All through last week, on social media and various fora, Nigerians talked about the Will of late popular politician and billionaire businessman, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, who passed on last year.
The will stated details on how his estate should be shared to members of his immediate family and other chosen beneficiaries.
However, it also stated a clause, which most netizens considered controversial as it concerned his relatively young widow.
Though the will gave her a fair share of his estate, he specifically stated that if the widow should later decide to remarry, she would automatically forfeit the assets he bequeathed to her. To many, the clear demand of the clause is pretty heavy, considering that the widow is still very young and within the childbearing age bracket.
From the moment news about the clause broke, netizens literally set social media on fire as they debated about the clause. As the intensity of the reactions rose, women, particularly, vehemently condemned the clause.
They felt that the clause should not have been added, so the widow could be free to live the rest of her life the way she wants while continuing the primary task of raising the son she had with Iwuanyanwu.
One netizen wrote: “Why would women be shortchanged in love, marriage and relationships. Any way you look at it, a woman must bear the brunt. Yet, young men marry older rich ladies to inherit their properties when the woman dies.” Still in the comments section, another netizen chipped: “You, young girl gold diggers, this serves you right. You targeted the man’s wealth and jumped in to marry him, so when he kpai, you become the commander -in-chief.”
While most men hailed the decision of the late businessman, women on social media generally were not happy with the heavy yoke of the clause. She was 26 when they got married.
All of Iwuanyanwu’s children from his first marriage were older than her. I imagined what she could have been calling him in the privacy of their home. Whereas her mates would call their husbands, ‘Baby or Babe.’
Yes, Iwuanyanwu was tall and heavily built. His ample body did not dissuade her, and she fell in love with him and welcomed his marriage proposal.
Trust busybody Tatafo individuals, who poke their noses into what should not concern them. The tatafos said tongue-in-cheek that given her very young age at the time they wedded, she certainly would not have married him if he was not super wealthy. Would she have married him at that age if he was just a Level-14 officer in the civil service of the state, one of the Tatafo netizens asked? In the wake of the controversial clause in the will, tongues have been wagging that the old man took extra care to put golden handcuffs on his young widow before joining his ancestors.
Granted that he bequeathed a fair share of his estate to her, the highly respected Igbo leader simply ensured that one lazy young man with six packs, who does nothing but spend time in gym, would inherit the assets he worked hard to acquire. So, he protected his assets with a golden clause.
Again, for the women who queried why older men should put hard clauses in their written wills, the simple answer is that they did not want some golddigger male to lay a finger on their assets through marriage to the widow.
Some of these netizens tried to compare her with Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, wife of the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and Chief Dr. Shade Okoya. The comparison stemmed from the fact that Bianca was married to Ojukwu, who was far older than her just as Shade is married to a much older man, Chief Razaq Okoya. However, the three marriages do not have the same circumstances.
Ambassador Bianca came from a wealthy family. At the time she got wedded to Ojukwu, Bianca, as the daughter of Chief C.C Onoh, did not lack anything money could buy. She simply fell in love with the warlord and has since held various political appointments at the Federal level. In the case of Okoya, wealth and love found her and she had no hiding place. Again, Okoya has trained herself to become the Executive Director of Eleganza Group. Her position and entitlements as an executive director can feed her very well. Probably the two mentioned ladies might not have any need to remarry, but Iwuanyanwu’s young widow might need to remarry. But the clause is a big obstacle to surmount.
Such clauses in wills chain the legs of women just like tradition has done over the years. For this reason, there is need for women to sit up and work hard.
It is quite clear that women should realize that men have become very wise. All the young girls who rush to marry men who are the age mates of their fathers, should deploy enterprise to create their own wealth. All women, both old and young, give yourselves tasks which will yield your own legacies in future. It might sound very difficult but it is what can allow women avoid the unfavorable clause in a will. Now ask yourself: do I need to go back to school? If the answer is yes, then do so. Work hard to create a second or even third income stream. If changing jobs will hold better financial prospects, go for it, after doing a cold, clear-eyed review of the opportunity. Do so before it becomes late. If you want to buy shares, please get on with it. Whatever contract the men are involved in, let us join hands and build legacies. This way, when a late husband’s will does not favor an accomplished wife, she will lose nothing.
Sure, the men will seek to protect their wealth and legacies, to make sure the assets do not end up with women who will transfer the family’s wealth to a man of no means. Recall the case of a former governor who died in office. Two years later his wife who inherited the bulk of his estate married her late husband’s chief of staff, who is 20 years younger than her. However, she nursed her late husband in his vegetative state which resulted from the accident and mourned him for two years, she remarried and moved on with her life. Today, she is fully vested in her new husband’s home while her late husband’s political dynasty may have collapsed. The family legacies which are empowered in her care to protect may also have been relegated considering the fact that the new husband and new home her priorities while her former home assumes secondary placement. This possibility scares aged wealthy men. That is the reason they use some clauses in wills to protect the inheritance from being beneficial to the widow in a subsequent marriage, particularly if such benefit was the original and primary motive of the young lady. For this reason, wealthy old men take care to ensure, through their wills, that their assets are protected from the inordinate ambition of a very young wife, who survives them when they die. Hence, they embed the clause that demands forfeiture of bequeathed assets if the young widow remarries.
On the other hand, consider the wife of a prominent traditional ruler who died three years ago. Barely a year after his burial, a singer that is not too popular slid into the DM of one of his queens and started professing undying love. Before one could say jack, the queen fell in love, then the radical singer took to social media and allegedly announced “after King, na King.” People wondered how a queen of one of the most ancient kingdoms condescended to the point where she allowed such character of a singer to have access to her. The queen was in love and far gone.
It is also to tell young golddiggers to stop selling off their prime years on account of gluttonous desires for wealth and inheritance. Rather, you shoul engage in partnership that has good prospects with younger men who are equally focused and determined to succeed. After using the lady, he came back to social media and announced that the queen was a prostitute and then sent her packing. Truth be told, the decision to remain unmarried after a spouse’s death is definitely not an easy one for either gender, especially for the young and middle aged. But bequeathing another man’s wealth to a new man is not acceptable to the men who laboured to build the wealth.
Dear netizens, stop drinking paracetamol for another man’s headache. The will says, if want to remarry, forfeit all my properties. Do not forget that it is not a do-or-die affair. If you need a man, you can come down from high funding of expensive lifestyle, then marry and go. Otherwise, learn from Ambassador Bianca who kept herself and late husband’s legacy.