Championing the Cause of Widows

Fri, Jul 26, 2013

By publisher

3 MIN READ

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Ekaette Akpabio, wife of Akwa Ibom State governor, takes her concern for widows a step further by organising a widowhood summit in Uyo to seek ways of alleviating their plight

|  By Chinwe Okafor  |  Aug. 5, 2013 @01:00 GMT

EKAETTE Akpabio, wife of the Akwa Ibom State governor, is worried about the plight of widows. In a bid to alleviate their problems, the first lady organised a widowhood summit in collaboration with wives of other state governors from the southeast and south-south in Uyo, capital of Akwa Ibom state, between July 15 and 16. The summit was also to commemorate the International Widows day. It was also to essentially draw attention to the indignities and injustices against millions of widows in the country.

At the end of the summit, an 18-point communiqué made some observation on the plight of widows and recommended palliatives to ameliorate the present ugly situation of widowhood in the society. Some of the highlights of the communiqué were that men should write wills to state clearly how their property should be shared in the event of death and also make effort to update their employment, insurance as well as other relevant records to reflect the spouse’s next-of-kin. The summit said that government needs to improve on its policy on environment to accommodate widows and that the legislative arm of government should  review the current law protecting widows in order to make it more biting against offenders. The communiqué said that traditional rulers as custodians of culture, need to review all traditional practices that subject widows to indignities and ensure that their rights are protected by the law. It made a case for the criminalisation of all forms of unhealthy and abusive cultural practices against widows in the country, as well as to safeguard the rights of widows to inheritance, including gratuity and insurance.

Besides, the summit enjoined all relevant stakeholders to join forces in addressing the issues of widowhood by putting in place a development intervention for widows, provide them opportunities to acquire skills in vocations that would guarantee employment and income generation. The first ladies decided that a massive enlightenment would be required on harmful cultural practices and the need to address such practices.

The enlightenment programme, they said, should include advocacy action as a collaborative effort between Office of the Wife of Governor, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Houses of Assembly, civil society organisations, churches and traditional institutions and that all states of the federation should ensure that bills protecting the rights of widows are passed and enforced accordingly.

The summit was attended by speakers of the states Houses of Assembly, chief judges of the representative states, commissioners for women affairs and traditional rulers of representative states as well as representatives of widows associations from various states.

In her keynote address, Zainab Maina, minister of women affairs and development, said that improvement of the situation of Nigerian widows would largely depend on how Nigerians respond to the plight of widows. “Governments as well as civil society organisations and the private sectors have established interventions to address injustices meted out to widows. My ministry and the MTN are partnering on widows’ empowerment in Nigeria,” she said.