AN EVALUATION OF THE NIGERIAN JUDICIAL ATTITUDE TO THE IGBO CUSTOMARY LAW OF SUCCESSION

Abstract

Although the Igbo customary law of succession, which espouses the primogeniture principle, has recently been lambasted by the Nigerian courts for violating the equality provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and discriminating against women, the judicial engagement with the Igbo inheritance law in Nigeria remains evasive and reductionist. The Nigerian courts have failed to examine the Igbo customary inheritance law in the context of the social settings under which it developed from pre-colonial and colonial times till date, and the purposes which the law was originally meant to serve. Against this backdrop, this article critically engages the primogeniture principle and the Igbo customary succession law without neglecting its socio-historical context and raison d’etre. The study finds that the problem with the Igbo succession law today lies more with the lived unofficial practice of the Igbo inheritance custom over time than with the official customary law, which ultimately aims at securing the best interests of all the dependants of intestates. The article, therefore recommends that rather than totally discountenancing the Igbo customary succession law on the basis of the ‘Bill of Rights approach’, a more holisitc judicial review of the Igbo inheritance law should recapture the ‘the best interests of all dependants approach’ inherent in pre-colonial Igbo inheritance custom albeit without its patriarchal garb. The work adopts the methodology of doctrinal analysis.