A woman has opened up about her decision to withhold financial support for her family’s village building project, after discovering that tradition would exclude her from inheriting any part of it — despite being the one member of her family with the financial means to help.
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By her account, she is the primary earner in her family. So when her father approached her for money to fund renovations on the family building, she initially agreed, offering to send the funds in dollars for conversion to Naira.
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But before finalizing the arrangement, she asked her father a pointed question: would she inherit any portion of the building if something happened to him? His answer was no — as a woman, she would not be entitled to inherit under family tradition. The most she was offered was the use of a room whenever she came to visit.
That answer, she said, didn’t sit right with her. She responded by suggesting that her brothers — who stood to inherit the property but couldn’t afford to contribute to its upkeep — should be the ones funding the project instead.
Recounting the conversation, she said: “So I said OK, giving you money for a building that I will not inherit if you’re no longer around is against my own rules and my own tradition and my religion, so therefore I will not give you that money.”
Her father initially laughed it off, assuming she was joking — and she laughed along with him at first. But when she made clear she meant it, he reminded her that she’d already agreed to send the money.
“I said yes, we had an agreement, but I’m here to disappoint you,” she recalled telling him. “I will not be giving you this money because I’m not worthy to inherit anything from my father’s property because of tradition. So my money is not worthy to be included in that building project.”
In the caption accompanying her video, she wrote: “No inheritance, no contribution. Let the male children do the building.” She added, with a touch of humor, that she’d rather spend the money on “clothes and wigs” instead.
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