PATRICK ABANG, Calabar –
Some widows in Cross River State have said that despite increased awareness, harmful and dehumanising practises against them still continue unabated in central and northern parts of the state.
The women disclosed this on Tuesday in Calabar during an event to commemorate The 2022International Women’s Day in the state.
Two leaders of the widows, Madam Philomena Ekpenyong, 65, and Mama Rita Egwu, 74, who spoke at an event, said in the Southern LGAs, harmful and dehumanizing practices against widows were now reducing but that in the Central and Northern areas women especially widows are still being excluded and denied the right of inheritance from their fathers’ and late husbands’ estates.
Philomena said many widows in the state have been dehumanised when husbands’ families subject them to drinking water used in washing late husband’s body.
She said, “As we celebrate Women today, let us enjoin our peoples in parts of the state who are still enslaving women and widows, or those forcing very young girls to marry men who are more than their grand father’s ages.
“How can we be made to drink bathwater or wear black gowns for one year or dance naked on the grave of late husbands?!”
To dissuade further harmful and dehumanising widows, a widows foundation, The Imah Nsa Adegoke Foundation (TINAF) has visited 14 out of the 18 LGAs in five weeks in the state where they appealed to top monarchs to encourage their subjects to change their attitude.
According to the coordinator of the foundation, Mrs Imah Adegoke, said the campaign has been welcomed by most of the paramount rulers who had been inundated with trying to settle such inheritance matters on the basis of equity.
“Some informed us they had been challenged by the existing customs but with knowledge of the provisions of this law, they were now emboldened to act knowing they had the weight of Law behind them.
“Indeed, no more than a few days after visiting the Northern LGAs, we began to get calls from a paramount ruler and a referral from the police unit handling such matters at one of the Stations requesting counsel on some inheritance matters which had come up in their domain.
“We can assuredly say that the response has been indeed great and is yielding immediate fruit. “
The foundation plans to award two of the LGAs which have already enacted and captured in writing, major shifts to their respective customs which had taken into account and provided specifically to stop the harmful practices carried out against widows.
“We believe Boki and Bekwara LGAs deserve our Award and that of other Agencies working to improve female wellbeing and equality.”
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