Laws favouring women in the Western world are sometimes a bit overboard from the traditional African perspective. In many cases, without a high burden of proof, a woman can sue her husband to court for divorce and collect his home, cars and basically everything he has ever worked for in his life, leaving him in penury.
Many Nigerian men have been driven to misery, suicide, and even homicide, killing their wives and even children as a result of these laws which have no standing from an African context.
Here are some examples of Nigerian women driving their husbands to a point of insanity because of the laws abroad:
An Epidemic: Nigerian Men Killing Their Nurse Wives In America over alleged insubordination and usurpation.
1. “Yes, I have killed the woman that messed up my life; the woman that has destroyed me. I am at Shalom West. My name is David and I am all yours.” Those were David Ochola’s words during his 911 (U.S. Emergency Number) call to authorities after shooting dead, his 28 years old wife, Priscilla Ochola, in Hennepin, Minnesota.
The 50-years old, husband was tired of being “disrespected” by his wife, a Registered Nurse (RN) whom he had brought from Nigeria and sponsored through nursing school only to have her make much more than him in salary – a situation which led to Mrs. Ochola “coming and going as she chose without regard for her husband.”
The couple had two children – four years old boy and a three year old girl.
2. In Texas, Babajide Okeowo had been separated from his wife, Funke Okeowo, with whom he resided at their Dallas home. Upon the divorce, the husband lost the house to his wife, along with most of the contents therein, as is usually the tradition in the U.S. Divorces where the couple still has underage children.
Mr. Okeowo, 48, divorced his wife because not long after she became an RN and made more money than him, she “took control” of the family finances and “controlled” her husband’s expenditure and movement.
The husband could no longer make any meaningful contribution to his family back in Nigeria unless the wife “approved” it. He could not go out without her permission. Frustrated that his formerly malleable wife had suddenly become such a “terror” to him to the point of asking for in court and getting virtually everything for which he had worked since coming to the US thirty years prior, the husband got in his vehicle and drove a few hundred miles to Dallas to settle the scores.
He found her in her SUV, adorned in full Nigerian attire on her way to the birthday bash organized in her honor. She had turned 46 on that day. Mr. Okeowo fired several rounds into his wife’s torso while she sat at the steering wheel, mercilessly killing her in broad daylight.
3. Also in Dallas, Moses Egharevba, 45, did not even bother to get a gun. The husband of Grace Egharevba, 35, bludgeoned her to death with a sledge hammer while their seven year old daughter watched and screamed for peace.
Mrs. Egharevba’s “sin” was that she became an RN and started to make more money than her husband. This led to her “financial liberation” from a supposedly tight-fisted husband who had not only brought her from Nigeria, but had also funded her nursing school education.
Like Moses Egharevba, Christopher Ndubuisi of Garland, Texas, (these Texas people!) also did not bother to get a gun. He crept into the bedroom where his wife, Christiana, was sleeping and, with several blows of the sledge hammer, crushed her head.
Two years before Christiana was killed, her mother, who had been visiting from Nigeria, was found dead in the bathtub under circumstances believed to be suspicious.
Of course, Christiana was a RN whose income dwarfed that of her husband as soon as she graduated from nursing school. The husband believed that his role as a husband and head of the household had been usurped by his wife.
Mr. Ndubuisi’s several entreaties to his wife’s family to intercede and bring Christiana back under his control had all failed.
If the circumstances surrounding the death of Christiana’s mother were suspicious, those surrounding the death of a Tennessee woman’s mother were not.
4. Agnes Nwodo, an RN, lived in squalor before her husband, Godfrey Nwodo, rescued her and brought her to the US. He enrolled her in nursing school right away. Upon qualifying as a RN, Mrs. Nwodo assumed “full control” of the household. She brought her mother to live with them against her husband’s wishes. Mrs. Nwodo quickly familiarized herself with US Family Laws and took full advantage of them.
Each time the couple argued, the police forced the husband to leave the house whether he had a place to sleep or not. On many occasions, Mr. Nwodo spent days in police cells. Upon divorcing his wife, Mr. Nwodo lost to his wife, the house he had owned for almost 20 years before he married her.
He also lost custody of their three children to her, with the court awarding him only periodic visitation rights. Even seeing the children during visitation was always a hassle as the wife would “arrive late at the neutral meeting place and leave early with impunity.”
Read more at Oblong Media
Recently a US veteran, Chuks Okebata was killed by assailants in his home town in Imo state where he had com to celebrate the yuletide. As a result of his death some videos of domestic incidences between he and his wife where she threatened to call the police on him over domestic issues came to the fore. Some are even accusing the wife of killing her husband. She has since come out to deny the allegations.
What Nigerian couples should learn from this incidence is simple. There is a legal covering one can adopt before taking one’s spouse abroad. It is called a prenuptial agreement, popularly referred to as a prenup. According to google.com, a prenup is an agreement made by a couple before they marry concerning the ownership of their respective assets should the marriage fail.
Mrs. Hamm, 58, contended the award was not fair. The couple were married for 26 years, have two children and had no prenuptial agreement. Mr. Hamm is worth over $20 billion, according to Wealth-X.