NIGERIAN WOMEN IN THE FACE OF RELIGIOUS CRISES BY AKPAN JACKSON NSEABASI (ACIBN)

NIGERIA REGIOUS CRISES: A FOCUS ON WOMEN IN THE FACE OF REGIOUS CRISES

Cementing our footprints in the sand of time for the next generation to follow: masculinity or feminism in Nigeria

 by Jackson Akpan Nseabasi (ACIBN) +2348085226314.

Over the years the concept and ideology of masculinity and feminism has been mostly concentrated on the white folks and how they relate with the black or colored folks. The users of the concept and ideology of feminism have mostly linked these two concepts to racism, racial discrimination and gender discrimination associated with racism. But with the growing development in the Nigeria nation the most populous Black Country in the world it is time to shift our search light on the growing level of masculinity and its negative implications on the feminine gender in Nigeria.

October 1st 1960 the nation Nigeria gain her independence from her former colonial task master who handed over to the then elder state men of Nigeria a structure built on masculinity, dictatorship, poor regards for the human life and dignity and a continuation of high level of injustice to the feminine body or system in Nigeria. Till date the nation Nigeria is still finding it very difficult to find her way out of the footprints of masculinity and structures that discriminates between the men and women in Nigeria.

Looking at the recent development in Nigeria especially in the area of religious crises, there is need to ask if the religious crises is a function of religious blasphemy or the aftermath effect of poor handling of the masculinity and feminism challenges in Nigeria. Women in Nigeria for many years have been a victim of religious crises in Nigeria. Many of them have been wrongly judged based on the principles and provisions of the Sharia law used in most parts of northern Nigeria. Women in Nigeria are enslaved and under religious bondage in Nigeria. What a man will do and go free a woman cannot go free but she will be condemned and sentenced to dead.

Politically Nigeria has a nation has never provided a place for a female president or a female state governor. This is due to the high handedness of the concept of masculinity enshrined into the Nigerian political system which sees the women has a third class citizen that have nothing to offer the country politically despite the growing numbers of professionals and educated Nigerian women across the globe. Masculinity and wrong judgment about women in Nigeria is one major reason women are not advancing in the Nigerian political platform. So many Nigerian women that will have loved to go into politics decided to take the back seat because of threat to their lives and families each time they decided to venture into the political scene. Masculinity ideology and masculinity system are the basic instrument used in caging women from taking active part in politics in Nigeria.

Domestic violence is another serious challenge an average married Nigerian woman passes through every day of her life in Nigeria. Many married women are today victims of early grave because of the serious effect of masculinity entrenched in marital relationship and the building of the homes and families. Marriage today in Nigeria is seen as a union of two important forces which are the dominance of domestic violence and the dominance of masculinity. Masculinity is now the ruling factor that makes a woman not to have any say in her marriage because of the effect that she may be thrown out of her marital home by her husband or because she might be judged wrongly by a system that is against feminism in the Nigerian marital system.

The rate of poverty or put in another way the poverty level among women in Nigeria can be equally traced to the concept and ideology of masculinity in Nigeria. Most women and their children are not well taken care of by their husbands. Many women and their children are left alone by their husbands to fend for the family. In most parts of Nigeria women are the one taking care of the family, the children education and the progress and development of the family. Many women in Nigeria work both day and night just to make an end for the family. Majority of the men do not contribute to the welfare of the children and they see such function as a role that should be assigned to the women not the male gender in the family.

The concept and ideology of masculinity is also the root cause of girl child trafficking and women trafficking in Nigeria. Women and the young ladies are used by their male counterparts as a quick way of making money through trafficking. Ninety percent of those involved in trafficking are women and young girls and ladies. This is very common in the eastern part of Nigeria (places like Edo state, Delta State, River state) and also the western part of Nigeria (like Ogun state, Oyo state, Osun state). Most of these women are used as sex workers, slaves, drug traffickers and house helps when they get to their point of destination in the places they are sending them to.

Masculinity also spreads its tentacles in to the area of the girl child labour in Nigeria. Due to the entrenchment of poverty in most families in Nigeria, most children especially the females are used as street hawkers to sell things on the high way for their mothers. This act has contributed to the poor performances of the female children in their elementary schools and secondary level of education. In most parts of Nigeria women or young girls are not allowed to go to school since according to their parents it is a waste of time based on the fact that someone will come and seek their hands in marriage before too long which justifies the need to train the male child instead of the female child (this is very common among the eastern and northern parts of Nigeria).

Rape and sexual harassment in Nigeria is also a product of the solid entrenchment and structures of masculinity in the social setting and the society in Nigeria. Women are seen as weaker elements that can be trampled upon at any time without anyone calling for a legal justification for such actions. So many women have been raped in Nigeria without any noticeable legal action taken against the offenders.

Finally, women today are victims of displacement coming as a result of insecurity changes of the country, women are faced with attacks from kidnappers, terrorist attack, insurgency, poor health care facilities, high level of illiteracy, all these resulting from the operations of the system of masculinity in the social lives of the people of Nigeria.

Thank you

Akpan Jackson Nseabasi

+2348085226314