LEGAL PERSPECTIVE
With Oludolapo Okunniga
The Last Testament
Last year I took a client to the High court to lodge her Will. She was then closing to 70. As it is the procedure, a testator (the person who makes a will) must appear in court in person to confirm that it is his Will before the document could be lodged.
Often times testator and solicitor appear before a designated officer together at the Probate Division at a state High Court for the process.
Where the testator is ill or infirm, special arrangements could be made with the testator’s solicitor to visit the testator in his or her home with an officer of the probate, to confirm that the Will was made by the testator and that the Will expressed his or her wishes after death.
Making a will doesn’t mean you are dying very soon. But it is to ensure that you put your family and your properties in safe hands when you are no longer around to control things.
We have always seen children and families fight over a Will…that it did not express the true intent of the testator. So, the testator must carefully and lucidly state what he or she truly desires and that the Will was made in the right frame of mind. A will must be witnessed by executors. And signed by the testator. And also signed by the solicitor who prepares it.
Once a person begins to see the twilight years in the horizon, its important to make a Will. A person can make a Will once he’s come of age.
And as a person acquires properties or has other reasons which must reflect in his Will, he can either make a new one and burn the old one or he can make a codicil. A codicil is like an additional information to an existing will.
Reading of a will is not like in the movies.
In Nigeria, you lodge the Will at the Probate Division of a state High Court and, upon the death of the testator, the executors can bring an application and a date will be fixed for family to attend the reading of the Will.
Thereafter the probate processing of the Will begins. So, it is possible to make your will now and to renew it over the years.
You don’t have to have lots of money in the bank or plenty properties You can will out your books to a library. You can will your stuff to a foundation. You can tell your kids what you want done to your house(s). You can tell them where you wish to be buried. Or how you want your money divided.
A Will is a bridge between the dead and the living. Hence, it speaks from death. It is testamentary. It is the desire of the dead to rest peacefully, knowing the living he left behind are well taken care of.
It is a sobering process, yet a realistic one. But there is nothing to fear, once you are truly living and focusing on what matters.
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