₦airaland Forum

banio:
So an Ancestral property of Igbo origin will be controlled by Alajoke Babajide, and You think this is wisdom. You are only a Kid and won't understand the intricacies of Life.

However, I am not about tribe but just good reasoning. Do You thing England will accept a King bearing Babajide Fashola. True blood and true breed is real. Let's face facts

So you don’t buy land in the SW? Did the SW kingship fall apart? Is that land not ancestral land Chai, so you are afraid of Yoruba’s owning land in your area but you don’t mind buying land in Yorubaland. See your funny thinking... even when the owner’s mother is Igbo. So women are nothing to you? Shame!

bukatyne:
Interesting points raised on both sides.

Right now, what stake do married women have in their husbands' homes?

Why didn't women inherit ancestral lands? What plans have been put in place to ensure whatever they wanted to prevent will be mitigated?

If a woman inherits a land and marries, what happens? Can she pass it on to her kids? (in which case it leaves the family/tribe)? Or does it revert to her father's family upon her death?

In her matrimonial home, is she entitled to a share of land from her husband's land? Can she transfer that land by inheritance or does it revert to her husband's family/ her male kids upon death?

I think the elders and the court should have a holistic approach towards the issue.

These are the salient questions to be answered, not all this back and forth people are going.

PearlStreet:
Igbo culture is not superior to the Supreme Court. If you write a will and disinherit your female children, they would take it to court and the court will appoint Executors to share your property since you want to be stupid.

That’s where you don’t understand law. My will is my will and it’s final legal document! The Supreme Court cannot force it legally.

Loopholes are opened when the father dies without a will

AmazonTopaz:
There is nothing wrong there.
Story,go and argue with the courts.What is so special about ancestral lands?
Ancestral land or not females should inherit.
Your take on the matter is not what the law says and cannot stand once such law is challenged.

20% assets my foot.
Anyway that will be in the will you choose to will to your daughters but without a will no court will tell you that 20% maximum is what should be inherited for daughters.
Like I said females must have an inheritance ancestral land or not.

anyway Goodluck in trying to change an age long culture. Abi u think say Na by court ruling only? How many of this cases even get to court?
My opinion is strictly based on the fact that unmarried women need to be provided for in their father's house, and also, married women whose husbands are not so bouyant need to be given a soft landing and a helping hand where necessary. That is why I suggested 20%.

If u like, 2mrw, come from Ur husband's house to come and fight for equal share of inheritance with your brothers. U will just end up ridiculing urself because nobody will support u. Even Ur husband, if he is Igbo, will no longer trust you.
To make matters worse, I bet u that the court ruling for u as a married woman will be significantly different from the above.......Na Nigeria we dey and sentiments are usually involved in cases like this....even at the supreme court level.

My wife happen to have parents with significant assets. I won't support her if she starts fighting for equal share of the asset with her brothers, even though the brothers are quite wayward.

Many people misinterpret this igbo culture and the Supreme Court is still useless in this case. It's not that a girl is not allowed to inherit her father's properties. She's allowed to but you see that her father's house in the village, that piece of land will never be hers. She can't carry it to her husband's place and I believe the husband won't like to live in his wife's village.

tunjilana:
Culture is bound to change. The current culture was formed at a time when people hardly leave their villages or spread wealth across. It was a time when resources where largely communal and land belongs to the family to share with members.

It was formed at a time when men saw women as chattels to be traded with and not human beings that can acquire and retain properties in their name. Times have changed so culture should.

What you call your ancestral family land was once one single person's single asset which he obtained by settling on that land or being gifted or outright purchase...the plots you are buying now will be treated as ancestral by your kids, 5,10 generations down the line.

A woman should be able to inherit and retain assets. That is why I love yoruba culture...you will see some women holding rooms in their father's house, renting it out and doing as they wish with it. Women hold so called ancestral land and engage farm hands to till it and give returns.

This is 2020...let us live in our times

Most of the children born outside Igboland don't even speak their language anymore and their ancestral lands are turning to thick forest. And some are being claimed by opportunistic land grabbers.

The only reason why we are underdeveloped and static as people is because we don't usher in change.

Same thing. No Northern woman has filed.

They only cases brought b4 it.

Blackmann001:
No law in the world is 100 percent agreeable by all parties....

If 60 people sued for justice from over 50milliom women dead and alive..it shows its not a big problem...

Let them face the inhuman treatment meted out to women in d north

These days, she can sell it if she chooses.

Vanzcharles:
He passes the land to brother's children. Ancestral homes belongs to you as a woman but when you get married and cease to bear the fathers name, that land go back to the family. It is a family land and it has been backed by customary court that way the village still remains for what it is and doesn't bring about division and dispute.
If women bear ancestral homes there would be no village boundaries any longer as she passes it on to her offspring who also bears a different surname and claim the tribes of their father. Thereby causing divisions not just in the family but the community.

Then any tribe cannot be what it is. In a way there shall not be any need for states and boundaries if the trend continues.

My mother was given a land by her father as his first child. But the land belongs to the Njoku family. The land is at the familys compound. But there is no way my elder brother can Go there because because he is not from the family.

After my mother die, the land still remains to the family and go back to her younger brother who is the first son.
That is one thing about the cultural land. But if the land was not at the ancestral home of Njoku, she us entitled to pass it on to whom she pleases.

xjiggy:
It is total wickedness for a girl child to be denied an inheritance and yet when she sends money and goodies back home, they accept. For her to get married, they give the would be husband a list longer that the Nigerian constitution, placing so much demands as if the girl is a piece of property to be traded off. The fact that she's married doesn't even guarantee her anything because I've seen igbo women driven from their matrimonial homes upon the death of their husbands and the property confiscated by the man's family. The life of an igbo girl child is one of perpetual slavery. Forget the ones you see smiling in public and well taken care of. They are just trophy wives. The husbands do it to boost their Egos. You'll see an illiterate spare parts dealer boasting in the market about his graduate wife. The stupid sense of entitlement you see among igbo men stems from these wicked traditions. That's why a lawyer would want to argue a judgment based on Gender as a thing of single and married.

The challenge with many of us is that we don’t do research and understand prior to blanket statements.

Let me clarify the culture to you:

1. All ancestral land Owned by the father is inherited by the sons.

2. Other property including estates that are not ancestral land are shared among children.

3. At their Traditional marriage , the family gives the daughter her inheritance to go with to her new home. This goes from cash, purchased houses/land, shares, furniture, cars etc according to the family’s wealth So that she can go build her new home.

4. All the mother’s estate is exclusive preserve of the daughters including land, houses etc provided they are not ancestral land bearing the family name. Only exception is in the case of a polygamous home where a house is built by the man for each wife. In this case, that house owned by the wife is inherited by the last son ( because it’s built on ancestral land).

5. All daughters have a seat at the family table to influence the direction and growth of their fathers houses. These are the Umu Ada who continue to earn proceeds of economic property ( Agric plantations of old) from their fathers house. Daughters own these and get the yields. Their sons can be given inheritance lands. Again,these same Umu ada culture Upheld in Igbo land to preserve the strength of daughters is being attacked by these same people who don’t understand the inheritance culture when they say a wife has the only say in her husbands house.

So, this culture creates a balance where all ancestral land is kept to promote the family name and inheritance along the male lines while
Other estates are given To daughters.

The key is to understand what “father’s estate” means first in Igbo land. Again an Igbo man builds his wife up with business etc and all that is totally inherited by the daughters. The sons don’t even look in that direction. E.g: Most if the big shops that have been set up and grown By a husband for his wife when newly married Is totally owned by a wife and shared to daughters only, no sons!
No one looks into those.

In summary, most people don’t research but go ahead to denigrate a culture that has kept balance in the society from day 1.

The truth is that Igbo people will Keep their culture regardless

nifton:
These are the salient questions to be answered, not all this back and forth people are going.

They will never be answered.

People don't think out of the box anyone.

Those for and against are just bandwagon effect.

Globad:
It's hard to believe that this kind of archaic and primitive culture is practiced anywhere in Nigeria.

So so unbelievable. It's so backward

There are two different thing here.

Anyone who takes someone's(female child) inheritance is a thief.

This is not Igbo culture are the media is portraying it.

In Igbo culture, the woman won't inherit anything if his brothers are alive.
Unless his father put her in his wills.

Gilgil:
The challenge with many of us is that we don’t do research and understand prior to blanket statements.

Let me clarify the culture to you:

1. All ancestral land Owned by the father is inherited by the sons.

2. Other property including estates that are not ancestral land are shared among children.

3. At their Traditional marriage , the family gives the daughter her inheritance to go with to her new home. This goes from cash, purchased houses/land, shares, furniture, cars etc according to the family’s wealth So that she can go build her new home.

4. All the mother’s estate is exclusive preserve of the daughters including land, houses etc provided they are not ancestral land bearing the family name. Only exception is in the case of a polygamous home where a house is built by the man for each wife. In this case, that house owned by the wife is inherited by the last son ( because it’s built on ancestral land).

5. All daughters have a seat at the family table to influence the direction and growth of their fathers houses. These are the Umu Ada who continue to earn proceeds of economic property ( Agric plantations of old) from their fathers house. Daughters own these and get the yields. Their sons can be given inheritance lands. Again,these same Umu ada culture Upheld in Igbo land to preserve the strength of daughters is being attacked by these same people who don’t understand the inheritance culture when they say a wife has the only say in her husbands house.

So, this culture creates a balance where all ancestral land is kept to promote the family name and inheritance along the male lines while
Other estates are given To daughters.

The key is to understand what “father’s estate” means first in Igbo land. Again an Igbo man builds his wife up with business etc and all that is totally inherited by the daughters. The sons don’t even look in that direction. E.g: Most if the big shops that have been set up and grown By a husband for his wife when newly married Is totally owned by a wife and shared to daughters only, no sons!
No one looks into those.

In summary, most people don’t research but go ahead to denigrate a culture that has kept balance in the society from day 1.

The truth is that Igbo people will Keep their culture regardless

This is an interesting perspective.

obstead200:
anyway Goodluck in trying to change an age long culture. Abi u think say Na by court ruling only? How many of this cases even get to court?
My opinion is strictly based on the fact that unmarried women need to be provided for in their father's house, and also, married women whose husbands are not so bouyant need to be given a soft landing and a helping hand where necessary. That is why I suggested 20%.

If u like, 2mrw, come from Ur husband's house to come and fight for equal share of inheritance with your brothers. U will just end up ridiculing urself because nobody will support u. Even Ur husband, if he is Igbo, will no longer trust you.
To make matters worse, I bet u that the court ruling for u as a married woman will be significantly different from the above.......Na Nigeria we dey and sentiments are usually involved in cases like this....even at the supreme court level.

My wife happen to have parents with significant assets. I won't support her if she starts fighting for equal share of the asset with her brothers, even though the brothers are quite wayward.

Story.I am not going to any husband house it is our house because my name dey the property.
I don't need my husband's support he should not even have an opinion in what I choose to do with regards to my father's property.No court ruling will be different for anyone because of status it does not apply,seek knowledge before talking.The case will not be treated differently because of marital status it will use the case as a precedence and will only apply what the law says whether she is married or not.There is no different ruling for a married woman.So a woman fighting for her constitutionally backed right is ridiculing herself?you are not serious such a backward way of thinking you have.
Also note that I am female and igbo inheriting from my father and my brother knows this very well too so my family is not like that to begin with my own family is enlightened and supportive.What your wife chooses to do should with her brothers or inheritance should not even be your business .

baby124:
So you don’t buy land in the SW? Did the SW kingship fall apart? Is that land not ancestral land Chai, so you are afraid of Yoruba’s owning land in your area but you don’t mind buying land in Yorubaland. See your funny thinking... even when the owner’s mother is Igbo. So women are nothing to you? Shame!

Sister,

Yoruba system of marriage and Igbo system of marriage is different.

In Yoruba land, inheritance is by children: a baby mama has more 'entitlement' than a married childless women.

In Igbo land, inheritance is by marriage and their wives have their inheritance there.

If they want to say 'woman should start inheriting 'ancestral' lands, then the wives have to stop expecting anything from their husbands' house.

Also, the Igbos are quite more sentimental than Yorubas when it comes to ancestral properties and all that.

Can you compare the attitude of the average Yoruba man to that of the Igbo man when it comes to Village relations and kinship? How many Yoruba people talk of 'father's land or ancestral land'?

They cannot translate the Yoruba system of inheritance to Igbos without suiting it to adjust their system.

kurupt1:
Sharrap my friend! Ur amongst the people that are making these women more stupid and entitled.
An igbo woman usually gets anything but ancestral property and Igbos have a reason for this.its a culture and not subjugation

What's the reason for this backwards culture, Igbo culture & tradition warrior?

bukatyne:
Sister,

Yoruba system of marriage and Igbo system of marriage is different.

In Yoruba land, inheritance is by children: a baby mama has more 'entitlement' than a married childless women.

In Igbo land, inheritance is by marriage and their wives have their inheritance there.

If they want to say 'woman should start inheriting 'ancestral' lands, then the wives have to stop expecting anything from their husbands' house.

Also, the Igbos are quite more sentimental than Yorubas when it comes to ancestral properties and all that.

Can you compare the attitude of the average Yoruba man to that of the Igbo man when it comes to Village relations and kinship? How many Yoruba people talk of 'father's land or ancestral land'?

They cannot translate the Yoruba system of inheritance to Igbos without suiting it to adjust their system.

Land is also very important in Yoruba context. There seems to be disdain in his comment for a child with an Igbo mother but Yoruba father owning land in Igbo land. When Yoruba land is open to him to buy. Well it’s quite eye opening that he’s supporting a system where he will scream blue murder if he faced that discrimination in Yoruba land.

bukatyne:
They will never be answered.

People don't think out of the box anyone.

Those for and against are just bandwagon effect.

I tell you my sis, I was just reading through all the comments prior to yours and all I see seems to be male vs female battle.

Gilgil:
The challenge with many of us is that we don’t do research and understand prior to blanket statements.

Let me clarify the culture to you:

1. All ancestral land Owned by the father is inherited by the sons.

2. Other property including estates that are not ancestral land are shared among children.

3. At their Traditional marriage , the family gives the daughter her inheritance to go with to her new home. This goes from cash, purchased houses/land, shares, furniture, cars etc according to the family’s wealth So that she can go build her new home.

4. All the mother’s estate is exclusive preserve of the daughters including land, houses etc provided they are not ancestral land bearing the family name. Only exception is in the case of a polygamous home where a house is built by the man for each wife. In this case, that house owned by the wife is inherited by the last son ( because it’s built on ancestral land).

5. All daughters have a seat at the family table to influence the direction and growth of their fathers houses. These are the Umu Ada who continue to earn proceeds of economic property ( Agric plantations of old) from their fathers house. Daughters own these and get the yields. Their sons can be given inheritance lands. Again,these same Umu ada culture Upheld in Igbo land to preserve the strength of daughters is being attacked by these same people who don’t understand the inheritance culture when they say a wife has the only say in her husbands house.

So, this culture creates a balance where all ancestral land is kept to promote the family name and inheritance along the male lines while
Other estates are given To daughters.

The key is to understand what “father’s estate” means first in Igbo land. Again an Igbo man builds his wife up with business etc and all that is totally inherited by the daughters. The sons don’t even look in that direction. E.g: Most if the big shops that have been set up and grown By a husband for his wife when newly married Is totally owned by a wife and shared to daughters only, no sons!
No one looks into those.

In summary, most people don’t research but go ahead to denigrate a culture that has kept balance in the society from day 1.

The truth is that Igbo people will Keep their culture regardless

Weldone bro, I like your holistic analysis.

AmazonTopaz:
Nor mind them.
They are just so ignorant.

Make me see who wan challenge me ftom inheriting my papa property for igbo village wey I come from them nor born the idiot well.
Where him dey when I dey serve my papa.
Culture my foot.

Lol

Dedetwo:
The only Will you can write which should be meant for your lovely daughters is to get married by a good man and into a good family. Whatever property you accrued why alive remains in your father's house or compound.

Na only female children you go have laslas
foolish rule for only poor people like you
so when people like Tony elumelu, Jim ovia dies their daughters will not have any inheritance abi

LaboPolitics:
Go and tell your yoruba brothers who married Igbo ladies to come and collect properties in their father-in-law's house.

Onye oshi! Barawo!

Lol, our brothers doesn't need any properties, they are capable. But nothing, absolutely nothing you can do to it.

The worst is for you to either end up inside lagoon or inside traffic here in Lagos or Onitsha hawking your usual gala cos no brother's properties for you. Oleeeeeeee

The old tradition must stand!!! My fathers properties must go to my brother and that of my husband to my son...period!! Supreme court should goan sit down

Ab0bi:
Truth be told, the Judiciary system can't abolish a long practiced tradition.

It's a futile battle.Name a tribe without a repugnant tradition and I will take you serious.

don't mind him

AmazonTopaz:
I know what a will is and in the case of no will the it can be challenged in the court.
Which registry ask you whether you did traditional marriage or not LOL registry marriages are even done before traditional weddings and not every one weds traditionally if you don't know.Courts don't legalise marriages registries do.
LOL you know nothing the supreme court will only refer to a customary law if it passes three validity test and if it does not it will be struck out.The law is supreme to any customary law and lands are owned by government not ancestors.The law of denying female inheritance cannot be supported by the supreme court because such custom fails the three validity test so it will always be struck out.
I maintain that for the respect of culture a lot of women have chosen to look the other way that is why you think it is impossible because if argued by an intelligent lawyer the woman will be favoured even in the ancestral land.
Check the facts of this particular case before saying what you don't know.
Ancestral or not a woman can inherit it and even when taken to court this supreme court judgement will serve as a precedent and will be used as a reference in subsequent cases.

First and foremost you are not Igbo neither are you female.

baby124:
Land is also very important in Yoruba context. There seems to be disdain in his comment for a child with an Igbo mother but Yoruba father owning land in Igbo land. When Yoruba land is open to him to buy. Well it’s quite eye opening that he’s supporting a system where he will scream blue murder if he faced that discrimination in Yoruba land.

I think he was talking about their ancestral land.

Temitopemo6e6:
I totally support this. This is what drives most men
with daughters to go and look for women who would bear them male children.Women are no less then men. I support this That's nice.. every child deserves the best..

HBD to me

I doubt you know the Igbo culture bro

So.. After I toil and suffer while my relatives waste away their time, and I now keep things for my children to now enjoy.. My legacies, you will now stagger to come and collect.. I'll crawl out from that grave and kill all your children.. Nonsense.. But on another note, the Nigerian government has proven that tradition is above it since they refused to revise the sharia laws that punish people for speaking freely with death.. Now if they fix okeke and leave adamu don't you think okeke will complain?