Political Gender Equality in Nigeria: The Other Side of the Coin

Abstract

Promoting gender equality has become a recognized and an acceptable reality and trend globally. In Nigeria, gender issues have been identified as central to the accomplishment of national development goals and objectives. Although, the policy is designed to bring a gender perspective into all facets of planning, including developing legislation that will address the inequalities between women and men in Nigeria, the dysfunctional role of the political sphere of the gender policy question that seeks to balance the power relations between men and women has been largely ignored and relatively unstudied. This paper therefore attempts an examination of the dysfunctional role of political gender equality both at the micro (family) and macro (society) levels in Nigeria. The paper, which utilized valuable secondary sources of data, contends that the political equality drive in Nigeria will accentuate the family and social dislocation that industrialization and its concomitant family pressures have created. The paper further argues that, the existing gaps in the Nigerian family setting occasioned by the abdication of the God-given, natural, home-keeping responsibilities of the women will be further complicated by the full-blown women empowerment typified by complete access to the political space in Nigeria. This paper equally asserts that the myriad of social problems manifesting in armed robbery, prostitution and youth restiveness will become hydra-headed. This assertion derives from the thinking that the core values that promote the sound functioning of the family and strengthen the fabric of society are gradually and steadily decaying and eroding. The paper concluded with some useful remarks.

Keywords: political gender equality, Nigeria, the other side.