How do you share inheritance?

"Take away all our possessions, and we are left with one structure held together by love: family"

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Inheritance, if care is not taken or not applying wisdom in sharing it, can cause rift and disharmony in a family especially when it is a polygamous family. In fact, in some particular region or state, there is always a problem when a man dies and the inheritance isn't shared to the only wife of the deceased. Many families are in loggerheads on how to share their father's or mother's will when they die.

In some places, inheritance isn't given to the deceased's wife but would be taken from her by the man's family because they believe in their custom that it is until the deceased's brother marries the widow wife, would she be able to have a share in the will made.

In some other parts, their custom is for the first male born to inherit everything with nothing given to the mother or female children. This is where gender discrimination comes in.

Whereas there are places where they believed the widow won't get any entitlement because they assume she would have collected from her biological parents and they don't want her to have access to double inheritance, then they transfer everything to the first male child to inherit all.

Then in my culture in Yoruba land, it is believed that even if a man marries two wives and more children, they will share the will in equal parts not minding if one of the wives has more than one child.

I watched a movie yesterday. The two brothers were fighting over their father's inheritance. The elder brother already shared the will into four parts and gave the other brother quarter of it, claiming that was how it would be shared. They went to a woman to help them settle the matter and this was how it is.

The father married two wives before he died, leaving behind four children. Three children for the first wife and a child for the second wife. The older brother of the first wife decided to share the inheritance according to the children and this caused misunderstanding between them.

The woman then explained to them that there are two methods of sharing an inheritance in this kind of situation.

One is by law and custom of Yoruba land which states that no matter the number of children each wife has, it will be shared equally among the wives. This means, each wife will take their equal parts and it is left for them to share it in their own way with their children. There isn't any partiality in it. The older brother was unhappy hearing such a method because he has two other siblings with their mom, how would they manage half of the inheritance compared to the wife who has only one child?

The second method is by being called a responsible person. This means that the older brother would have to act responsibly and plead with the son of the second wife on how to share equally and if he agrees, so be it and if he doesn't agree, then they would have to go with the first method which is the right way in Yoruba culture.

The woman resolved the issue amicably and the older brother pleaded, and the other brother accepted because it was done in the right way and not through fights and commotion.

There was a case of a man I read online who died at the age of 65, he was survived by nine wives and thirty-six children. The man had an estate which had eight fully developed properties with shares in numerous companies. After 30 years of this man's death, they still haven't shared his will and they keep going to the Lagos State High Court but can't claim his assets and as it is, the children and wives are not in talking terms. Tell me, how will they benefit from the assets when they aren't united? Perhaps, the children are after sharing the will equally among the children and not the wives. Who knows?

Inheritance has caused a lot of commotion in a house and until it is done in their own way, things will not be in order. It may seem as an act of cheating where a woman only has a child while the other wives have many children and the inheritance is shared equally amongst the wives and it is left for them to share with their children.

To me, I am of the opinion that inheritance should be shared equally among the number of wife no matter how many children they have. That is the way it should be in my own opinion. Though it may not go well with the family but it should be done in a reasonable way or perhaps go for the second method.

How do you think inheritance is being shared in your culture? I want us to learn from each other and I would be glad if you can share your opinion concerning this issue in the comment section.

Thanks for reading

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[April 28, 2022] (No 118 article for the year)