Dying Without a Will in Nigeria: Who Actually Inherits Your House, Money, and Business

In 2003, the Supreme Court of Nigeria decided a case called Salubi v Nwariaku.

A wealthy Urhobo man had died without a will. He was married under the Marriage Act and left behind two children with his wife and two more from outside the marriage. His eldest son insisted that Urhobo custom applied — meaning he, as first son, would inherit everything and distribute it at his discretion. His stepmother insisted the Administration of Estates Law applied — meaning the estate would be shared between the surviving wife and all the children.

The Supreme Court sided with the wife. Because the man had married under the Marriage Act, statutory law governed the distribution — and customary law was set aside.

Reverse the facts even slightly. Same man, same children, same assets, but a purely customary marriage instead of a Marriage Act one. The inheritance could have gone almost entirely to the eldest son.

This is the uncomfortable reality of dying intestate in Nigeria: who inherits depends on how you married, where you lived, and which state's law applies — not what you, the deceased, would have wanted.

Three systems, one estate

Nigeria runs three parallel inheritance regimes:

1. Statutory law — the Administration of Estates Law of various states (Lagos, the old Western and Bendel-derived states) and the Marriage Act. Applies when the deceased married under the Marriage Act.

2. Customary law — Yoruba, Igbo, Bini, Tiv, Efik and other ethnic customary rules. Applies when the marriage was purely customary.

3. Islamic (Sharia) law — applies to Muslims, particularly in the Northern states.

When you die intestate, the courts look at your marriage type first to decide which regime governs your estate. Get the marriage type wrong — or never formalise it at all — and the consequences for your family are severe and largely irreversible.

What statutory law says

If you married under the Marriage Act and lived in a state like Lagos, the Administration of Estates Law of Lagos State governs your estate when you die without a will. The typical hierarchy:

• Surviving spouse receives one-third of the estate.

• Children divide the remaining two-thirds equally — and "children" includes children born outside the marriage, who have equal inheritance rights under the law.

• If there is no spouse or children, the estate flows up to parents, then siblings.

Section 49(5) of the Administration of Estates Law of Lagos State is unambiguous on this point: where a person who is subject to customary law nevertheless contracts a marriage under the Marriage Act and dies intestate, the statutory rules apply notwithstanding any customary law to the contrary.

What customary law says — and why it has historically disadvantaged widows

Under most Nigerian customary regimes, real property — especially family land — devolves according to custom regardless of statutory rules. The detail varies sharply by region:

• In several Southern customary systems, the eldest son inherits the principal house (the Igiogbe under Bini custom) and holds significant control over the rest of the estate.

• Igbo customary law historically applied a strong primogeniture rule that excluded daughters from inheriting land and excluded widows entirely from inheriting their husbands' property.

• Some Northern customary practices similarly limited women's inheritance rights outside the Sharia framework.

The Supreme Court has chipped away at the harshest of these rules. In Ukeje v Ukeje (2014), the Court held that any Igbo custom denying a female child her father's inheritance was repugnant to natural justice and unconstitutional. In Anekwe v Nweke (2014), the Court reached the same conclusion for widows. But the underlying customary framework still applies as the default whenever someone dies intestate without a statutory marriage on record — and litigating against it takes years and costs money the family may not have.

What this means in practice

If you are a Lagos-based business owner married under the Marriage Act and you die without a will:

• Your wife inherits one-third of your estate.

• Your children — including any children you had outside the marriage — share the remaining two-thirds equally.

• Family members who feel left out can contest, and a long letters-of-administration battle begins.

If you are married only customarily, or your marriage paperwork has never been formalised:

• Customary law in your community determines who inherits.

• Your wife may be legally excluded from inheriting land entirely.

• Your business may pass to a relative you would not have chosen.

• Your daughters may inherit less than your sons, depending on the custom that applies.

In both scenarios, the people you actually intended to provide for — a long-term partner not formally married, stepchildren, a sibling who depended on you, a chosen successor in the business — receive nothing automatically. They have to fight for it.

The simple fix almost nobody uses

A valid will overrides almost all of this. The Wills Law of Lagos State (and the equivalent statutes in other states) lets you decide:

• Who inherits the house.

• Who runs the business — and who simply benefits from it financially.

• Who becomes the guardian of your minor children.

• Whether your spouse keeps the matrimonial home outright.

• What specific items go to specific people.

A will in Nigeria does not need a lawyer to be valid. The requirements are straightforward: the testator must have full mental capacity at the time of making the will, must sign it in the presence of at least two witnesses (who are not beneficiaries), and the document must be properly preserved. That is it.

What it does need is to actually exist. The day you draft your will is the day your family stops being at the mercy of three competing legal systems and your distant relatives' opinions about what you "would have wanted."

If you have not written your will yet, LegalDoc's Last Will and Testament template walks you through every section — beneficiaries, executor, guardianship for minors, residual estate, specific bequests — in plain English. You finish it in minutes and download it ready to sign in the presence of two witnesses.

The cost of writing it today is a fraction of what your family will spend fighting over the alternative.

LegalDoc provides ready-to-use Nigerian legal templates drafted by qualified Nigerian lawyers. This article is general information, not legal advice. For estates with significant assets or complex family situations, you should still have a lawyer review the final will.