Is It Right For A Man To Marry His Late Brother's Wife

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When an loved one dies, it is often very traumatic for friends and family members. When it's Nigeria and it's a man who was married, it's not only devastating but ignites a huge flame war.


From surviving members of the deceased family who expects the wife to undergo intense ritual rites to appease the gods and mourn her late husband to being expected to remain unmarried for long period of years- irrespective of her age. One can rightly say, being a widow in Nigeria is HELL.

STB reporter spoke with a reader from Anambra State, Nigeria who lost her husband in 2017. Before the unfortunate incident, she couple was happily married for 12 years. A union which produced 3 children who are all in Primary school.

The couple met while studying at the Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, before tying the knot in 2005.
They moved to Lagos, where they both picked up a job at a new generation bank in the Ogba, Ikeja area of Lagos.

Four years into their marriage, her husband lost his job and started a private business; importing female clothing from Dubai.

They were comfortable; living in a modest flat , proud owners of two cars, developing a story building in Anambra State and going on summer vacations.

All seemed well, until 2016 when her husband began to have difficulty using the toilet, he would stay two weeks without using the toilet, experience pain in the upper right side of his abdomen, swollen feet and face. In July 2016, he was diagnosed with Kidney failure, his both kidneys had failed.

He required dialysis to stay alive, which he had to undergo every week at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. The procedure sucked all their savings, his family suggested they sell off his property in Anambra State to fly him to India for a kidney transplant. She was not happy with this decision by the family, she saw no need why the property should be sold, since they were not sure if he was going to survive anyway. This caused a rife between herself and her husband's family.

To avoid her husband's family selling the properties, she took the house deed, hide it with her family members.

On numerous occasions, with her husband still on the sick bed, his family broke into the house in search for the property documents, which she already kept safely at her elder sister's house.

In December 2016, her husband passed! at this time, both families were already at logger heads because of the property. Her husband's family refused to bury him until she provided the documents to all the properties her husband owned.

After 3 months in the morgue, he was finally buried, amidst lots of confusion, spiritual tussle, legal battles e.t.c.

''As an educated woman, i refused to perform all those their dirty traditional rites of cutting my hair and sitting on the floor'', she said.

Now her late husband's family is refusing to allow her access her late husband's properties. They've giving her conditions ; she must marry her late husband's younger brother, who is divorced or swear an oath to prove she had no connection to her husband's death.

She is a christian and cannot swear. She intends to remarry, but certainly not her brother-in-law.