[size=14pt]We are not husband killers: Widows in Cross-River cry out, say ‘wicked in-laws’ maltreat them [/size]
From JUDEX OKORO, Calabar

Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Widows in Cross River State have cried out against the ill-treatment meted out to them by their in-laws, calling on government to do something urgent on the Widows Rights Act.


[img]http://odili.net/news/source/2011/jul/5/sun/Widow20-5[1].jpg[/img]


The over four thousand widows who converged at Ikom Township Stadium on Thursday, June 23, to highlight their plight during the International Day for the Widows, complained that they are not only now married to poverty, but that they are being forcefully ejected from their late husbands’ homes, stigmatised as ‘husband- killers’ and abandoned even by their own families.

The widows, from across the eighteen local government areas of the state, also bemoaned employment problem facing them, the lack of medical care leading to untimely death of most of them.

Mrs. Lydia Ebunta, the Cross River State chairman of the National Association of Widows, who spoke on their behalf said “Governments come and go but the existence of widow in our society is a horrible nightmare because each passing day, the widow kingdom suffers violence in the hands of those who govern them, but we are today going on our knees to take our kingdom”.

“The widows,” their chairman said, “demand the passage of the Widows Rights Act nationally to better the lot of members as the case in Enugu and Anambra States; Want employment for all able and willing widows and their children, free education for all our children at all levels, and government to ensure that political office holders must sacrifice a percentage of their constituency allowance to the widows and not just use our children as thugs during elections and abandon them thereafter” .

Speaking, the facilitator of the celebration, Mrs. Ima Asa Adegoke, said she had the opportunity to come across the widows and their plight during the 2011 elections while campaigning to be governor of the state under the platform of LABOUR Party in Cross River State before the Court of Appeal judgment which elongated Senator Imoke’s tenure.

“God gave me the extra privilege to hear your stories, how you sit on mat for one year without taking your bath, some made to drink water washed from your dead husband’s body to prove your innocence, how some of you are willing to sell your bodes for a loaf of bread, I tell you I am taking your fight from now and with God on our side we shall win”.

She said her Foundation along with other non-governmental organizations will present bill to the Cross River State House of Assembly for the enactment of a Widows Right Act. “As I speak to you now, I have the Enugu State Widows Right Act, though this does not go far enough but it is a start on which we shall build on in Cross River State and I hope the Assembly shall act fast and pass the bill, because if the try to frustrate the bill, they have given me a weapon on which I shall become the governor of the state because this affects the lives of our people”.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/july/05/national-05-07-2011-0015.html

The plight of widows in Nigeria is sad

“God gave me the extra privilege to hear your stories, how you sit on mat for one year without taking your bath, some made to drink water washed from your dead husband’s body to prove your innocence, how some of you are willing to sell your bodes for a loaf of bread, I tell you I am taking your fight from now and with God on our side we shall win”.

and are all these real?

ayomifull:



and are all these real?

Yes they are real.

too sad.

aloy/emeka:

Yes they are real.

seriously i always tot its just movie when i watch such stories in Nollywood movies.
Are you really sure a woman would be asked to sit on a mat and not bath for one year as in 12 whole month, drink water used to BATH a dead man?

Must they do it and do they do it for real? Are these done in these days or something in the past?

ayomifull:


seriously i always tot its just movie when i watch such stories in Nollywood movies.
Are you really sure a woman would be asked to sit on a mat and not bath for one year as in 12 whole month, drink water used to BATH a dead man?

Must they do it and do they do it for real? Are these done in these days or something in the past?

The simple answer is no. The problem is most Nigerians are comfortable coming from a place of oppression. They will stay and do it. Tell me what is left to lose when the man is dead anyway. You could not have been a good marriage and protected by your husband and end up in such a situation. In this day and age there is no excuse for it. I feel for the women but I think we have passed the stage that you sit and wait for everything to be done for you. Even something as simple as saying I will take a shower today becomes a taboo and these women buy into it. Those stories are just ridiculous. The ones that obviously need help are the ones that might have to go through the judcial system to fight for their properties and things likethat

It boils down to education. There rae more educated Nigerian men than women and unless this trend is balanced, the female gender will continue to wallow in ignorance and stupidity powered by illiteracy.