SDG Blog 4



Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world and gender inequality is one of the biggest reasons they are so behind the rest of the world. Women make up 49% of Nigeria's population and "account for more than 70% of those in extreme poverty" (New Africa, 2019, p. 1). Gender inequality is the centrality of most issues in Nigeria and recognizing it is the most effectient way to achieving progress in Nigeria. 

Nigeria tends to hold great faith in tradition and religious leader instead of judges and laws and these believes and traditions tend to not value women. Nigeria still adopts alot of outdated mentalities about what the role of a woman is supposed to be. Almost "7 in 10 women are unbanked, with more than half of them financially excluded" (New Africa, 2019, p. 6). 

Nigerian girls often still drop out of school to work, despite the country's increasing wealth

Even thought girls in Nigeria are mostly uneducated they have proven to be very smart with 50.23% of candidates who got 5 credits inclusive of English and Mathematic being girls even though girls only make up 48.30% of the candidates. These statistic still have not waken the government because Nigeria has one of the lowest rates of female representation in parliament across Africa, ranking 181 of 1933 countries globally. Women in Nigeria have the highest rates of entrepreneurship in the world because women in Nigeria are not allowed to work in the same industries, or perform the same tasks as men. It is illegal for women to work overnight in manual labor and "women who are sexually harassed at work do not have access to civil remedies" (Democracy in Nigeria, p. 5). 

Climate change & gender Equality in Nigeria

Just like many other African women, Nigerian women are not aware of issue of climate change even though they could be a big help to addressing the issue. Women are left out of these conversations because they are not seen as actual functioning member of society. 


How can the country progress?

Ensuring gender equality under the law is an important step in closing the economic gender gap, data shows that Nigeria's "gross domestic product could grow by 23 percent--or $229 billion-by 2025 if women participated in the economy to the same extent as men"(New Africa, 2019,  p. 6). 

Although we clearly see how beneficial gender equality will be to Nigeria in many aspects, the country and its government have not addressed this issue. There have been no implementations but there has been some acknowledgement. The outdated mentalities hinder the men in power from actually doing anything even though a lot of the countries problems could be solved in 5 years. The president does see this as a priority and even says "{he} doesn't know which party {his} wife belongs to, but she belongs to {his} kitchen, and {his} living room and the other room" (New Africa, 2019, p. 18 ). This goes to show you that gender in equality will continue to plague Nigeria as long as Buhari is president and men continue to be closed minded. 


References


African, W. (2019, September 22). Gender Equality: Nigeria must mind the wide gap. Retrieved October 06, 2020, from https://newafricanmagazine.com/19891/

Democracy in Nigeria Has Stalled. (n.d.). Retrieved October 06, 2020, from https://www.cfr.org/blog/democracy-nigeria-has-stalled

Flag of Nigeria.svg. (n.d.). Retrieved October 06, 2020, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Nigeria.svg

MSU Receives $18.5M in USAID to 'Feed' Nigeria's, Sengal's Futures. (n.d.). Retrieved October 06, 2020, from https://research.msu.edu/msu-receives-18-5m-in-usaid-to-feed-nigerias-sengals-futures/

Nigerian girls often still drop out of school to work, despite the country's increasing wealth. (n.d.). Retrieved October 06, 2020, from https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-07-13/nigerian-girls-often-still-drop-out-school-work-despite-countrys-increasing

Nigerian Women Speak Up about Boko Haram for the First Time. (2020, April 01). Retrieved October 06, 2020, from https://www.ned.org/democracy-story/nigerian-women-speak-up-about-boko-haram-for-the-first-time/




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