Despite the enactment of a law granting women the right to share in family property, Nigerian women still face barriers to land-sharing
Rumuwhara community land. Photo provided by The Colonist Report Africa, used with permission.
This story was written by Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi and was originally published by The Colonist Report Africa, with additional reporting by Faith Imbu and Kevin Woke. Ikwere language transcription was done by Kevin Woke. A shortened version is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Women in Nigeria’s Rivers State continue to struggle for land despite the Prohibition of the Curtailment of Women’s Right to Share in Family Property Law No. 2 of 2022, an investigation by The Colonist Report Africa has found.
At the time of the law’s passage, the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) stated that the new law would allow women in Rivers State to fully realise their potential and inherit their entitlements while also paving the way for discrimination to be challenged in court.
The Colonist Report visited three communities in Rivers State to assess whether community leaders were adhering to the law. However, we found that some leaders have yet to comply.
All of the communities we visited were agrarian, with most women relying on farmland to plant crops and support their families by selling produce in markets.
We discovered that, despite being denied farmland, some women had acquired land for farming or building a house by purchasing it from teenagers who had been allocated land but lacked the resources to develop it.
Furthermore, we found that women are hesitant to share their land-related issues for fear of reprisals from in-laws or community leaders.
Existing traditions that suppress women
In Ogoni custom, every female firstborn is traditionally not allowed to marry but is permitted to have children while living in her parents’ house. These children automatically belong to the woman's family, not their biological father — a tradition known as Sirah Syndrome.
Susan Serekara-Nwikhana, whose mother, Salome Nwiduumteh Nwinee, was affected by Sirah Syndrome at the age of 15, explains:
“In the end, all of these children belong to her extended family rather than the man or men who impregnated her.”
According to Serekara-Nwikhana, despite her mother being pretty and attracting many suitors, she was not allowed to get married.
“Even though the tradition has deprived the girls of marrying, land is not shared with these women, which they depend on to cater for their immediate family. When family lands are not allocated to them, the women and their children suffer a lot. They have no choice but to buy land for farming,” she said.
Rumuwhara community
Justine Ngozi Orowhu , a farmer in the Rumuwhara community in Obia-Akpor, told us that she inherited 14 plots of land from her father, which she used for farming. However, after he died, community leaders seized the land and sold it to local men because she had no male siblings.
Orowhu had to resort to petty trading to make ends meet. But she later stopped trading after her husband fell ill. In 2014, she sued the community leaders for taking her land, but according to her, justice was never served. She now farms on government land, aware that she will have to leave whenever the government reclaims it.
Her hope lies in a law signed by former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, granting women the right to inherit their father's land. “If I see an advocate to fight for me, I will reopen the case again in court,” she said.
Chris Wopara, the youth secretary in Rumuwhara. Photo provided by The Colonist Report Africa, used with permission.
Chris Wopara, the youth secretary in Rumuwhara, explained that according to community tradition, women cannot inherit land and men must be over 25 and involved in family activities to qualify. “The sharing of the land with the male usually happens after a year of continuous work for the family,” he said.
“The government doesn’t have the right to force us to give land to our daughters because the daughters will eventually get married,” said another elder, Fineface Wopara.
He added, “If a woman is given property in her father’s house, “it means she will benefit more than the male. The properties of her husband belong to her.”
Omuanwa community
Omuanwa community women. Photo provided by The Colonist Report Africa, used with permission.
In the Omuanwa community, every male child, even a one-year-old, is allocated a plot of land during the annual land distribution. However, women are not given land for building; instead, land can be leased to farmers, which they would have to vacate after harvesting.
We interviewed six women and two male elders at the same time to gain a better understanding of the situation and whether the community had started allocating lands to women since the 2022 law was passed.
According to the women interviewed, in 2023, lands were shared among men, including kids in the Omuanwa community, but no woman, whether, “single, widow, or married, was allocated a land,” said Florence Ejinya, a farmer struggling without access to land. “In the Omuneji community, there is no more land for the women to farm,” she said.
Omuanwa community women. Photo provided by The Colonist Report Africa, used with permission.
When asked if there had been any protests against this discrimination, the women said they had never demonstrated. Elder Gibson Ajoku explained that the practice of not allocating land to women has persisted since his grandfathers’ time and “cannot be changed.” He added that women are expected to rely on their husbands’ land shares. When asked about the new law granting women inheritance rights, he said he was unaware.
Another community member, ThankGod Ejiowhor, acknowledged the existence of the state law but confirmed that women are still prohibited from inheriting or being allocated land, as well as from partaking in bride price distributions.
Rumukurushi community
Unlike Omuanwa, the Rumukurushi community in Obio Akpor Local Government Area, Rivers State, is located in the state's urban metropolis. The Oil Mill market, a major hub, draws people from within and outside the state to trade a wide range of goods. However, women continue to struggle for land, with urbanization worsening the issue.
Blessing Amam recalled that the last land distribution in 2021 excluded women entirely.
Amam said: “As a woman, if you don’t have a male child, no property will be given to you unless you have a good brother-in-law who will give you some portion of his land for you to farm on.”
Government and rights groups’ intervention
Roseline Uranta, Rivers State Commissioner for Women’s Affairs, clarified that the denial of land to women is a cultural tradition, not due to government policies or laws, which do not prohibit women from owning land.
In an interview with us, Uranta urged women who are denied their property to report the issue to the Women’s Affairs Ministry. She noted that some women do come forward, and investigations are conducted to resolve these cases. “If the situation is
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