Vol 20, No 1 (2017) AJPSSI AFRICAN JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY OF SOCIAL ISSUES pg. 119 INHERITANCE RIGHTS, CUSTOMARY LAW AND FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY AMONG RURAL WOMEN IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA. AJIBOYE, Olanrewaju Emmanuel And YUSUFF, Olabisi Sherifat Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos oeajiboye@yahoo.com: soyusuf@yahoo.co.uk ABSTRACT Succession and inheritance rights are established procedures of transferring economic, social and political powers in any given human societies. However, the problem in most patriarchal societies such as South-West Nigeria has been the unequal positioning of male and female children to inheritance. This paper examines the nexus of interaction between inheritance rights, customary law and poverty among rural women in South-West, Nigeria. The paper is anchored on functionalist and Vicious cycle of poverty theories. Multi-stage sampling technique was use to collect information from respondents. Three states from South West Nigeria were purposively selected namely, Ogun, Oyo and Ekiti states. For quantitative data, questionnaires were distributed to 250 respondents across the three states, while three (3) Focus Group Discussions and ten (10) in-depth interviews were equally conducted among the selected individuals across the three selected study areas for qualitative data. The quantitative information was analysed using simple percentage frequency distributions and logistic regression method, while qualitative information was analysed using content analysis and ethnographic summaries. The study found positive relationship between inheritance denial and the deepening poverty among rural women in the South-West Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that all obnoxious provisions of our customary laws should be expunged to allow for equal right between the male and female children. KEY WORDS: Inheritance-Rights, Customary-Law, Feminization, Poverty, Rural Women. INTRODUCTION Human rights are moral principles that set out certain standards of human behaviour, and are regularly protected as legal rights in national and international laws. They are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being (Hauser, 2003).The fundamental assumption is that each person is a moral and rational being who deserves to be treated with dignity, honour and respect (UN, 2008). Inheritance issues varied across the length and breadth of Nigeria. The law of succession and inheritance is a reflection of the legal pluralism inherent in Nigeria. For instance, in cases of inheritance of property of a person who dies intestate in Nigeria, the customary law to which the deceased was subject, governs the distribution of his estate. The system of customary inheritance varies from one ethnic group to the other. The class of people who should benefit from intestate succession and the share of such beneficiary is not free from problem of discriminations (Oni, 2014). Succession and inheritance rights are established procedures of transferring economic, social and even political powers in any given human societies. The law of succession involves the transmission of the rights and obligations of the deceased person in respect of the estate to his or her heirs. For instance, in cases of inheritance of property of a person who dies intestate in Nigeria, the customary law to which the deceased was subject governs the distribution of his estate. It should be mentioned here that generally, under the traditional customary law of any given community, factors such as age and sex often affect the scale of distribution (Oni, 2014). Among the Yoruba of South west Nigeria, distribution of an estate of a deceased person, who dies without a valid Will, is per stripe, i.e. by the number of Wives the deceased had and not by the number of children. Where there is a serious dispute, the family head is permitted in some