“My wife has given birth, but the result is “half current”.’
The above statement was made by a man whose wife was delivered of a baby girl. ‘Half current’ is a popular term that refers to the girl-child, in contrast to the term ‘full current’ for the male. Traditionally, our society still sees the male child as superior to the female, although recent indices have proved beyond reasonable doubt that there is absolutely no basis for that thinking. Women have proved their mettle side by side with the menfolk, showing in no unmistakable terms that the height of anyone’s intellect never depends on the size of their muscles. Happily, too, under our law both sexes are equal and there is nothing like ‘full current’ or ‘half current’.
Section 42 (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provide:
(1) ‘A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such a person –
(a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action of the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religion or political opinions are not made subject; or
(b) be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any such executive or administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religion or political opinions.
(2) No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth.’
The above provisions of the Constitution are as clear as can be. The Constitution is supreme, and any other law of the land which contradicts any of the provisions of the Constitution, is null and void to the extent of that contradiction.
Mr. CD was the fifth child of his parents but happened to be their first and only son. He had four older and two younger sisters. Although their father was a man of means, he died intestate – that is, without making a will. Being an only son, Mr. CD’s father had compelled him to marry early and he had done so at the age of twenty-five, and his wife was quite worldly-wise. By the time their father died, only two of Mr. CD’s elder sisters had married, but could not be said to be comfortable; while his other two elder sisters and his two younger sisters were still single. Their father, upon his death, had left behind several movable and immovable properties worth millions of Naira.
After the dead man’s burial, Mr. CD – egged on by his well experienced wife – gathered together his father’s Title Deeds and his Share Certificates, and began to make moves to sell some of the vehicles and other movable properties.
His sisters cried foul, objecting to CD inheriting everything that their late father had left behind just because he happened to be male. They asked that their father’s properties be shared equitably after CD had taken sole possession of the ‘family house’. When CD rejected their suggestion and insisted on his ‘winner takes all’ move, the sisters took the case before the elders of their community.
‘Mr. CD is completely in order,’ said the most senior uncle of the siblings at that meeting. ‘As the first and only son of your late father, by our custom he is entitled to inherit all his properties, because your father did not write a Will to state otherwise. It’s just the young man’s luck, my dear ladies, and you cannot begrudge him that. Everyone knows that by our custom a woman does not inherit anything from her father, because once she marries she’ll belong to another family. When she is given away in marriage, she begins to bear the name of a different family entirely, and that’s why our custom says she cannot inherit anything from her father but only from her husband whose name she bears. The long and short of it is that you ladies cannot drag your father’s properties with your brother. You don’t have that right. It’s an abomination.’
CD’s sisters refused to take that lying down. They proceeded to take the matter to court. At the hearing of the case, not less than six witnesses came to testify that the native laws and customs of CD’s people truly provided that daughters should not inherit anything from the estate of their late father.
‘If their father had written a Will, that would have been a different matter altogether,’ said one of the witnesses. ‘Since he died without making a Will, the native laws and customs of our people have to apply with respect to the properties that he left behind. By our custom, only male children inherit their father’s properties. CD’s sisters would not have been kicking against this custom if they had had many brothers. It’s because they have an only brother that their throat is now long for their father’s property. That’s an abomination, because under our custom a woman does not inherit from her father but from her husband.’
And all the evidence of the other witnesses for the defence corroborated that of the above witness.
Counsel for the Claimants pitched his arguments mainly on the provisions of Section 42 (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, especially on sub-section (2) which simply says: ‘No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth.’
Expectedly, the court was mostly compelled by the above provision of the Constitution to agree with the submissions of the counsel to the Claimants (CD’s sisters) who called upon it to hold that the said native law and custom which sought to disinherit the Claimants on the basis of their sex was not only obnoxious, repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience, but was in addition totally in contravention of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.
By and large, judgment was given in favour of the Claimants, with court ordering CD to submit his father’s properties forthwith for sharing equitably among all the siblings.
