Daily Trust
Last week I listened to BBC Hausa news, where it said that the Rivers state house of assembly wants to make a law to allow women inherit their fathers' properties. The reporter asked the opinions of some residents in Port Harcourt who were mostly against the intention of the state assembly. They argued that it was their tradition for women not to inherit their parents, as a woman is not meant to stay in her parents' house, that she would marry and go to her husband's house.

In conclusion, the reporter said the prevention of women from inheritance was not only in Rivers state, but that it was a common culture in the south- south and south east geo political zones.

What gripped my attention and made me ponder on the issue was how come human rights activists in Nigeria and abroad are not at the fore front of fighting this injustice against women? Definitely it is not that they are not aware of it. It makes one to wonder about the double standard of such organisations, because if women were denied inheritance in the north, or rather the so-called core north, the place of Hausa-Fulani Muslims all manner of organisations would have been staging workshops to 'liberate the northern woman' from oppressive religion and culture.

I have attended a lot of workshops and mostly they were targeted at the perceived oppression of northern women and how to liberate them. Though I always spoke against the misconceptions, however, some from the north agree and give their support for the misconceptions, probably to go with the tide and not to be seen as 'conservative'.

But even though those workshops were attended by other participants from other parts of the country, the focus of such workshops are always on the oppression of the northern women. So I wonder, why wouldn't these activists that love the northern women so much love their own people as much too? (Most if not all, are from the south).

Apparently they see their culture as sacred, so nobody dares challenge them, as testified by some of the respondents in the BBC story. One said their culture of not giving women inheritance was above any western culture.

There are so many examples, few years ago, one young woman in the university told my niece who was also in the university that my niece was lucky because of her Hausa culture. This young woman said in her culture before she marries she has to get pregnant to prove her fertility and that after being with one boyfriend without conceiving she had moved on to another. And to think that in this age where it is established that some infertility problems may be the problem of the man, but still women are forced to demean themselves by sleeping around so to speak, is shocking.

Yet, many of the so-called liberators of northern women come from where this tradition is practiced, but they are not focusing their attention on this degrading, demeaning and abusive culture against women.

Charity , they say begins at home, so why wouldn't they target their fight for women liberation and emancipation from their places, instead of jumping to other places? But then, may be the northern women 'oppression' is the trend that most be sustained by all means, while the others are painted as having embraced western civilisation, and therefore may not have problem of women marginalisation.

Among skewed and biased reports is the propaganda that Vesico Virginal Fistula (VVF) is a northern scourge alone due to early marriage. About six years ago I among other participants of a workshop visited a VVF centre in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state ,which really surprised us from the north, since we were made to understand it was an exclusive northern problem.

But as a northern Muslim woman I have my own inheritance provided by Islam and nobody would dare take it away just because I am a woman. If I die my children will automatically inherit my own portion of my father's house that I have inherited, and my brothers cannot prevent it, because my children don't bear my family name, so the earlier the rest of women in Nigeria enjoy their 'right' to inherit their fathers, and husbands as the case may be, the better.

However, even if they don't practice Islam as a religion, something can be worked out as the Rivers state house of assembly is trying to do, and the human rights activists should bare their fangs and fight those against the noble legislation. That is if they are really fighting for the right and equality for all, and without fear and hidden agenda. These women need emancipation.

• Nigeria