MP for Kpando, Sebastian Deh, has urged government and traditional leaders to act urgently on widows’ rights, using his mother’s 40-year struggle as a widow to make the case on the floor of Parliament on International Widows’ Day.
Unable to catch the Speaker’s eye during debate, the MP published his talking points to “convey a message so dear to me”.
“This matter touches me deeply and personally” rising to associate himself with a statement by First Deputy Majority Whip Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe-Ghansah, MP for Ada, Deh said International Widows’ Day “is not just a date on the calendar. It is a mirror we must hold up to ourselves as a nation.”
He revealed his own mother, Madam Remalia Akua Kudoadzi, has been widowed for 40 years.
“I have seen her struggle as a single parent and labour to keep my siblings and I in school after my father passed,” he told the House.
The Kpando MP described the injustices she faced: “whispers, the ‘advice’ from people who thought she should be ‘confined’, stripped of her rights including being driven out of her matrimonial home, and many more injustices.”
But he also praised her resilience-“If not for her strength, her dignity, and her refusal to be broken by outdated rites practices, I would not be standing here today.”
He said, “we are not talking about statistics. We are talking about our mothers” stressing that while Ghana’s Intestate Succession Act, PNDCL 111 protects widows and children, “laws in books mean nothing if widows in Kpando, Ada, and every village in Ghana do not know them and abide by them.”
On his Facebook awall he talked about 3 urgent actions that need attention: Public education– use Assembly Members, chiefs, churches and radio programs to teach communities that evicting widows is illegal.
Access to justice – Legal Aid must reach rural widows. “A widow should not need money to claim what is rightfully hers.”
Economic empowerment – Under Feed Ghana, LEAP, and other social intervention programs, widows must be deliberately targeted with inputs, farming and cottage industry support, credit, farmland, and market linkages.
He noted that “When a widow can feed herself, no one can intimidate her.”
He closed his argument with a direct appeal: “To every widow out there: You are not cursed. You are not alone. You deserve dignity, property, and peace. And to us in this House: Let our commemoration today translate into action tomorrow. Let us be the Parliament that ends widowhood rites in our lifetime.”
He dedicated his submissions to his mother, “Madam Re’, the widow extraordinaire who’s kept faith as a widow for 40 long years.
“God bless you for being a faithful widow. May the Lord remain your strength.”
