The girl-child under customary law has the right to farm, engage in any trade approved for women, and even sell her labour. Sadly, however, it has been observed that:
Nigerian women have always worked on farms yet have never been allowed to own any land. Their role is seen as solely domestic…as customary law assists this process by further marginalizing women.
Every Nigerian citizen has a constitutional right to own property yet in practice women have absolutely no right to own property or land by virtue of being females.97
Women in our rural communities alongside their men but even more so than the menfolk in some cases till the ground for agricultural purposes, plant, uproot and carry heavy loads of farm produce on their heads to the closest market outlet for sale to ensure the sustenance of the family.
Despite this support for rural agriculture they face very serious impediments which hamper their productivity. Examples of these impediments include the inability to access enough land for agriculture as they have to depend on the men to provide land for farming each year.
As the girl-child under custom cannot inherit land she is not in control of the size of land she can use for farming, neither is she in control of the necessary inputs for agriculture for which she must be given direction as to use by her father or husband. This is why Anyogu summarized that
96 R Howard, „Women‟s Rights in English-Speaking Sub-Saharan Africa‟ in C. Nelch Human Rights and Development in Africa (1984) p. 60; R Howard, „ Human Rights and Personal Law: Women in Sub-Saharan Africa‟(1982)Vol. 12(1/2)A Journal of Opinion Cambridge University Press,45-52 available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/1166538.
97 Madu, op.cit; p. 117.
99
women‟s economic rights are further mortgaged and “inhibited by lack of access to farmland, capital and control over their own time and products of their labour.”98
The girl-child‟s economic rights are further limited by the fact that since custom places on her the responsibility of cooking and feeding the entire household, the girl-child who is engaged in subsistence farming would hardly have enough to sell in the market and improve her capital to purchase more and better seedlings for the next farming season because most of her products would go into feeding her immediate and extended family while the man farming what is regarded as „male‟ crops and which would be primarily sold, leaving a small quantity for consumption increases his economic base to marry more wives and acquire chieftaincy titles.
It is generally acknowledged that “Nigeria is by tradition a patriarchal society in which women are discriminated against from infancy and the violation of their human rights continues throughout their life cycle.”99 Patriarchy threatens the girl-child‟s economic rights as her economic efforts are often managed and regulated by the men having rule over her at any particular time. The major issue here bothers on the treatment of the results of her labour. What happens to the proceeds of her fruitful efforts? Who manages the proceeds under customary law?
Under our various customs, the proceeds of the woman‟s economic venture are „confiscated‟ by the man that is by the father or husband, uncles and other male siblings. It becomes part of the family‟s wealth and is managed on her behalf for the good of all. This control of the woman‟s personal resource is a show of control by the men which further impoverishes the womenfolk.
Olomojobi posits that:
The main purpose of inflicting economic violence on women by men is to acquire power and control over women…and this can take the form
98 F Anyogu; Access to Justice in Nigeria: A Gender Perspective (2nd edition, Enugu: Ebenezer Production Ltd, 2013) p. 332.
99 Ibid.
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that man puts all family property and joint account of both partners into his name only, leaving the woman with nothing to survive in situations where separation or divorce occurs.100
The notion that a woman‟s place is in the kitchen or backyard and not in the gathering of men has greatly hampered the full exercise of the girl-child‟s economic rights. This cultural hangover still limits the girl-child in the modern era as most parents still prefer to train a son with skills for survival and independence than train a girl child who would be married off to another family and lose her family‟s identity. Wokocha writes that “the natural consequence of this unnatural subjection has of course been poverty, pervading poverty amidst the industry and enduring labouriousness that characterize the woman folk‟s day to day living.”101
The girl-child in the Niger Delta is generally denied inheritance rights under customary law which forbids her from succeeding the father as head of the family or the family chief. She is also precluded from inheriting the father‟s or family‟s property especially land as it is reserved for the male children. This position is justified by patriarchy as only the males whom custom regard as custodians of the family lineage and name are eligible to inherit family land. In fact, the girl-child‟s right to land whether in her father‟s or husband‟s house is only usufructural (right to use) and not to own. The girl-child has no right to alienate the property given to her for farming purposes because she has no valid interest to alienate. She can also not create further interests in the property in question without the permission and consent of her father or in his absence, the consent of her male siblings or that of her husband if she is married; although girl-child can inherit personal property from the father especially if they are inter vivo gifts.
100 Op.cit; p. 64.
101 Op.cit; p.151.
101
If the girl-child is married, her personal property in the event of death is automatically inherited by her husband or in his absence by his male relatives but the reverse is not the case if it is her husband who dies. Among the Ikwerre people of Rivers State, if a woman had only female children, they will equally not be allowed to inherit their mother‟s property including her room and kitchen as these would be shared amongst the male members of the family to the total exclusion of the girls who would only be entitled to her personal things like wrappers, pots and jewelleries. The girl-children can only remain in their mother‟s room at the pleasure of their brothers. The right that custom therefore imposes on the male child to be the vehicle for the perpetuation of a peoples‟ lineage has continually placed the girl-child at a disadvantage as less attention is given to her in terms of training and welfare as she is perceived not to be very critical to the continuance of her family‟s name and existence but is rather an enhancer of the fortunes of another family.
In Mojekwu v Mojekwu102the court observed that the denial of property rights through disinheritance leads to the violation of a woman‟s human rights as it is discriminatory and unjust.
The violation of the economic rights of the girl-child has led to destitution, impoverishment of women and the continuous dependence of women on the men-folk which in turn lead to conflicts in the home. It has been stated that “women married under Yoruba and Ibo customary law systems cannot inherit their husband‟s property and one can hardly find Ibo women inheriting their father‟s estate.” 103