By Ngozi Egenuka and Musa Adekunle

The African Widows Summit (TAWS) has called on the Senate to expedite passage of the Nigerian Widows Protection Bill (HB 1711) to protect widows from harmful traditional practices.

President and founder of the union, Hope Nwakwesi, at a press briefing at the weekend, while emphasising the importance of widows’ protection, called for the inclusion and establishment of widows’ desks within the African Union, national governments and international agendas to be occupied by widows.

That way, according to her, their rights and interests would be properly cared for, while seeking donor funding to be allocated towards widow’s rights and empowerment.

“It is crucial that widows are included in decision-making processes to ensure their needs are adequately addressed,” she added.

According to her, in 2020, the submission of the widows protection bill was done and one of the things included in it is the abolition of repressive practices.

“Through my organisation, I developed a widow protection bill, 2020, and I gave it to one of the honourable members, and by the time I asked in February last year, they told me that it had been passed from Federal House to the Senate for concurrence,” she stated while fielding questions from journalists.

Nwakwesi stated that the definition of a widow is changing drastically from a woman who has lost her spouse by death and has not married again to a woman whose husband abandoned or separated from.