Widows Plight: Badiya Isaac

Badiya Isaac is a 36 year old widow from Kaduna State and is currently supporting four children, the youngest of whom is 7 years old. Badiya’s marriage was however a happy one with her husband holding down a good job with a private firm in the Federal Capital Territory although she was a house wife herself.
Her husband was shot in the right breast by armed robbers one night whilst returning from work in his official car, here in Abuja. The official car was snatched away from him and he was left by the roadside to die. As is customary with Nigeria, he was rushed first to the police station instead of the hospital. He suffered a great deal of blood loss, pain and agony but that didn’t stop the police from conducting their interrogations and when the police were satisfied that he wasn’t an armed robber, he was taken to the hospital. Badiya only heard the news of her husband’s attack the following morning after a night of agonizing over his whereabouts.
He died within two weeks of being shot leaving her with a house on the outskirts of Abuja. The burial expenses were borne by his former place of work which was a good deed because his family wouldn’t have lifted a finger to help otherwise.
Thankfully, her in-laws left the house for her and her children. Given her lack of education, she had to resort to subsistence farming to feed and train her four children; two of whom have now dropped out of school due to lack of money. Her woes seemed to have continued regardless of her efforts as even the farm has since been taken away by the owner and she is currently at a loss as to how to feed her children, let alone cater for their fees.
For Badiya, poverty remains her greatest concern as well as an underlying fear that her in-laws are attempting to harm her and her kids through diabolical means. Her husband had also left some money in two of his bank accounts but she didn’t have access to it because he was sole signatory. She had been advised to approach the courts for a letter of administration but poverty spurned her efforts even in that regard, crippling her in raising money for transportation or even legal fees.