Why a girl child cannot inherit farmland in Adara native law, custom: by Clinton Daniels

Adara native law and custom is like every other customary law, which is largely unwritten with a long usage prior to the time of remembering. 

Adara people are predominantly found in the Southern part of Kaduna State, the Eastern part of Niger state and other places across the Northern Nigeria.

Customs and traditions varies from place to place, the distinctions can easily be identified among the people even though they also enjoy a plethora of similarities. In Adara land and under the Arada native law and custom however, there are peculiar features that distinguishes their customs and traditions from other customs as it affects the inheritance of a girl child over her father’s farmland.

This article seeks to address the question “whether a girl child is entitled to a share of her father’s farmland upon his demise. Our answer to this question will be negative. A girl child will only have a share of her father’s farmland upon his dead “if and only if” the father is not survived by a son.

Even though a girl child has equal claim on the other parts of her father’s estate just like the male children.

Where the father is survived by other children which include male children, the entire farmland passes to the male children to the exclusion of their sisters.

The other question the reader will be tempted to ask at this point is “why?”

A wife to the son will replace the sister who will inturn replace her husband’s sister in her husband’s house. A son/brother will eventually marry and start up his family, this explains why he needs to expand his farmland and multiply his effort in a bid to provide for his family. The farmland might not go round if his sisters still have to partake in the sharing with him even after being married to their husbands. This goes to show that upon the sisters getting married to other men, they also have taken up the places meant for their sisters in-laws.

This has been the practice from time immemorial, but as time goes by; customs evolves majorly due to the overriding influence of civilization, education and technology. Our customs keep improving and metamorphosing increasingly due to the interactions with others.

In the days before our fathers, Adara people enjoyed intra marital relationships between neighbouring clans and communities of the same customs and traditions sharing the same practices. In the present day however, the practice is still the same albeit with slight modifications that were precipitated by modernization which includes “inter-tribal” marriages, education and business relationships with other people of different cultures.

This tradition might experience further modification in time to come. It is note worthy that the notion that a “girl child” cannot inherit her father’s farmland should not be taken hook line and sinker, she can always ask her brother for a portion to cultivate and he will see to it that she’s not denied the right of usage.

May I further reiterate and underscore that a girl child has equal claims to her father’s remaining part of the estate which do not form part of the farmland as it is her constitutional right to inherit.