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Summary
The legal dispute between Otutochi (Tochi) C. Wigwe and her grandfather, Pastor Shyngle Wigwe, over her late father’s estate has sparked conversations about gender, tradition, and power in Nigeria. Despite being a highly educated and accomplished 26-year-old, Tochi is facing resistance from her extended family, who seem to believe she is incapable of managing the estate. However, women are fighting back more than ever, making slow but undeniable progress in reclaiming their rights.
On Feb. 19, 2025, the news hit the internet that Pastor Shyngle Wigwe decided to take his own granddaughter to court to contest her father’s will and ensure that the grandparents are made co-trustees in a will that is clearly handed over to her.
Following a video where Tochi’s aunt Joyce Wigwe speaks on the matter and refers to her as “Herbert’s daughter” and subtly subbed AIG by saying that he turned his back on them (not supporting them in altering the conditions of the will), it has been deduced that Aig-Imoukhuede (AIG) – who was Herbert’s close friend as well business partner (they built Access bank together) was a strong factor in ensuring that the family did not get their way in trying to alter the will. This begs the question that if AIG had not thrown his full weight behind Tochi, would she still be able to retain her parents’ estate? Also if AIG, in all his success and power, has been female, would Tochi still have been able to retain her father’s estate?
The Nigerian society is very traditional in nature. A lot of things are the way they are because a certain demographic, usually men, stick to “tradition.” The tradition here can also be synonymous with patriarchy; men will not allow things to change because it has always benefited them and allowed them to oppress (intentionally or not), and some women will stick to this “tradition” because it’s all they have known and they fear chaos so much to upend a tradition that continually takes from them and gives nothing back. This is why the average man sees a feminist as a threat; a threat that can cause upheaval and discontinue traditions that allow them to oppress women who they see as the weaker sex.
Otutochi (Tochi) C. Wigwe is no child at 26. She is a successful woman with a Bachelor’s degree in Social & Cultural Analysis and a Master’s degree in Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management – obtained from New York University (NYU) and the Imperial College Business School, London, respectively. She is an expert in strategic management and social entrepreneurship. She is the current Director of the Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe (HOW) Foundation. She is also the daughter of the late Herbert and Doreen Wigwe, who died alongside their son Chizi Wigwe in a plane crash in Feb. 2024. Everyone knew Herbert as the late CEO of Access Bank Holdings. Doreen is always mentioned as his wife even though she built roads, bridges, flyovers, important buildings and other structures all around the country and was reportedly the founder of Craneburg, a construction company.
However, her own grandparents as well as other members of her extended family seem to think that she is not capable of overseeing her late parents’ estate which was left to her and her younger siblings.
Here is a clearly successful 26-year-old woman who has studied entrepreneurship extensively, directs a foundation, has a plethora of expertise and experience dealing with money and clearly knows what she’s doing but her own grandfather and members of extended family do not think she should be handling her late fathers’ massive estate. This will not be admitted publicly, but this is also largely owing to the fact that she is a woman and as tradition dictates, women are not strong enough to take care of things even if they have spent all their adult lives in that same field and are even more equipped for the job than their male counterparts.
Some men on X (formerly Twitter) have dropped think-pieces as to why she cannot handle her father’s estate. This writer has seen comments saying she will squander it off or she will waste it on a man if or when she gets married or falls in love; I even saw someone saying she is a minor, and the most obvious reason men fall back on: she is a woman.
I wish this were a one-off thing in Nigerian society, but it is not. This situation opened a lot of canned worms where women and even men came out to recount what their mothers went through when they became widows. Some even described these family members as “vultures” who do not even wait to let the dead body go cold before swooping in to pack valuables and make demands even if the late husband left everything to his family. Another example is Wumi, the wife of the late singer Mohbad and what her shameless father-in-law has tried to show her, from demanding DNAs for his grandson who clearly looks like his father to even a blind person, to making demands of lands and property bought for Liam, his grandson before Mohbad’s demise and even most recently, threatening Wumi and Liam.
However, despite all these, it is worth celebrating that women are fighting back more than ever. In older times, this would not have been a debate. The widow or daughter(s) of the deceased would have been left with nothing or close to it. But women are fighting back, getting the knowledge needed to fight back, making their own money, raising the alarm on social media, and doing whatever it takes to be able to keep their heads up and prevent oppression. And although this progress appears slow, it is progress regardless. No matter how much the beneficiaries of a “tradition” that lords and oppresses kick against it, women will continue to fight and progress. Why? The future is female.
