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By Adewale Sanyaolu
To commemorate the International Widow’s Day, a non-governmental organisation, Wicare Lekota Foundation, in conjunction with the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity), Panama Deck, Ikeja chapter, recently hosted a group of women from the NGO.
The event, which held at the Ndubuisi Kanu Park, Alausa, Ikeja, had in attendance more than 55 widows who are members of Wicare, which is dedicated to the empowerment, advancement and rehabilitation of young widows and their children in Nigeria.
The programme was also a way of further strengthening the bond among widows, helping them to interact freely in an environment away from the regular stress of child minding and also to unwind and dance with their peers.
As part of activities lined up to commemorate the day, resource persons drawn from the healthcare sector and legal profession were invited to give talks to help widows balance their emotions in a bid to live a healthy lifestyle. While it is generally believed that most widows go through difficult times in having access to property and money left behind by their late husbands, the programme helped the widows to dissect the mystery behind this position through a lecture by a legal practitioner.
In his presentation, facilitator of the programme, Osemota Okosun, a lawyer, encouraged the widows to always ensure they fight for their rights through every legal means possible, saying the idea of bowing to cheap blackmail from their late husband’s family was not the best way to go.
He advised that every legally married widow should ensure that they hold on to their marriage certificates issued by the recognized churches and courts of the land, saying not all marriage certificates issued by churches are tenable in courts.
Okosun dismissed claims in some quarters that, should there be no will before the husband dies, then the woman may not be entitled to the late husband’s assets. He said with or without a will, the legally married wife has claims to make, adding that the documents needed for death without a will was a letter of administration, while death with a will was letter of probate.
He assured the widows that the common law spouse (legally married wife) is the primary administrator and beneficiary of the estate: ‘‘Legally, everything that your late spouse (husband) had at the point of death, which may include properties, monies and assets naturally devolves unto the wife. But the process of legally ensuring that you take possession of everything he left behind requires you to go the probate court to get the processes formalised.’’
The legal practitioner advised the widows to get familiar with every document left behind by their late husbands and get lawyers competent and grounded in the area of law to guide them appropriately.
Okosun said the idea of families writing to banks and other financial institution, asking them to suspend further transactions on the account so that the wife would not have access to it, is alien under the law.
‘‘Like I said earlier, as long as you are married under the common law and have authenticated marriage certificate with you, you don’t need to beg any family. All that your late husband left behind naturally devolves to you as soon as you complete all the legal process and documentation,” he said.
Speaking to Daily Sun, the founder and convener of Wicare Lekota Foundation, Diane Kalu, said the challenges and emotional trauma often encountered by widows informed the decision to hold the programme.
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She said, having identified that the Pyrates Confraternity shared similar values with Wicare, the group decided to partner Seadogs.
Kalu said the facilitation sessions and gifts, which included foodstuffs and groceries for the widows, which were the contributions of the Ikeja chapter of the Pyrates Confraternity, would go a long way in supporting the day-to-day needs of the widows.
Most importantly, she said the health talk and legal advice would assist widows who were hitherto afraid to challenge the status quo.
She said a lot of women do not know their rights on how to access what was left behind by their late spouses: ‘‘You can see from today’s interaction that some widows are hearing what the lawyer told them for the first time. For me, that is knowledge empowerment that will help them take the right decisions that will shape the future of their children.”
She said the lack of support system for widows in Nigeria and, by extension, Africa makes their day-to-day survival very difficult, adding that harmful widowhood practices were still very much prevalent in Nigeria, sometimes leading to emotional and psychological torture.
She noted that it was in the light of the above challenges confronting widows that the group will be organizing the Young Widows’ Entrepreneurship Empowerment Forum (YOWEEF) on August 20, 2021.
YOWEEF, an initiative of of Wicare Lekota Foundation, is geared towards empowering, enlightening and rehabilitating young widows towards self-actualization, wealth generation and entrepreneurial skills, thereby contributing towards socio-economic development in the country.
Some of the participants who spoke to Daily Sun lauded the intervention the Pyrates Confraternity, saying the programme has further exposed them to the protection that the law offers them.
In her submission, Mrs. Sonaya Blessing said she was elated, as the programme had afforded her to see the law from another angle, and her knowledge has been greatly enriched.
She thanked the sponsors for being magnanimous, extending their support to the group. She enjoined her colleagues who were going through one form of family harassment or the other to seek refuge in the law.
For Lillian Onyekuba, a banker and businesswoman, when her husband died, she felt the world had crumbled on her head until she was introduced to Wicare, which, she said, has always been there for her, lending a shoulder of support.
‘‘Today’s programme is one of such shoulders of support. I have been greatly impacted. The fact that I am not alone in this struggle through the support base of the group has been able to remove the veil of despair and sadness,” she said.
