Africa

Women’s Inheritance Rights in Nigeria

This paper has five sections. The first will develop the normative framework for examining the issues. This framework will focus on the importance of the cultural transformation approach in informing the analysis. The second section will set out the sources of law in Nigeria, particularly focusing on the interaction between the common law, and the customary law and sharia law as the living law of the nation. It will also explain how land and marriage impact upon the bundle of rights that individuals possess regarding inheritance.

“To be a widow in Nigeria …”

Describes what widows go through in Nigeria. Lower status of women; Rarity of remarriage; Right of husband's family over properties and business; Widow traditions; Efforts of the International Federation of Women Lawyers and other groups to improve the Nigerian culture and the widow's status.

“Update: Guide to Nigerian legal information”

This article provides an overview of the legal system in Nigeria.

Women's land rights and the challenge of patriarchy: lessons from ozalla community, Edo state, Nigeria

This paper examines women's land rights and the challenge of patriarchy in Ozalla community, in a bid to guarantee gender equity and social justice by reducing the level of discrimination and ensuring that women have rights to fertile agricultural land so as to arrest to an appreciable extent the food crisis in the country by improving their production output and ensuring higher incomes.

Inheritance laws and Women’s property rights: How Just?

The writer argues that it has mainly only been through inheritance legislation, not land legislation, that state law has delivered any positive redress as to the relative rights of men and women in land. Even in these cases, this has often been achieved only by court interpretations or administrative directive. The upshot is that in many countries in Africa today, should a woman argue her case forcefully in informal or formal courts, a wife could prevent the sale of land critical to household sustenance and widows may secure the right to continue residing and farming household lands.

Women, Property and Power

This article explores certain contradictions surrounding women and their holding of power within Yoruba culture taking into account a number of factors including women’s access to land and property.

Gender Discrimination in the Division of Marital Property on Divorce in Nigeria

This paper considers how the law in Nigeria discriminates against women in respect of the distribution of property on divorce. It also discusses whether international or regional instruments which have been ratified by Nigeria have helped eliminate discrimination against women in this regard.

Women and land rights reform in Nigeria

Land rights are usually conceived of as the rights to use, enjoy and exploit land. Women’s land rights are fragile and transient, being dependent upon age and marital status, whether they had children and their sexual conduct. In spite of the Nigerian Land Use Act (LUA) of 1978, which restructured the property rights system in the country from mixed private property rights system in a collectivist framework, concerns about women’s land rights persist.

Property Rights of Women in Nigeria as Impediment to Full Realisation of Economic and Social Rights

The paper examines the legal effect of economic and social rights in Nigeria and relates this to the property rights of women in the capacity of a daughter, a wife and a widow. It argues that the property rights of women in its practical manifestation does not actualise economic and social rights in Nigeria. The discourse makes recommendations towards the reform of Nigerian property law in this area.

African women must know and claim their inheritance rights

Based on an interview with Josephine Nzerem, a leading Nigerian women’s rights activist, this article argues that African women must become more interested and involved in their husbands’ and fathers' financial activities to protect their inheritance and property rights which key to female economic empowerment.