JOS JOURNAL OF RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

There is no doubt that the travails and challenges facing widows in Nigeria have been well researched and documented, resulting in the setting up of agencies and charitable bodies to mitigate and ameliorate the sufferings of widows. These mitigating agencies and associations are found both in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and faithbased groups and churches. However, the concerns for comparable attentions are strikingly absent in relation to the experiences and plights of widowers to that of widows in the same societies. As a result, the idea of the unsung (neglected state of living) widowers draws attention to a forgotten group whose suffering, weaknesses, and coping means are hardly acknowledged. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to highlight the plights and the travails of the widower, accentuating the fact that it is not all well with the widower. A phenomenological investigation reveals that the widower suffers a great deal of parenting challenges, including taking on the dual role of mother and father. In addition to dealing with loneliness, a widower may be burdened with the added responsibilities of coping with grief and then dealing with stress and frustration with their new state of living. Using the theological framework of theocentric concerns for the neglect of widowers’ realities in present-day Nigeria, the paper concluded that there is a need to take care of widowers just as the widows are being taken care of, especially by the religious institutions. The paper recommends a greater Christian theological and sociological study of the plights of widowers in contemporary Nigerian society with a view to setting up spiritual counselling and psychological mitigating centres that could help in the alleviation of the sufferings of widowers, as is currently the case with widows.

Open Full Text (PDF)