Bishop Nwokolo backs Supreme Court Judgement on female inheritance

The Anglican Bishop on the Niger, the Rt. Rev. (Dr.) Owen Nwokolo, has lent his support to the recent judgement of the Supreme Court of Nigeria ordering that female children are entitled to the inheritance of their families.

Bishop gave his approval of the law in a sermon he delivered during a one-day annual summit of the Anglican Students Association (ASA) of the diocese held at the All Saints Cathedral, Onitsha.

Declaring that the judgment as good and proper the Bishop recounted, with regret the situation in Nigeria before the judgment.

“Before now”, he said, “female children did not have inheritance in their fathers’ house in Nigeria”, but however expressed gladness that, “today things have changed.”

The bishop said, “In Nigeria now, girls, please know this, if your father shares his property without giving you a portion, that is, your own share, tell him that it is wrong; that as long as you are born into this family, it is your right to get inheritance.

“Even if you are married and your father has money, has property and has shared them only among the male children without giving you your own share, tell him that he should give you, your own, that you are not a stranger in the family.

“This is because inheritance is for everybody. It is not only for the male children. Anybody born in a family is entitled to get a share of their father’s property.

“If they say o no, you are wrong, it is not so, go to lawyers. Go to the court. They will give you justice because there is already a Supreme Court judgment that said both boys and girls are entitled to their fathers’ property”‘ he said.

He however appealed to both male and female students to take their spiritual and moral lives seriously in order for them to realize their goals in life.

In the homily which he entitled, “The rewards for spiritual and moral stability”, Bishop Nwokolo encouraged the students to always live chaste life, warning them about the consequences of falling into temptations.

“If you fall into temptations as a young person, the cumulative effects of the falling will greatly impact your life in future”, the Bishop said

The Supreme Court in a unanimous judgment had affirmed the decision of two lower courts which had found unconstitutional an Igbo customary law of succession which excluded female offspring from inheriting the property of their families.