Readers say female children should also get a share of their inheritance

isaac dachen

June 27, 2016 10:22 AM

A whopping 72% of Pulse Nigeria Poll voters are in agreement that female children should partake in the sharing of their parents' properties.

This worried woman is being blackmailed (Illustration)

In a society where female children are not given their due rights as regards their inheritance, a reader,

But 72% of Pulse Nigeria Poll voters believe all children are supposed to have a share in their parents' will, regardless of their gender.

Read Abiodun's letter here:

"My name is Abiodun, a 42-year-old woman. I am married with three children. I happen to come from a wealthy family where my late father inherited great wealth and landed properties from his family which naturally, should be shared amongst his children.

My father had four wives and 26 children, with me being the seventh child from the third wife. In all, we have 14 daughters from all the wives but after the demise of my father 10 years ago, some of our family elders have refused to give the daughters any portion of our father's property, claiming that since we are women, we should not partake in what our father owned.

Their idea is that we will all get married and as such, we should not lay claim to anything out dad owned. I must say that this position is not taken by some of them, especially our blood brothers but the stingy ones have vowed to deal with us traditionally if we insist we must get something.

When my father was alive, he had divided some of his property amongst his children but upon his death, the family chased us out. Even the shop I had in one of my father's shopping complex was destroyed and my goods worth millions of naira vandalized.

At one point, we went to court but the court told us to go and settle it within the family but all attempts to get what rightly belonged to us were rebuffed.

My questions now are these: is there anything wrong for a female child to get part of her father's inheritance? Is there any law in Nigeria that says a daughter has not right to her father's property?

Abiodun."

The teaser for the day was:

What should be done when a family denies a daughter her father's property?

How Nigeria voted:

The family should be sued to court - 29%

A daughter is not qualified to partake in her father's property - 15%

All children should get a share of her father's property - 72%

How would you vote here?

isaac dachen