Mors certa, hora incerta. Latin for “Death is certain, its hour uncertain”. It is human nature to fear death and the uncertainty that comes with the other side of mortality. People fear death and never want to talk about it or what would most likely happen to their loved ones after their demise. In other words, the reader, as well as the writer, is going to stop breathing one day. No one can change that or prevent it from ever happening to any of us. Once this happens, the deceased (dead person) has no say over the living.
What however can be prevented, is the unlikely turn of events after one’s demise. That is what happens after you are gone. Sorry, I meant what happens to your loved ones and your properties after you are gone.
If you ask me, the ability of a man/woman to determine what happens with their wealth; or rather how their acquired wealth will be managed long after their demise is blissful.
A person knowing fully well that all things being equal, his/her last words (wishes) concerning what all he/she has worked for and the wealth he/she has acquired all their life would be final, is a power we should all get. I mean, it’s your hard-earned wealth, your very own legacy built from the scratch or from something, it doesn’t really matter, it is yours, and you alone should determine what should happen to it after you have long left the world. Not your family, not your religion, not your tradition, not well-wishers or strangers, just you and you only.
I am certain this reader has heard of the term “WILL”, at least in Nigerian movies. Your Final Will and Testament are what give you all that power, the power to control how your long-acquired wealth is managed after your demise. This is because a “WILL” is the intention and wishes of a person to be carried out after his or her death. It can likewise be said to be the person’s last and dying wish.
So, therefore, a Final Will and Testament is what you think it is, that stuff that a lawyer reads out to the hearing of the deceased’s family members in the typical Nigerian movie. The exact one that makes some family members owners of certain money and property of the deceased, then you hear some other children shout words like “never, it cannot be” “This will not happen” LOL.
Black’s Law Dictionary defines a will as “the legal expression of an individual’s wishes about the deposition of his or her property after death; especially, a document by which a person directs his or her estate to be distributed upon death”. In other words, the Will of a man is the document that states clearly how the deceased wants his/her property shared and to who he/she wants the property given. Being that it is binding on all, it ordinarily cannot be altered by anyone save the court of law, in exceptional circumstances.
Almost similar to what you know right?
WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO WRITE A FINAL WILL AND TESTAMENT?
The question ought to be, who can write a will. Anyone. Anyone of full legal age and a sound mind. These are the basic two requirements for writing a Will in Nigeria. Generally, for an individual to have the capacity to write a Will, he/she MUST be 18 years and above and MUST have a sound mind. These two cannot be over-emphasized, and they must go hand in hand. So, while an individual should not be below the legal age of 18, he or she must have the mental capacity to write a Will. Let me simplify this, the writer of the Will (who is called a “Testator”) must have the mental ability to understand the effect of the will in any way; and must not have a mental illness (infirmity of the mind) that would affect his capacity to write a Will.
Best put it like this, a person writing a Will must have the mental capacity to understand what he is doing (that he is writing a Will), know fully well and understand the extent of the property he is giving out, know and recollect the persons(the beneficiaries) he/she is gifting the properties to and understand the property he is sharing among the beneficiaries. He must not possess any sickness that could affect his state of mind or prevented him from exercising proper use of his senses. Any of these could make a Will void, which is useless. This was clearly stated in the case of Banks v. Goodfellow (1870) LR5, QB 544.
This simply means that a person suffering from amnesia or memory loss cannot be said to have the capacity to write a Will.
