Have you prepared your WILL?

FUNMILAYO AREMU reports on why many Nigerians hesitate to write their Will, or if they even understand its importance and the cost of writing and keeping a Will.

Babarinsa took a swig from his glass of whiskey, stood up from his chair, stretched out and beckoned on his friend Adisa to see him off after a long visit. He then said: “I will be going to my lawyer tomorrow to start the procedure of writing my Will. Will you like to accompany me?”

Adisa stopped dead in his tracks. “Are you terminally ill? Is anything the matter? Why are you writing your Will? Is there something I need to know?” Adisa asked fearfully.

His friend looked at him, smiled knowingly and said: “I am fit as a fiddle, my friend, I just want to have my Will in place and I think you should do the same.”

“Why would I want to write my Will? I am not even 60 years old yet, do you wish me dead? I don’t want to tempt my fate, please. I still have many more years to live on planet earth,” Adisa countered.

This is the mindset many Nigerians have about writing their Will and Testament. This also attests to many Nigerians being reluctant to write their Wills.

According to Earl Alright, a lawyer at Graceville Chambers in nIbadan, the Oyo State capital, who spoke to Sunday Tribune, the number of clients who have wanted their Wills written is not up to 10 in his 12 years of practice. He also noted that according to a report published by SBM Intelligence in 2018, about three per cent of Nigerians have a valid Will.

Another lawyer, Stephen Omoyola, at Omoyola & Co, a law firm in Lagos Statewho also spoke with Sunday Tribune, said that there are only two per cent of Nigerians who have written their Will.

Why people hesitate to write Will

Sunday Tribune went to town to find out what other reasons people have for not writing their Will.

A 65-year-old farmer who wanted to be identified as Mr Ariyo, shared his reasons for not having his Will written.

According to him, his father never wrote a Will despite having eight children and after his demise, his property was shared equally among his wife and children. He said his reluctance to write his Will is not because he is not educated, but because he believes that he has instilled the fear of God in his children.

“I don’t think I need to write my Will because my children are not greedy and I believe I have raised them with the fear of God and they will not fight over my property after I die.

“They are all doing well for themselves and they might not even want my properties, well maybe except my lands. My father did not write his Will and he had eight children, we never fought over his properties after he died,” he said.

For Mrs Adebola Muhammed, a middle-aged businesswoman, writing a Will is synonymous with tempting fate. Having witnessed the death of one of her friends two years after writing a Will, she has decided to wait until she is old to write a Will.

According to her: “There are some things I do not want to attempt, writing a Will at a young age is one of them. One of my friends died about two years after writing her Will, it might have been a coincidence, but I am not going to fix what is not broken at this point. Besides, I believe that my children will be successful and won’t need to depend on whatever they will get from me. When I grow to a ripe age of 70, I may consider it.”

Sunday Tribune also reached out to other people to share their reasons for not having a Will but many of them declined to answer, with some stating that it is a sensitive topic.

Sunday Tribune proceeded to ask Nigerians on social media on why Nigerians are reluctant to write their Will.

A man, Emmanuel Teryima, reacted that most young people are still depending on their retired parents and therefore cannot write their Will. Others like Kikiire Makinde and Mujidat Tope said that they would write their Will when they have valuable properties.

Ahmad Yahaya Jibrin asserted that he will not be writing his Will at the age 40, while Olamiposi Adeyinka said the moment he has something worthy to be put on record, he will write it to protect his belongings.

Sunday Tribune spoke with lawyers on why they think Nigerians are reluctant to have a Will.

Alright highlighted procrastination, fear of death, complexity and cost as reasons people shy away from writing their Will.

He said: “Many people feel they will not die soon and usually believe that they still have sufficient time to write one, so they postpone it. Most people always try to live in denial of the reality of inevitable death someday. So, they avoid anything that would make them face that reality.”

He added that “preparing any document is not as easy as we think and such delicate legal documents as Wills could be overwhelming for people who have lots of assets or those who have few assets but many people that need to be represented.”

He also noted that many have not written their Wills because of the cost. “They are willing but believe the fees charged by lawyers for the service are too expensive. They said they would save for it but end up never doing so, thereby getting caught up in procrastination.”

Furthermore, he said there are misconceptions about Wills, such as the belief that only wealthy people need them, or that family members will automatically inherit everything in the absence of a Will, or belief that family members will not fight over properties which he said that over time, he has found not to be correct.

Omoyola, on the other hand, believes that ignorance is one reason many people don’t prepare their Wills.

According to him: “Nigerians don’t know the importance of a Will. They don’t understand the importance of having their homes organised after their demise which can be attributed to illiteracy, lack of exposure or ignorance.

“This has destroyed many homes after the demise of the head of the family or a wealthy person in the family. Siblings and other members of the family resort to all forms of things such as killing, charms, and destruction of lives and properties, just to have a share in the estate of the deceased which could have been avoided by the existence of a Will.

He also disclosed that a lot of people have an “I don’t care attitude,” thinking they would live a long life while others do not know how to go about the procedure of writing a Will.

Laws guiding Will writing

Sunday Tribune further inquired about the requirements for writing a valid Will in Nigeria and according to Omoyola, there are certain factors which make a Will valid, if the Will does not meet these requirements, the court will deem it void.

He said@: “Any person of full legal age of 18 years who has the right mental capacity can make a Will. Age differs in most states but the age predominant in most of the states in Nigeria is 18 years.

“On the capacity to make a Will, a testator (the person writing a Will) must be of sound mind, must understand the nature/reason he is making a Will, must understand, appreciate and recollect the persons who are the beneficiaries and must understand the manner in which the property is to be shared.

“Proving mental capacity there must exist the following; there must be evidence that the Will was written by the testator or instructions were written by him. There must be corroborated evidence of attesting Will and medical evidence of a physician who attested to the fact that he is fit and sane. A Will must have two witnesses and it must also be signed and dated by the testator.”

Alright corroborated Omoyola’s claim that people above the age of 18 can write their will and added that people below 18 can also write their will under some circumstances.

“You can write a Will once you are 18 and above or even below under some legal circumstances. If you are in the military, you can have a Will from the age of 16 and above or a child faced with terminal health who has assets with parental consent can have a Will written,” he said.

When asked what happens when a person who doesn’t have a Will dies, Alright said that the Administration of Estate Law of his state will be applied to his estate. This means that his or her properties may be shared in a manner that the deceased may not have liked.

Omoyola also stated that when a person dies intestate (without a Will), “the way of life of the deceased and the tribe or village he is from will determine how his property will be shared. The only exception is if he denies the community he hails from during his lifetime. Then the way of life he adopted will be used in the distribution of his estate.”

According to him: “In Yorubaland, for instance, we have the ori o j’ori, where the estate will be distributed according to the number of children equally. We also have the Idi Igi whereby the property will be distributed according to the number of wives the deceased had when he was alive.”

Furthermore, for practising Muslims, who rely on the Quranic sharing formula, Omoyola revealed their estate will be shared in accordance with the Quran.

“The property of the person who dies without a Will shall be distributed in line with the principle, religion and tradition in which the deceased lived his or her life before death,” he said, adding that the Islamic inheritance law is valid and cannot be changed by any law.

On the cost of writing a will, Alright disclosed that it is dependent on the lawyer contracted and the amount of work to be done. He said that “drafting a Will is a major task that is more demanding than drafting a land document or regular court processes. Some lawyers may decide to do it for free on the grounds that they get their pay when the Will is to be executed.”

Omoyola further added that although the cost of writing a will depends on the lawyer, a Will has to be lodged at the Probate Registry and at that stage, certain fixed levies are paid. The levy depends on the value of the entire estate and could be starting from N100,000. He also stated that copies of the Will could be kept at the bank, with trusted witnesses and family members.

Alright also refuted the misconception that a person’s next of kin will inherit properties if the person dies without a Will. He clarified that “a Next of Kin does not mean heir in Law. Next of Kin simply means whom to reach out to in an emergency situation. The person is only an emergency responder, not a person entitled to the estate. A Next of Kin may not even get a dime from the estate.”