As the world marks the 2024 International Widows Day, stakeholders are calling for the implementation of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition ACT, VAPP ACT, so as to protect the rights of widows across the country.
The VAPP ACT was enacted in 2015 to mitigate gender-based violence and human rights abuses.
Founder, Helpline Foundation for the Needy Abuja, Dr Jumai Ahmadu, believes that the full implementation of the Act will protect widows from the ill-treatment and injustices alot alot of them suffer.
Ahmadu asked government to do more in terms of enforcement so as to ensure that the property rights for widows in Nigeria are protected.
“If we need to have a separate Executive Order, signed and backed up with all it takes for their rights to be protected, in the case when their husbands die, the property should just be left for these women.’
While recognising that Nigeria has a lot of protection laws, the implementation of most of these laws remains the problem.
“Beyond the talk, let’s ensure that this widows are empowered through the instrumentality of government. Nigeria has all the enabling laws and policies, but the challenge we are having is enforcement. What government can do beyond just protecting them under the VAPP ACT is for the government to ensure that there is a taskforce,
“Thankfully, the current Minister of Women Affairs is thinking along that line, to have a task force that will be able to swiftly attend to cases of violence, or a widow being violated by her In- laws, so when this task force is in place, it means the policies are going to be implemented, and if there is any default, people are going to be held accountable,” she noted.
Speaking on the theme, “Widows for Peace through Democracy” Dr. Ahmadu, stressed the need for Government and all wealthy Nigerians to support the empowerment of widows to make them self- reliant.
“First of all, I like to thank the United Nations for setting out a day specifically to recognize the plight of widows and draw attention to Government around the world, Government should do more, to ensure that the rights of widows are highly protected.
A widow, Miracle Adebayo, appealed to Government to come to their aid, and pointed out that empowerment of the less- privileged widows, will help them to cater for their children with ease and reduce the number of out of school children.
“When you take away property left for the widows, they don’t have something to rely on, most of our challenges as widows is lack of financial support to start a business and lack of academic support for the children, house rent, so Government should help any widow in this situation and rescue their property back for them” Miracle said.
Also, Janet Yilluk who explained that she suffered both emotionally and psychologically being a widow, said beyond empowerment, government should create an enabling environment for widows to meet and rub minds, organize seminars on effective resource management, and monitor them to ensure that they are not depressed by circumstances or suppressed by relations.
