THE LEGAL AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STATUS OF SURVIVING FEMALES IN INTESTATE SUCCESSION MATTERS IN BENIN CUSTOMARY LAW

Abstract

The concept of succession involves the transmission of the rights and obligations of a deceased person in respect of his estate to his heirs and successors. It deals primarily with the distribution of a deceased person’s intestate estate, to his heirs and successors. It further accommodates the rules, governing the administration of a deceased person’s intestate estate by personal representatives of the deceased person including state participation in respect of real estate situate within the concerned state’s jurisdiction as well as the personal estate of the deceased person subject to its jurisdiction. Intestacy occurs where a person dies without making a legally valid will in respect of his estate. Nigeria operates a pluralist system of law in relation to intestacy, this include the application of received English Law (common Law, statutes of general application, doctrines of equity), as well as legislations by the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly and other bye-laws made by local government councils. Similarly there are in existence multifarious customary laws as there are distinctive areas of grouping of peoples. These customary laws are in some instances, generally unwritten. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) recognizes and preserves these sources of laws in Nigeria and projects a policy of keeping them ‘separate and separable.’ The law of intestate succession is impacted by a variety of rules from the two broad systems of laws. The customary laws of succession govern persons who were subject to the native law and custom of their community before their death. It is against this background the paper critically examines the operation of legal and socio-cultural status of females in intestate succession under Benin customary law. The authors argued that the rules in respect of the customary law of inheritance of the Benin people are predominantly skewed against the female gender, such as surviving widows and daughters, unlike under testate succession maters provided for under the applicable statute. The paper finally maintained that baring the discrimination against females, the essence of societal justice to genders will greatly be promoted ensuring the greatest happiness to surviving females of a deceased.