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By Etim Etim

The ordeal of Herbert Wigwe’s children, who have been caught up in a legal tussle between their grandfather on one side and the testaments of their deceased father’s Will on the other, has shone some light on what other fatherless children and their mothers are going through in the hands of oppressive relatives. Whether their fathers died interstate or testate, many Nigerian children and their mothers have been cheated out of their legal inheritance by greedy and callous relatives, especially if they had nobody to fight for them.

Herbert Wigwe’s children are lucky to have their father’s friend and business partner, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, stand up for them. Aigboje should be commended for his principles and capacity to stand by the law and protect Herbert’s children according to the wishes of their departed father, despite pressures and attempts to cow him.

Other children who have not been so fortunate to have a strong pillar of support have been dispossessed of their heritage and pushed out into penury and hopelessness. This tribute is to all such unfortunate children and their mothers and to all men of goodwill and father figures who have decided to take sides with these fatherless children (and widows) who are fighting to claim their inheritance. A recent piece by Onikepo Braithwaite, a law columnist with Thisday newspaper, on this subject matter is quite enlightening and educative.

Herbert Wigwe left behind both a Will and a Revocable Trust to protect his estate and ensure a smooth inheritance for his children and wife. But, unfortunately, his wife died with him. The laws governing the administration of estates of deceased persons in every state of the federation explicitly define the dependents of the deceased who are entitled to benefitting from the inheritance of the late breadwinner. In Lagos, for example, where Herbert Wigwe lived most of his life and raised a family, Section 2(1)(a) & b of the Wills Law refers to the deceased’s spouse(s) and children as the family dependants of the deceased who are entiled to benefit from his estate; not the deceased’s grandparents and siblings. Section 4 of the law provides that for a Will to be valid, the Will must be in writing; the Testator (the person writing the Will) must sign it in the presence of two witnesses who must, in return, attest and subscribe to the Will in the presence of the Testator. A Will made outside Nigeria can also be valid in Nigeria.

The second scenario in death, intestacy, is a case in which a person dies without a Will. In the case of Herbert Wigwe, his Will named three people alternatively to be his personal representatives and three people alternatively to be his trustees. Herbert listed his wife Doreen (who unfortunately died with him) and his cousin, Uche Wigwe to be both his trustees and personal representatives. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuee is also listed as the second alternative trustee, while an American citizen, Ms Blanco, is listed as the second alternative personal representative. Ms Blanco subsequently declined to be the personal representative.

The Wills law and administration of estate law in Lagos define dependents as spouses and children, and in scenarios of testacy and intestacy, the children and the spouses are priorities in the hierarchy of inheritance. In intestacy, the children are the most superior, in that, where there’s no spouse, whether there are parents or siblings of the deceased, the children take the whole estate of their father; but if there is a surviving spouse and no children, the spouse will only take half, and the other half goes to the parents of the deceased in equal shares. It goes without saying that being a biological relative of the deceased person does not confer a right to inheritance. Rather, it is the wishes of the deceased as stated in the Will that confers the right of inheritance; or where the deceased left no will, the provisions of the law will prevail.

Herbert Wigwe left behind a Will and by the Wills Law of Lagos State; his four surviving children are the true inheritors of his estate. It is therefore mindboggling that Herbert’s father and cousin, Christian, are fighting to be in control of the estate by first seeking an Order of the Court to change the administrators of the estate. Typically, it is the children of the deceased who fight over their father’s Will. I have never seen a situation in which a 90-year-old man is taking on his granddaughter in such an embarrassing feud. This is why Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, himself a lawyer, is determined to protect Herbert’s children and preserve their inheritance for them as enshrined in their father’s Will. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede should be commended for standing up for Herbert’s children in spite of all the innuendoes thrown at him. But who will protect the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of other Nigerian children and their mothers who have been dispossessed of their rightful inheritance just because they do not have someone to fight for them? What can our governors do about this? In many Nigerian societies, the siblings of the deceased are always eager to step in and confiscate the deceased’s properties and chase the widow and children away.