other relevant statutes that protect the rights of women being the best way to rescue them from poverty and all forms of discriminations.

FIDA’s Chairperson in Ekiti State, Oyinade Olatunbosun, stated this in Ado Ekiti at the weekend at a press conference commemorating the International Day of Widows, where the group distributed money to help some widows.

The beneficiaries were Mrs. Esther Kolawole, who is suffering from fibroid for three years; Mrs. Gladys Olonisakin, whose husband was killed by land grabbers; Mrs. Olayemi Olanike, and Mrs. Ramatu Mathew.

Addressing journalists on FIDA’s giant strides, Olatunbosun appealed to stakeholders to come together to fashion ways through which widows can be frantically assisted to financially earn a living.

She harped on the need for government to implement laws that will prevent stripping of widows of their rights, maintaining that “widows’ rights are human rights.”

The FIDA boss said: “There are approximately 258 million widows globally, out of which Nigeria has a total of 15million with 8milion being grossly neglected. The figures keep increasing because of neglect and the government inability to protect their rights.

“The GBV law provides for the protection of the rights of widows and women, which includes prevention of harmful practices for women whose husbands died. We have sufficient laws on ground; what we need now is the implementation.

“It is sad to tell you that we have got to some towns where we were told that widows must suffer after their husbands had died to protect and preserve tradition. All these practices are discriminatory and we are saying no to them.”

Olatunbosun called on the government at all strata to put in place structures that would engender widow-friendly policies, which will be promulgated and implemented for their social protection.

“The traditional and religious leaders must look after the welfare of widows in their domains and not bug them down with unnecessary traditional or religious rites that would further dehumanise them  after the death of their spouses.

“We say no more to archaic, cultural, depressive and discriminatory practices against widows. In several developing countries, widows are treated as outcasts thereby making life difficult for them.

“Some societies still follow irrational practices like widows drinking the water

used in washing the bodies of their late husbands, who often had been embalmed with toxic chemicals, so barbaric and discriminatory since this is never the position when the woman dies,” she stated.