Women are an integral part of every society because of the important roles they play, including in economic productivity and the provision of services. These roles make them invaluable to society. However, despite this importance, women across the world are clearly not receiving the attention and benefits they deserve as important members of society. This is especially the case in Nigeria as a developing nation. Evidence for this observation is provided by the non-actualization of the goals of many women-specific government policies and programs as well as non-governmental initiatives purportedly mooted to improve the lot of Nigerian women.

Women-oriented government policies and non-governmental initiatives in Nigeria can be traced to the year 1985, a crucial year for this study as it was when the Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida military administration came to power through a military coup on May 27, 1985. Successive administrations at all levels have since replicated the concept and ideals of the Better Life Program for the African Rural Woman embarked upon by Maryam Babangida, the wife of the then president. This was followed in later years by other similar projects and government initiatives.

It is generally considered that these policies and initiatives have not achieved the purpose for which they were put in place. The non-functionality or outright failure of initiatives can be clearly seen in some manifestations within the Nigerian social system. The first is the fact that as recently as the period from October 2022 to January 2023, the Federal Government of Nigeria liaised with international bodies to improve the lives of women in Nigeria. For example, in October 2022, the Federal Government of Nigeria established a partnership with the United Nations and World Bank for the economic empowerment of women, the elimination of poverty among Nigerian women, and women’s political inclusion, especially at cabinet level (Baba-Yesufu, 2022). In the same vein, the government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Germany in 2023 to improve women’s reproductive health and eliminate maternal deaths, an agreement which has been cited as illustrating the Federal Government of Nigeria’s determination to improve reproductive health (Egbo, 2023). This is to be achieved through an effective plan to contribute to the reduction of maternal deaths and improve the health status of Nigerian women and female children. Also, Nigerian women still die of cancer in large numbers. Former Nigerian health minister Prof Isaac Adewole stated that cancer is the most lethal disease among Nigerian women (Akinkuotu, 2018), while a study by Uchendu (2020) showed that cancer is a major disease, constituting a particular burden as it increases in incidence as a population ages and, according to the results of his study, affects many more women than men in Nigeria. These alarming conditions for Nigerian women are further worsened by reports that women in rural areas of Nigeria suffer from general deprivations and endure a quality of life far below the norm (Zaid & Popoola, 2010).

This study was undertaken to assess the impediments to the actualization of the initiatives described above with a view to suggesting workable solutions, all for the betterment of Nigerian women. Given that the birth of the idea of women-oriented programs in Nigeria occurred nearly four decades ago, an assessment of the performance and success rate of the initiatives is appropriate and, for this study, the most appropriate way of ascertaining that success is to review the current living conditions of Nigerian woman, with emphasis on economy, politics, health, social status, domestic relevance, and religious perceptions as these concern women in Nigeria.

A number of technical strategies and applicable instruments were used in writing this paper and achieve its objectives as efficiently as possible. Both diachronic and synchronic evaluations were strategically employed to draw fair inferences and arrive at a reliable conclusion. A diachronic survey was considered necessary to ascertain the success of government and non-governmental efforts to alleviate the deplorable conditions of Nigerian woman over time. The synchronic approach is to reflect the present situation, the cumulative effects of the policies and programs of government and non-governmental organizations for women as of 2024. The study’s approach is also significantly qualitative as the pursuit of its ideational goal is based on rationalism a priori.

The trajectory of advancing the objectives and concerns of the paper is guided by Molara Ogundipe-Leslie’s (2007) Stiwanist theoretical framework. This is an African variation of feminist advocacy which holds that African patriarchal hegemony should liberalize and loosen its gender grip on women by including them in the social scheme of things. In addition to the diachronic-synchronic surveys, qualitative rationalism, and Stiwanist theoretical gender-equity principle pontification , the philosophies of the paper are constructed within the ideals of certain ages and ideologies such as militocracy, globalization, millennial civilization in Africa, and the prevalent capitalist economic situation in Nigeria.

As has been stated, 1985 is taken as the initial reference year in considering government programs for women in Nigeria as the year that produced the iconic Better Life Program, whose main aim was to better the deplorable condition of Nigeria’s poorest women, seen as essentially marginalized despite their roles as producers of goods and services (Udegbe, 1994). No other program since has come close to matching this Nigerian-rural-women-specific program.

Another women-oriented program in Nigeria is the Widow Support Initiative, conceived by the renowned Professor Pat Utomi in 1992. The motivation for this project arose from a number of preceding events. (Pat Utomi Widow Support Centre at https://wsc.org.ng/who-we-are/) The first, according to the Foundation, occurred in 1983, when Professor Utomi published a paper centered on the plight of widows in Nigeria. The second motivating factor was Bishop Kukah’s project in Kaduna where financial assistance was rendered to widows in the parish concerned as a form of economic empowerment. The third and most significant was the 1991 car crash in which Professor Utomi almost died and which claimed the life of his driver. He realized that a family he was friends with had lost their breadwinner, and that instead of living in a big house they were now homeless. He decided that this should not be the fate of any widow. This sequence of events gave rise to the founding of the Widow Support Initiative whose primary goal is the alleviation of the suffering of Nigerian widows as a result of the deaths of their husbands, and helping to empower them to fight culture-induced injustices in the law courts (Arum, 2010).

This is similar to the goals and objectives of Women for Women International which seeks to improve the situations of women in conflicts zones in eight countries (Wikipedia, 2023). It has been carrying out this humanitarian service in Nigeria since the year 2000 and in that time has improved the lives of about 80,000 women through their program known as Stronger Women, Stronger Nations. Their Nigerian team led an engagement program for men to bring them into dialogues of cooperation with their wives on the issue of gender parity, engaging with over 12,000 Nigerian men in the process. It has also hosted a Change Agents program in Nigeria and this continues to be productive.

Another relevant organization is WIMBIZ (Women in Management, Business & Public Service) which campaigns for the active representation of women in public life and all other sectors of society (Sotade, 2018). WIMBIZ’s advocacy has been motivated by the obvious egregious underrepresentation of women in Nigerian public life, as evident in the non-inclusion of women in the governing councils of Nigeria’s foremost tertiary institutions and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority Board (Sessou, 2021). This non-profit, non-governmental organization has been concerned with the issue of women in influential positions in Nigeria since 2002. Also concerned with the attainment of women’s potential in Nigeria is the Girls’ Power Initiative, a girl-child-centered program conceived and founded by Bene Madunagu and Osakue Grace in 1993. Their goal is to train the Nigerian girl child with access to information, education, and career skills. This can be likened to the goals of the Moremi Initiative, founded in 2004, which aspires to motivate women to undertake a one-year course in mentorship, and provides professional internship and resource assistance. A major feature of this program is that it is Nigerian in origin, international in operation, and inclusive (Africa-wide) in impact.

In the same vein, the Stand to End Rape Initiative is concerned with improving the conditions of Nigerian woman by putting an end to sexual harassment and assaults on women by men. The initiative carries out its mandate by campaigning against violent sexual assault, and supporting survivors by providing the necessities needed to rebuild their lives, including financial support. It was founded by Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi, herself a survivor of gender violence. She is dedicated to fostering systematic change by providing capacity building and support on the prevention of sexual violence, and campaigning for gender-centered laws in Nigeria (Akindare, 2020).

The Federal Government of Nigeria has shown concern for improving the status of Nigerian women through the establishment of a ministry for women’s welfare. Its mandate is to ensure that Nigerian women have access to social, political, civic, and economic resources in the country. It supports some non-governmental organizations, including the National Council of Women Affairs, with financial resources and aims to build a society that ensures equal access to opportunities.

The Federal Government has also launched entrepreneurial programs in the past six years specifically targeted at women, according to the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (Jannamike, 2021), and has instituted the National Women Empowerment Fund (NAWEF) whose mandate is to disburse interest-free loans through the Bank of Industry (BoI) to Nigerian market women and artisans, including women farmers (Adekoya, 2017; Alli, 2017). There is also the MarketMoni Scheme targeted at motivating women to engage in economic productivity. The MarketMoni scheme is one arm of the umbrella program entitled the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), initiated to cover other schemes such as TraderMoni and FarmerMoni, all based on the principle of collateral-free access (Odiase, 2020). The MarketMoni Scheme provides women engaged in petty trading with access to soft loans from ₦10,000 upward.

The schemes, policies, and advocacies cited above are only a few of the total but are representative of the majority of such initiatives. However, has the condition of Nigerian women improved as a result? Answering this question requires that some indices be appraised.

The “present,” for the purpose of this section of the paper, refers to the period between 2015 and 2024. Certain economic indices and determiners of economic viability are evaluated in the process of determining the economic situation in Nigeria as it affects Nigerian woman. The first is the non-availability of energy (meaning electricity in this context) to power machines and appliances used in goods production and service provision. Electricity is in short supply in Nigeria: “Nigeria’s electrification rate is less than 50% of the population; this leaves approximately 76 million people without any access to electricity” (Sadik, 2015, p. 6).

If the number of people in Nigeria without access to electricity—vital in today’s world— is as staggeringly high as 76 million, abysmally low productivity rates would be expected. To avoid this, Sadik suggests the adaption of nanotechnology as a viable alternative. Further on this, The Cable (2017), reports Ernest Ebi’s (Chairman, Fidelity Bank, PLC).perspective on the unfavorable economic situation in Nigeria as follows:

Ernest Ebi, chairman of Fidelity Bank, says many industries have crumbled under the weight of huge energy cost as a result of the epileptic power supply in the country. He said this while delivering a lecture at the convocation ceremony of Redeemer’s University in Ogun state. Ebi said until the power problem in the country improves, the manufacturing sector would only record a little growth (1)

In addition to the power problem as bane of Nigerian economy emphasized in this excerpt, The Cable further reports Ebi’s view that the deplorable Nigeria’s economic situation was the result of the global financial crises and the high national unemployment rate because of the mono-product nature of the Nigerian economy, as the country depends solely on oil as the mainstay of its income. Additionally, Nigeria has inadequate access roads, and the condition of the few there are is deplorable, a significant element in accounting for Nigeria’s underdeveloped condition (Adeleke, 2018).

Although the country went into recession, it recovered during the period under consideration (The Cable, 2017). However, in spite of the recovery, inflation remains high, to the extent that hyperinflation could be a real issue in Nigeria. One current factor is the high exchange rate between the naira, Nigeria’s local currency, and the US dollar, which is officially ₦1,136 to one dollar according to Aina (2024). The cost of food items in Nigeria is consequently high. Food shortages occur, such as in January 2023, and this has been attributed by the government to several factors including terrorism, the debilitating impact of the shrinking of Lake Chad, the coronavirus pandemic, and inter-state border closures. However, it is widely believed that the actual cause of such food crises in Nigeria is the government’s ban on the importation of food items into the country. According to reliefweb.int (2020):

Nigeria has about 50 percent of West Africa’s food insecure population in 2019⋯ before the pandemic, as a protectionist move, the Nigerian state banned the importation of staple food items such as rice to protect local industries and boost local production. A combustible mix of embargoes on food items, the reluctance of manufacturing countries to export and the reduction of economic activities due to the pandemic has led to food price hike [sic] as high as 120 percent across markets nationwide.

The reliefweb.int observations and disclosures regarding the food scarcity situations in Nigeria as above in terms of the whopping 50 percent of the population living without adequate food was linked to the research conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The appalling economic situation in Nigeria since 2015 has created untold hardships for Nigerian woman .

The Nigerian government has implemented many programs and policies, accompanied by numerous non-governmental humanitarian initiatives, all aimed at making life better for Nigerian women. However, despite how many of these women-oriented programs and policies there have been and how much money has been expended on executing them, the present condition of Nigerian woman remains parlous. The intensity of their difficulties is at least partly due to the fact that they are, as we have seen, being deliberately economically disempowered by Nigerian men. Rural Nigerian women still live in squalor almost four decades after the landmark program, Better Life Program for the African Rural Woman, was initiated. Nigerian women are forced to seek opportunities abroad, especially in the Middle East, which makes them vulnerable to sexual humiliation and abuse. Nigerian women are murdered and their organs used by Nigerian men in money-making rituals, a clear example of the patriarchal objectification of Nigerian women. In the same vein, rape cases against women in Nigeria are on the rise.

All this shows that the condition of Nigerian women has not improved. The various initiatives have not been successful, and this is due to a number of social and political factors. Examples include the practice of politicians using women-oriented initiatives as bait to obtain votes from women, and the traditional habit of discontinuity in political policies practiced by successive administrations. Another major factor, of course, is the ongoing difficult economic circumstances. All these issues have to be addressed in order to safeguard the interests and wellbeing of Nigerian women. The government should first of all fix the failing economy through diversification from oil and advancement of women-oriented economic policies and programs with enabling statutory instruments. This will stop politicians from presenting what they are doing for women as a favor. Additionally, the government needs to summon up the willpower to activate penal instruments against violators of women’s rights, especially rapists. It is also very important that the government should partner with non-governmental providers of women-oriented humanitarian services.

Governmental policies and programs as well as non-governmental initiatives must actualize the purposes for which they have been put in place. The paper therefore recommends that the Federal Government of Nigeria should first of all fix the economy through diversification and the promotion of women-oriented economic policies in order to ease the palpable tension in the country. Government policies and programs for women should not be used as bait intended to win political favor by eliciting bloc votes from women. An example of this was the MarketMoni Scheme which once prompted the Vice President to visit market places across the country.

Government should partner with the initiators and sponsors of private or non-governmental women’s welfare programs. Such partnerships necessarily need to involve financial compensation or assistance for the non-governmental individuals and groups. Financial assistance is critical in this context because advocacy for women’s well-being is capital-intensive, especially in a vast country like Nigeria. For example, according to Chukwu (2022), Kemi Levi, founder of the Total Woman Initiative (TWI), started catering for 300 vulnerable women nearly a decade ago. To support this large number of women with grants and loans, among other incentives, is significantly expensive over time. To avoid opportunists taking advantage of the situation, the government should put certain integrity conditions in place, such as a minimum number of women to be catered for and the number of years a program has been in existence.