The United Nations Human
Development Report of 2006 places Nigeria at 151 out of 177 nation-states rated
basically in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment, income, seats in
parliament held by women, female professional and technical workers, ratio of
estimated female to male earned income, female economic activities rate,
population without sustainable access to improved water source and total
fertility rate, etc.
Taking into consideration the country’s huge
human and material resources, it is a scandal that
The social and economic development of any
society in our modern but crisis-ridden world requires the contribution of
women. Lenin, the leader of the 1917 Russian revolution stated, “The building
of socialism will begin only when we have achieved the complete equality of
women”. This emphasises the vital role of women in building an egalitarian
society. For any meaningful development to take place in society, women’s
involvement must not be reduced to tokenism - just reserving some percentage of
seats for women in parliament. What is most important is for women to a play
dynamic role in the social transformations of society.
Education is a key factor in civilisation and
development for both men and women in any society. Statistics in
Universal access to free basic education is a
key element of child rights, embodied in Article 28 of the Child Rights
Convention (CRC), which prescribes, “The child has a right to education and the
state duty is to ensure that primary education is free and compulsory” . The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in Article 10 upholds the right of equal
access to education and abhors any form of discrimination against women. But
all this is just a mirage for the Nigerian civil servants whose monthly income
is N18, 000 ($140) for state workers and federal civil servants who earn about
N30, 000 ($231) as a university graduate on level 8. In most cases these
workers have the choice of sending their children to public schools or not
sending them at all to any school, instead exposing girls to petty trading on
the street.
A woman’s level of education is a determining
factor for her time of marriage, reproductive health rights and her role in
decision-making. It will also have a tremendous impact on the health and
nourishment of her children. Education is a key means to social improvement as
women’s position within the family is integrally linked to progress in other
areas. As women’s situation and status at home improves, the family should
become a place where lessons of repression and compliance are replaced by those
of partnership and equality - the ‘democratic’ family. But this is not
happening in
Despite the importance of formal education,
there has been a virtual deprivation of education for the girl child in
Nigerian capitalist economy is detrimental to
Nigerian women. The government’s efforts to implement the international
financial institutions’ (IFIs) demands for harsh economic measures and the
dreadful search for cut-throat profit by business operators to survive the
harsh economic situation, have suffocated the Nigerian economy, increased
unemployment and widened the gap between women and men, rich and poor. While
men have continued to wander in public in search of daily needs, women languish
at home in line with the division of roles along lines of gender.
Increasing poverty since the end of the oil
boom in the late 1970s has driven millions of women into jobs that are very
exploitative, hazardous and detrimental to their welfare and development. The
economic liberalisation measures advocated by the World Bank and the IMF have
been accompanied by a significant redefinition in policy priorities: a decrease
in state control over the economy, extended access to private enterprise and
foreign investment and an emphasis on export-led development.
Neo-liberal economic policies have imposed
widespread privatisation, deregulation of the oil sector, the removal of
subsidies on basic goods, the downsizing of the labour force and the opening up
of the Nigerian market to foreign goods. This has led to the collapse of many
industries and to widespread unemployment in
The past eight years under the Obasanjo
government have seen some increase in the number of women holding public
positions, both elected and appointed. Women constitute about 40% of the
appointed officers serving in the Obasanjo administration. This is more than
the celebrated ‘affirmative action benchmark’ of 30%. However it has
demonstrated that having women in government does not automatically translate
into improvements in the living conditions of the average woman. The conditions
of poor women and men have got worse under Obasanjo. This is why the agitation
for increased participation of women in politics should be linked with the
struggle against anti-poor, neo-liberal policies.
An increase in political participation has
also not meant that the obstacles in the way of women have been dismantled.
There are still some states in the northern part of the country where there are
no women in government, to the extent that even the ministry of women’s affairs
is headed by a man! The Sun newspaper of Sunday, March 4 reported that Iyabo
Anisulowo, a former minister, says she lost the backing of the ruling People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) for re-election to the senate because she refused to
“succumb to sexual advances of a particular national leader of the party”.
Women’s access to health facilities in
With the patriarchal traditional culture that
lays a lot of emphasis on bearing children and if possible, male children,
Nigerian women can go to great lengths to fulfill expectations often to the
detriment of their own health. Early child birth tends to leave women and their
babies with permanent forms of disability. Many women suffer from avoidable or
preventable problems during pregnancy and childbirth. Numerous women with
disabling conditions due to pregnancy end up being divorced or abandoned by
their husbands and are socially ostracized. Women’s health is greatly affected
by the decaying Nigerian health system.
Last year I experienced what many women go
through in
The majority of under-five deaths in
The use of a single water source such as a
local well, stream, pond or river, for multiple purposes, including bathing,
washing etc. results in the contamination of water and has contributed to the
high incidence of water borne disease. The indigenous people of the oil
producing communities, where the nation’s wealth is obtained, do not have
access even to the basic amenities of life, such as clean drinking water, good
health facilities and electricity. Meanwhile, the oil companies drilling and
exploring oil and gas on their land have these amenities for their staff, in
the same environment.
The fetching of water inflicts a heavy burden
on women and girls in
The exploitation of oil resources in the
Niger Delta has resulted in particular economic and environmental conflicts.
Oil provides over 90% of
Women suffer great hardships in times of
conflict. The women of the Niger Delta are no exception. During the conflicts
with oil companies and the Nigerian government, women are subjected to all
kinds of violence – sexual violence such as rape, physical violence such as
beatings, maiming and murder, and destruction of properties. Niger Delta women
suffer unimaginable human rights abuses for which redress is unattainable
because the agents of government who perpetrate the abuses “cannot” be
subjected to the rule of law. Husbands, fathers and sons have been killed or
maimed in the conflict and women have had to assume burdensome responsibilities
as the heads of households.
With all this suffering, women have found
their capacity to fight. They are no longer passive in issues affecting their
communities. The massive non-violent protest by women from several communities
in the Niger Delta in 2002 serves as a reference point. The women demanded the
cleaning up of oil spills, environmental protection, jobs, education and health
services and economic investment in their communities. The tactics and
determination of the women forced the Chevron Oil Company to send their senior
executives to negotiate with them. The parties agreed to a deal that meant
Chevron-Texaco was supposed to employ local people, fund schools, electricity
provision and other infrastructure projects and also assist women in setting up
poultry and fish farms.
Unfortunately for the women, the Chevron Oil
Company did not implement their Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Instead the
company chose to use divide and rule tactics to destabilise the women. The
success of their protest against the Chevron Texaco did not elevate their
political status in society nor has it given them more participation in
community development decision-making. The reality of the situation in the
Niger Delta shows that women gaining political power is
considered a threat to the male-dominated political structure.
Although poverty and exploitation affect men
and women, elders and youth, women’s subordination and lack of opportunities as
well as their exclusion from decision-making, make them more vulnerable to
poverty. In addition women in the region do not have access to jobs and social
services. This situation has created a large commercial sex market in the
region with all the associated health and social problems. It is the Niger
Delta region that is the worst affected by
To improve the situation of women, we have to
agitate for equal opportunities, free health care and education, provision of
useful employment, etc. The temporary gains that can be achieved under
capitalism, as a result of mass struggles of the oppressed masses, can only be
made permanent through the socialist reconstruction of society which would end
the oppression of women in general.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we
of the Democratic Socialist Movement dedicate ourselves to building a powerful
socialist alternative, which will emancipate poor working class women along
with all other exploited sections of society.