JUST IN : Over 8 Million Widows Suffering In Nigeria – FIDA

• Nigeria has about 8m neglected, suffering widows – Female lawyers lament

• …there are approximately 258m widows globally,out of which Nigeria has a total of 15m with 8m being grossly neglected

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EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA) has criticized the persistent disregard for widows in Nigerian culture, claiming that there are more than eight million of these groups who are severely underprivileged and suffering.

The Gender Based Violence Prohibition Laws and other pertinent laws that safeguard women’s rights must be fully implemented, according to FIDA, in order to buck the trend and free women from all types of discrimination and adversity.

At a press conference honoring the International Day of Widows on Saturday in Ado Ekiti, where the organization handed funds to assist several widows, Barrister Oyinade Olatunbosun, the chairperson of FIDA in Ekiti State, said this.

The recipients included Mrs. Ramatu Mathew, Mrs. Gladys Olonisakin, whose husband was assassinated by land speculators, Mrs. Esther Kolawole, who has been dealing with fibroid for three years, and Mrs. Olayemi Olanike.

Olatunbosun urged stakeholders to work together to develop strategies for providing widows with urgent financial assistance so they may earn a living while speaking to reporters about FIDA’s enormous strides.

She repeatedly emphasized the requirement for the government to enact laws to stop widows from losing their rights, insisting that “widows’ rights are human rights.”

The FIDA boss said: “There are approximately 258m widows globally,out of which Nigeria has a total of 15m with 8m being grossly neglected. The figures keep increasing because of neglect and governments not doing enough to protect their rights.

“The GBV provides for the protection of the rights of widows and women, which includes prevention of harmful practices for women whose husbands died . We have sufficient laws on ground, what we need now is implementation.

“It is sad to tell you that we have got to some towns where they said widows must suffer after their husbands had died to protect and preserve tradition. All these practices are discriminatory and we are saying no to them”, she stated.

Olatunbosun called on the government at all strata to put in place structures that will engender widow-friendly policies, which will be promulgated and implemented for their social protection.

“The traditional and religious leaders must look after the welfare of widows in their domains and not bug them down with unnecessary traditional or religious rites that will further dehumanize them after the death of their spouses.

“We say no more to practices of archaic , cultural, depressive and discriminatory practices against widows. In several developing countries, widows are treated as outcasts thereby making life difficult for them.

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“Some societies still follow irrational practices like widows drinking the water used in washing the bodies of their late husbands, who often had been embalmed with toxic chemicals, so barbaric and discriminatory since this is never the position when the woman dies.

“These widows become vulnerable to both physical and mental violence and their kids are exposed to abuses and they even sometimes miss out on formal education”, the FIDA boss said

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