Gender Inequality In Nigeria: A Concerned Call To Fairness As Sine-Qua-Non -By Emmanuel Samuel

Like a parched land, women need and thirst for liberation; they are forlornly treated and seen as vulnerable. Who will rescue them, who will stand for them? The feminists have done their best, but have long been forgotten, for so long, they fled to the government and the people of good will for refuge, they begged for the ears of the leaders to be attentive and to speedily hearken to their concerns and agitations. Just because they are women, their agitations are not listened to, their writings are not read. Without mincing words, I say take consolation dear women.

We live in a patriarchal nation, where the men are seen always as the leaders and an impossible reality for a woman to govern a man. Apparently, parents and cultures give such orientations to their children. The nation by implication has been gendered, where women are seen as incomplete. The women have committed the crime of been women, women regretting to be women. The problem of inequality in Nigeria is relatively high, where women compromise every desire, ability, capacity and talent for their husbands, siblings and fathers.

The primary cause of gender inequality in Nigeria is religion. There are two major religions in Nigeria, Christianity and Islam; the country’s religions are plagued with gender inequalities. The Muslims, conceiving their women as vulnerable locked them in the house in a way to put an embargo between them and the world. It becomes a partiality and a problem because the men are the only ones allowed to go out in search of food and other paraphernalia. The issue of religious’ gender inequality is also experienced in Christianity in the sense that women are given minor roles to play and by extension function distinctions being practiced.

Another basic cause of gender inequality in Nigeria is tradition. Most traditions practiced in Nigeria give room for cultural prejudices where the women are been estranged from some of the duties men do that they can actually do when permitted. Come to think of it, there are critical meetings held in some cultures where women cannot attend. In the society, when a child grows up to be responsible, the society acknowledges the male parent for an impressive paternal care, but when the opposite is the case the female parent is blamed for reprehensible upbringing.

An additional cause of gender inequality in Nigeria is the divisions of jobs and lack of the employment of women in some particular specializations, where the employers think women cannot handle. Men are conceived to be in the better position to handle some major jobs, which pays the best income, as such this act of discrimination sees women as second citizens and those to earn lower income.  We fail to obviously realize that women have the same intrinsic worth as men, as the common viral statement posits “what a man can do, a woman can do better”.

The family as I said in my former article, “Common Good in The Nigeria Society: The Promotion of Healthy Relationship” is the fundamental unit of the society. The woman also plays a better role in the development of the society just as men do. It is totally outrageous the way some men treats their women in the family, seeing them as inferior beings. Some have taken the women to exercise the function of satisfying them on bed, that’s why implicatively sexual assault is in the increase. Unlike Chimamanda who is a radical feminist, there are some realities that nature has made different, the nurturing of a child or the basic upbringing of a child is the sole responsibility of women. Nature does not make a mistake for gifting women with the womb and men with no womb, to mention but few.

A story was told by one of my secondary school class mates who we always sympathize with for doing chores meant for girls in the family, they were told in the family, there is no distinction between jobs, that is, male or female jobs, unless that which nature has endowed. At the age of ten each child learnt how to cook and do every chore in the family. We always see him as a weak vessel, for the fact that we find him cooking, sweeping, or washing dishes anytime we visit. Afterward, he reaped the fruit of his labor while in the university for the reason that he cooks deliciously for himself and subsequently when he eventually got married. It is actually not a mortal sin for men to help their women in virtually all the basic chores in the family, especially when the work loads are too much on them because they also are human beings. However, when talking about gender inequality, we are not referring to sameness but fairness.

It is pathetically disheartening that some of the feminists agitating for right and liberty are engaged into lesbianism just because they find it difficult to be under the leadership of men, which is a somber threat to family and as a deterrent to a healthy upbringing. I implore you dear women to embrace family life, take responsibilities, unencumbered in body and mind, harden not your hearts and devote yourselves to every societal service in freedom and joy. Don’t feel alienated, whether male or female you are great and do your best, for good deeds pays, for the epitome of this paper is to make a splendid concerned call for fairness in our dear society so we can live in happiness, love and respect for each one’s dignity.

FROM A CONCERNED CITIZEN OF NIGERIA

A STUDENT OF PHILOSOPHY, VERITAS UNIVERSITY, ABUJA

EMAIL: samuelemmanuel1645@gmail.com

MOBILE: 09052631613