Challenges of Widowhood in Nigeria.

– Steve Ovirih.

International Widows Day is a United Nations ratified day of action to address the poverty and injustice faced by millions of widows and their dependents in many countries. Thus , every 23rd June, the world celebrates widows day.

Beyond celebrating widows, it is important to beam the torch on the way the society relates and treats women who by circumstances had reason to have lost their darling husband.
In a typical Nigerian society , life is not easy for widows . Things get really tough for widows whose husbands were well to do and endowed with substantial means of sustenance in their life time.

The deceased siblings hardly see the wife of such relative from the countenance of empathy as some are daring enough to suspect the wife of killing the husband. More daring ones deny both the widow and the kids major legacies of the deceased with the connivance and support of greedy family heads and the widows become exposed to a harsh economy because the man of the house has exited the earthly plain, most time at his prime time.

Some families have cultural practices that ridicule and make a real psychological mess of widows : practices like shaving off the scalp of widows , compelling her to stay days in a room with the deceased and some people require the widow to partake in a rite of innocence to prove she was not responsible for her husband’s death.

In the 21st century Nigeria, all these practices are primitive and must be jetisoned . A widow must be encouraged to have the courage and mindset to live and survive after the death of the man of the house.