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Nollywood actress, Mercy Aigbe, and actor-turned lawmaker, Desmond Elliot, have promised to fight against the inhuman treatment Nigerian widows are subjected to.
Mercy Aigbe, who condemned how women are treated after demise of their husbands, disclosed that the campaign is on to “collect at least 1 million signatures of willing individuals committing to join us and our ambassadors in driving home the message to end all forms of discrimination against widows.”
On his part, Elliot said he has no doubt that his involvement will inspire many others to give their time and energy to end the torture against widows, “so that gradually, these prejudices will start to fade away across Nigeria and Africa communities.”
In his speech, Felix King, Founder, Felix King Charity Foundation, recalled that he witnessed practices where women are meted with all manner of reprehensible deprivations by society, especially upon the demise of their loved ones.
He said: “Widows are denied rights to inheritance of their departed husbands’ estates; many others are forced to perform all manner of inhuman and dehumanizing acts while there are others who are made to drink waters used to wash the bodies of their departed loved ones all in the name of cultural cleansing.
“Let me say that the culture and phenomenon of discrimination against widows is not peculiar to communities in Nigeria. And that was why, as a way of mobilizing voices and galvanizing action to sensitize individuals and communities in a global effort to reduce, and where possible totally eradicate such evil practices.
“The foundation supports the global campaign against evil widowhood practices with Nigeria as our focus and would create some form of support platforms to heal the psychological wounds that bad widowhood practices have continued to inflict on widows and other vulnerable women in our society.
“It also creates some form of economic empowerment programmes to enable widows become economically independent thereby enabling them to solve personal problems and be able to train their children and be useful to themselves and society.
He added that in commemoration of this year’s International Widows’ Day, the foundation will be hosting dignitaries from across Africa in the maiden edition of the African Widows’ Summit scheduled to hold in Benin city, Edo State on June 23.
Felix said the programme themed “together with the communities we can abolish widows’ maltreatment”, will be used to send a clear message to society that the time has come to end all the discriminatory practices against widows.
“Prior to this summit we will be presenting a Private Bill to the Edo State House of Assembly called “Abolish widows’ maltreatment in Edo state Bill”.
“Our strategy is to activate this campaign on a community by community approach, rather national strategy. We believe one community won means more other communities to embrace our campaign message.
“We are therefore appointing these ambassadors (Aigbe and Elliot) as voices of the voiceless and voices for society.
