WOMEN LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Professor Sophie Oluwole

One basic assumption of this title is that there is need to change some of the current operative
parameters of Women leadership. This, presumably, implies that the world order in the 21st century
necessarily creates some major new challenges that would not be adequately met unless the existing
style of leadership is changed.

This approach becomes cogent only when former style and challenges of Women Leadership are well
known and critically examined. Otherwise we might inadvertently throw away the baby with the birth
water. Change is rational when it is a process of getting rid of some poor or irrelevant values and
operative principles but at the same time retaining the viable ones. This is why many scholars have
argued that meaningful changes do not necessarily entail total destruction.

Our stating point, therefore is a short review the style and modalities of meeting the challenges of
Women Leadership in the not too distant past. Following the major 3 Phase divides in Nigeria’s social
political history, we have the Traditional, Colonial and Post colonial challenges of Women Leadership.

The general pattern, however, is that each of the socio-historical phases of Nigeria’s development has
left specific marks on the status and position of women and these have, by and large, determined how
much liberty and freedom women enjoy in different sectors of the country’s social life today. This has
also greatly influenced the competence of women to contribute to the social upliftment of their
different societies.

There is abundance evidence, both in literature and from interviews of several women and men in the
different areas studied, that the social position of women in most pre-colonial societies in Nigeria was
much higher than what it was under colonialism. A few of these findings are systematized below under
specific sub-heads.

Women leadership Challenges in Traditional and Colonial Times.

Trade and Commerce

The experience of Nigerian women as agriculturalists and artisans accounted for their involvement in
trade since it was their duty to sell extra farm products and processed goods to cater for other needs of
the family. Since women were also involved in the production of non-consumable goods like clothing,
pots and other daily needs they came to be involved in different forms of business and trade.

In many Nigerian sub-cultures women dominated the markets. According to a recent publication by
Oyeronke Oyewumi (1997) women’s entry into crafts and professions were defined along lineage
affiliation contrary to Schwab (1955) who claimed that women were disallowed into most professions.
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Women controlled their own economic activities and they were employers of labour. Trade guilds
were run completely by women who engaged in the sales of different commodities. Profits belong
entirely to the women themselves and they could use these as they wanted. The conclusion reached by
most researchers is that Yoruba women during the pre-colonial era enjoyed a very high degree of
autonomy in economic sector. They could accumulate as much wealth as men – often times more. This
is despite the fact that property rights were biased in favour of men when it comes to land and family
inheritance (Mba, 1982).

Politics
There is no doubt that the actual political experiences of Nigerian women differ from one sub-culture
to another. In societies like the Igbo of the Southeast where the political structure was not centralized,
women played social roles, which are not directly classifiable as political functions, most especially
when politics is defined as a system of policy making and execution at some central level.
According to the testimony of Mr. Ime Essien Udom:
Nigeria is a vast country and our cultures are divers, but history has it that woman in
different societies in the country played very active, and in some cases, dominant roles
in the politics of their people. For example, they ruled over large empires, led large
armies and conquered foreign lands, led migration movements. Queen Amina of Duara
was feared for her extensive conquests in the 15th Century. Where large empires exist,
the administration provided for women participation and were involved in powerful
societies. The Ekpo, Ekpe and Ekong of the Ibibio were initially women societies (Udom
in Ajibola, 1992).

The association of village daughters (Umuada) and that of wives (Otuomu) among the Igbo wielded
strong visible powers as institutionalized agents of checks and balance to the excesses of wives and
husbands respectively. (Mba, 1982).

Women were explicitly involved in the political management of Yoruba centralized government. Oyo
was known to have had some female Alaafin; the last known is Orompoto. Ilesha has a record of five
females out of 38 Owa. They include Ori Abejoye and Owari. The last was Yeyeori, the 18th Owa.
(Mba, 1982)

One well remembered Ooni of Ife was Luwoo Gbagida. She reigned around 1000 A.D. Although she
paved the roads of the town, she was eventually deposed because people saw her as a harsh ruler. Her
offence was that “she forced people to work hard and to adopt clean habits”. (Adediran, 1992).

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Women were members of the traditional judicial arm of government known as Ogboni and that in their
own rights. Known as Erelu, no important decisions could be made without them. Indeed, they could
veto any decision of the Ogboni. Thus the Yoruba have this popular saying:
Dagige, Da’gige, aake kan o lee da’gige, Da’gila, Da’gila, eela kan o lee da’gila. Bi o s’Erelu,
Osugbo o le e dawo se
(Just as the axe cannot cut alone and the wedge cannot split alone so can the judiciary not make
any decision without its female members) (Oluwole, 1995).

Matriarchy was practiced in some parts of Igboland. These were in Oguta now in Imo state and Ohafia
in the present Anambra state. In these areas succession was through female lineage.

However, Kaneme Okonjo, the author of The Dual-Sex Political Systems of Operation (1987) recorded
one of the most interesting incidents of the political participation of women in pre-colonial Nigeria. In
her study of the Aniocha people of the present Delta State of South-south region of Nigeria, she found
out that women did not just participate in the political management of the society. Rather, there was a
dual-political set up where there were male and female leaders, police, judges and officials to handle
the affairs of each of the two sexes respectively. Evidence for a similar practice exists among the Efiks.
(Kanayo in Ajibola, 1992)
Women were never seen as equal to men but they were not regarded as completely useless and
diabolical members of the society as was the practice then in many countries in Europe.

Religion
Like in most African countries, Nigerian women were always involved in religion. It was a common
practice for prophetesses to lead at ritual celebrations. A woman was free to follow whatever religion
she chose without any interference from the husband. Among the Tiv of Central Nigeria, women
attend moot court (ijir) and performed festival and ritual dances.

One of the most prominent features of marriage in pre-colonial Nigeria is polygamy. The result was
that monogamy never became a popular practice. But then there are sayings in Yoruba oral tradition
that no woman prefers polygamy to monogamy. Orisa je n l’enikeji obinrin ko de’nu (A woman’s
prayer that her husband should take another wife is never sincere).

More interesting, perhaps, is the oral literature which says that monogamy is to be preferred to
polygamy (Oluwole, 1996) The passage goes on to state different problems that every additional wife
brings. The situation, however, is that the Yoruba, like other cultures in pre-colonial Nigeria, neither

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legislated against polygamy nor did they live up to this wisdom of their sages.

There were claims by some of the people interviewed that polyandry was once practiced in some parts
of Yorubaland by economically prominent women. This, however, never became a popular practice.
But as would be discussed later, another form of marriage common among many cultures in the
country is wife inheritance now known as ‘Levirate’ marriage.
Except for a few matrilineal societies like the Oguta and Afikpo among the Igbo society and the Jukun
of Taraba State in the Northeast region, the majority of cultures in the country practiced patrilineal and
patrilocal systems. The husband automatically becomes the head of the new house while the woman is
regarded as subservient to the husband in terms of decision-making and social rights.
The current practice of women taking the family name of her husband is not indigenous to most
traditional people. Hardly would a married woman refer to herself in a native language that means
‘Mrs. More interesting perhaps is the fact that it was not uncommon in many societies for men to use
their mothers’ names as surnames since this was a better method of identification within a family with
over twenty children from more than five or six wives.

Division of Labour Within the Family

There is abundant evidence in our literature and field research that the tradition in many pre-colonial
Nigerian societies, like in many parts of the world before the Industrial Revolution, was that of
members of the family complemented one another in the economic management of the home.
Professor Simi Afonja reiterated this when she said,
Available literature of gender relations in Nigeria suggests that the socio-economic and
political change since the pre-colonial era have moved Nigeria households from a
complementary to a competitive role structure. (Afonja, 1988.)

Again, contrary to popularized belief, the idea of the full-time housewife was restricted to only a few
sub-cultures in pre-colonial Nigeria. Women, therefore, participated in farm work but at the same time
engaged in different traditional professions.
Mrs. Priscilla Kuye, a legal luminary and one time President of Nigeria Bar Association bears
testimony to this when she wrote,
Among the educated, a colonial legacy of non-working, homebound housewives and
husbands who go out to economically productive, remunerative employment has further
reinforced the tradition whereby the man becomes the reference point for development. (pp.
66-67)

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Property and Inheritance Rights
Yoruba widows have no rights to inherit any property from their dead husbands. Whatever eventually
accrues to them is only through the children. This situation leaves the childless widow completely
disinherited. However, a Yoruba widower can also not inherit his dead wife’s property even if the
latter is very rich but had no children. All her property, including landed ones, pass on to her maternal
relations.

Schidkrout (1986) maintains that with the exception of widows in very wealthy families, most women
cannot rely on inheritance from their husband’s family for continuous income. Widows in Islam are
entitled to one fourth of their husband’s estate, but if there were children and grandchildren, they
would be entitled to one eighth.

The situation of widows among the Igbo is somewhat different. A wife cannot own landed property
without the knowledge and permission of her husband. She is also regarded as part of the property of
her husband. For widows who have only female children all the property of the man goes to the
brothers or relations. One unique practice found here is that one of the female children may decide to
have a child without allowing the man to pay her dowry. That child belongs to her dead father and if
male, can legitimately inherit him.

In the alternative, the widow can pay the dowry of a young woman. Any child she has belongs to her
and her dead husband. Such a child again, if male, has the right to inherit the husband of the widow.

NIGERIAN WOMEN DURING THE COLONIAL ERA

The advent of colonialism witnessed the super imposition of several values, beliefs of European on the
Nigerian people. These were spread through the new religion, education and Western socio-political
theories of individualism and capitalism. Colonialism was, therefore, not just an experience of political
domination of Nigerians by the British but involved a near total change of their socio-economic,
religious and political structures.

Agro-Allied Production, Trade and Commerce.

The introduction of plantations turned men into employers of women as labourers. Women who
worked for their husbands received only token amounts as gift at the end of the farming season. Small
female landholders could not compete with males who had greater access to land. The development of
cash crops therefore worsened the economic condition of the woman.
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Merchants who constituted a large sector of colonialists introduced plantation farming and operated as
wholesale foreign buyers. Since large sums of money were needed in both of these areas, most
traditional female farmers dropped out of these two businesses. To make things worse, these merchants
did not want women as their local partners.

One memorable example was the sending away from Lagos, Madam Tinubu who had an international
business empire with over 70 business missions across the world. She was the first person to buy a
weaving machine in the country. The experience of female agriculturalists and traditional women
traders in other parts of the country was one of retrogression during the colonial era.

In the Southeast where women were sole producers of palm products, men took over this sector of
agriculture when palm products became commercial goods. The new laws allowed only men to do
business directly with foreign merchants.

The production of household goods and utensils, which was mainly in the hands of women in pre-
colonial times, was lost to Europeans merchants. Pottery that was carried out on industrial scales in
different parts of the country diminished to the point of near extinction. Locally woven clothes were
used for ceremonial purposes only. Spinners, weavers and female textile traders became jobless.

Nigerian women did not only lose their grip on a substantial part of the national economy, their
descendants lost the opportunity of learning on the job. They were denied the freedom to improve upon
their professional competence and thus their economic status fell. Indeed, colonialism, at least in this
important sense, contributed in no mean measure to the feminization of poverty in Nigeria

Politics
The introduction of a new political system in the country gave no room for local governance. Initially
the colonialists constituted members of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Nigerian
kingdoms and empires were made to sign pacts with the British government that they would be
brought under her Majesty, Queen Victoria’s rule.

Although some cultural norms and judicial practices were allowed to continue, constitutional positions
reserved for women were either eradicated or pushed to the background. Yet there was no record of
women appointments into any arm of colonial government. Since the government was entirely foreign,
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the question of voting for, or by men and women was out. This is understandable in view of the fact
that British women remain disenfranchised until 1949.

Religion
According to Christian myth of creation, the woman was made from the bone of the man. This was
long after the man had been created. God’s purpose was that she should be a helper to her husband
(Genesis, Chapter 2). The injunction in the New Testament is that the woman should not talk in the
public but allow her husband to do so. This teaching was propagated through various colonial
machineries.
Northern Muslim women were ranked along side children who were not heard but only directed. Some
Islamic sects claim that the Koran does not permit women to be leaders. Others say women can be
leaders but not Head of State even though in countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh women have been
Prime Ministers and Head of States.
The overall result was that Nigerian women lost some of the institutionalized positions they held
within some traditional religions. Both the Christian and Muslim North harbour within their cultural
chores anti -feminine practices that separate rather than unite husbands and wives and put a wedge
between brothers and sisters.

Education
It is an undeniable fact of history that the colonialists introduced not education per se but formal
Western education in different parts of Nigeria. The common experience across the country was that
many prominent members of the society gave up two children, a male and a female. The Benin
experience was somewhat different. Most chiefs gave up their slaves since the stress of education was
seen as too much for the children of the affluent. This was also the case with some Northern aristocrats
most especially the Emirs.

What happened in most of these schools can be illustrated with the Yoruba experience. David Hinderer
started Saint David’s School at Kudeti, Ibadan in 1855 while his wife Hannah Hinderer set-up Kudeti
Girls’ School almost at the same time. But the educational syllabus for girls was substantially different
from that for boys. While the latter studied subjects like English, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry,
etc., girls were made to study English, Arithmetic, Religion, Cookery, Laundry and Housewifery (i.e.
the baking of cakes, cleaning of glasses and washing floors etc.)

At the end of schooling, the government and colonial merchants immediately employed educated boys
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while the girl had to wait for the opportunity of marrying a teacher, catechist or if lucky one of the
pastors available.

This was the origin of the popular saying “Ko si iwe ti obinrin ka, ehin aro l’ o ma a pari e si (No
matter how well read a woman becomes, she will end up in the kitchen). This could never have been a
traditional attitude of people in a society where education was never a formalized public institution.

Economy, Labour and Productivity

Colonialism changed the socio-economic terrain of Nigeria. As Mrs. Priscilla Kuye aptly noted,
Economic division of labour, controls of economic resources are all children of colonial
administration – even though to development levels in drift sub-cultures of Nigeria (in Ajibola
1992).

The traditional principle that everybody must work as a way of sustaining him/herself and that societal
development was of primary value was replaced by the capitalist’s doctrine that the ideal state is one in
which every citizen is free to pursue individual interests showing little or no concern for those of
others.

The introduction of wage labour resulted in the movement of young people from rural areas to new
cities for employment. Yet most of them had neither education nor any professional skill. The result
was that only old men and women were left behind in rural areas. Furthermore, educated women were
neither employed by business merchants nor by the colonial administrators. Unequal access to the
same type of learning and training resulted in lack of wage employment for educated girls.

When eventually girls were given similar education as boys some professions were reserved for men
only. Women were not paid the same salaries as men. Their conditions of service were always tied to
those of their husbands. It was also statutory that women give up their jobs once they got pregnant or
married. No consideration was given to the economic difficulties of raising children without a stable
means of livelihood.

Men got promoted faster than women on the excuse that the latter are usually late, absent or less
hardworking. The result was that men were always preferred, most especially, in all available sectors
of colonial employment.

Women could hardly develop within the private sector when most of them were not literate in the

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English language, which was the official means of communication. Women traders could not write
down records of sales. Education, which was not a pre-requisite for business within the cultural setting,
became a big handicap to the large majority of Nigerian women.

Thus the traditional economic power and competence of women became threatened by large-scale
export oriented trade in which they had to compete with foreign merchants who operated on laws
unknown to them.

Women Within the Family Structure

Traditional cases of a few female house heads in some cultures in Nigeria were seen as a continuation
of a primitive African social institution. It is, therefore, not an overstatement to say the colonial culture
introduced the family as a monogamous, nuclear system in which every member is an individual with
fundamental rights and freedom even though the man still reserved his headship of the family.

The wife was legally defined as part of the husband and the two of them constituted a unit. The wife
could neither witness against the husband nor sue him except for divorce. The explanation is that a part
cannot sue the whole body. No special attention was paid to the various negative traditional treatments
of widows even though there were laws against wickedness to animals.

Property Rights and Inheritance

Colonial administrators did not make new laws about property ownership, child custody and
inheritance. The policy was that customs and traditions should guide all these provided such norms do
not violate good conscience and justice.

But generally a woman could not enter into legal relationships without the assistance of a man- i.e. her
husband, father or male relation. She could also not institute a suit against another person or even
defend herself in a law court in her own right and recognition. Exceptions were granted only to women
who had imbibed Western style of life.

WOMEN IN POST-COLONIAL AND CONTEMPORARY NIGERIA

The condition of the Nigerian woman today has been affected by ideas, values, policies and principles
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inherited from the various indigenous, Islamic and Christian traditions. Nigerians who took over from
colonial overlords neither restructured neither the inherited administrative structure nor the socio-
economic principles on which they were built.

The overall result is that these traditional ideas and policies were combined with new ones, which the
people hardly understood. Later developments in different international policies and socio-economic
theories like democracy and globalization took them unawares. This amalgamation varying policies
has continued to affect the Nigerian woman in many ways. It can, therefore, be confidently stated that
the position of the Nigerian woman in the last forty years has been most turbulent and unstable.

The Banking system and the conditions of loans are far from being sympathetic to the cause of the
Nigerian woman. It is, therefore, very difficult for the Nigerian female businesswoman to secure a
large loan except she is guaranteed by a male, her father, husband etc. Although the law itself does not
stipulate this condition, many operators of the banking system nurse the fear that it is more difficult to
retrieve loans from women than it is to do the same from men. This is a belief that has little or no basis
in the Nigerian experience where many men have records of black debts.

Professional training is still tied to formal education yet many girls are neither sent to school nor for
training. Restrictions in the choice of profession by girls have not totally vanished from the Nigerian
scene. However, in view of the traditional entrepreneurship capabilities of the Nigerian woman, it is
now common to find many of them who import large quantities of rice, milk and other food items. But
the proportion is insignificant when compared with that of men.

The situation today is that the field of economic transaction is far from being level. Not only are
Nigerian women restricted to the informal private sector, the international tendency towards the
promotion of corporate business empires that have branches in different parts of the world indirectly
rules out the woman from the formal private sector.

Religion

Islam and Christianity are the two officially recognized religions in Nigeria today even though a lip
service is paid to African Traditional Religions. Although the ideology of divine discrimination against
women is still being preached in many churches and mosques, the Nigerian woman mostly from the
South have continued to cut a niche for themselves in the two foreign religions.

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Muslim women also introduced the positions of Iya-Adinni and Iya-Alasalatu for similar purposes.The
traditional Christian Church i.e. the Church Of Christ in Sudan amongst the Tiv (Nongu u Kristu u
Sudan Ken Tiv) N.K.S.T. has Atese, the Pastor’s wife as the head teacher of women in the church. The
Catholic Church has Torkwase, i.e. the Queen mother, as woman leader in the church.

These positions are neither found in Rome or in Mecca.. Nigerian women’s traditional activism most
probably influenced their drive for leadership roles in these new religions. But soon, the Anglican
Communion ordained some female priests. The Methodist Church of Nigeria recently followed suit
when it celebrated the ordination of first female priest in the year 2001. We were reliably told that
there were others in training. Today, Reverend Sisters can administer communion even though they
still cannot become priests and conduct mass.

The history of the origin ad development of Pentecostal Churches in Nigeria is an interesting one.
According to our library research, it was a woman, Captain Abiodun Emmanuel and a man Pastor
Moses Orimolade who co-founded the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in 1928. But male-chauvinistic
intrigue soon stepped in when the woman’s authority was challenged. Eventually she was forced to
lead a breakaway group.

Since then many women have followed suit. A few of them are now the sole founders of churches. But
the more common practice now is for husbands and wives to jointly establish Pentecostal churches-
most especially in some large cities in the South -west.

Education

The education of Nigerian women since the post-colonial era has witnessed several changes. Many
non-governmental organisations have continued to put pressure on the government to amend this bias
against girl-child education. Today 75%of admission into Federal Secondary Schools is reserved for
girls.

Despite all these odds, education is still one of the few fields where women have excelled most.
Some of them have been appointed as Ministers, Vice-Chancellors and Director Generals of
Government Parastatals.
The Registrars of the universities of Lagos, Ibadan, Ife and Akure are all women. However,

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when compared with the number of women qualified to head important institutions in the country,
these few appointments fall short of fair play and expectation.

COLONIAL AND POST COLONIAL ERA

Nigerian women were taught that they had been abused and marginalized .Thy were told they wee
gender blind and that they must join their counterparts from other countries of the world to be
LIBERATE themselves from the enormous burden of Male-Chauvinism.

Western educated woman accidentally became leaders of their less privilege sisters I the rural and
illiterate segments of the Nigerian society .This was known as the TOP TO BOTTOM approach.

Towards the 20th century scholars adopted the BOTTOM TO TOP approach which means leaders
learning from followers. (Jesus Christ was an exemplar of this.) A fall out of this is that many educated
feminists were dealing with text book principles because they were either ignorant of the realities of
the life of the African i.e Nigerian woman or they were oblivious of several positive views and
practices in our various traditions.

To drive this issue home, I’II tell you a story. .A village in Northern Nigeria suffered from water
scarcity. An organization then put a bore-hole right in the center of the village. Barely two weeks
latter the bore-hole was intentionally spoilt by some unknown persons. Investigation later showed it
was the women who actually destroyed the well. The reason was that he bore-hole made life more
difficult for them.

Although traveling six kilometers to fetch water was a problem, it was nothing to be compared with the
lack of an opportunity run regular seminars in which women discussed their problems on the way to
the brook. Furthermore, their husbands now want them to work on the farm late afternoons when they
normally should have gone to fetch water.

The lesson to be learnt here is that “He who wears the shoes knows where it pinches most”. A leader is
not always in the best position to understand the problems of the followers. She has to learn these from
these.

CHALLENGES OF WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN NIGERIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY

I will now list some of the basic challenges to women leadership in the new century.

SELF KNOWLEDGE

Most Nigerian women today do not know WHO they are because they have been told WHAT THEY
ARE, namely a biologically and physically inferior to men. The question of WHO you are has less to
do with being a woman and more with what you have made of life. We are talking here of building
capacity and developing the ability to perform.

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KNOWLEDGE OF TRADITIONAL OPPORTUNIIES.

If Nigeria as a nation today adopts some of the following traditional principles of a democratic society,
women would have been given better opportunities than they hitherto have enjoyed. Some of them are:

1 Bi okunrin r’ejo t obirin pa a, ki ejo ma sa ti lo. This means: If a man

sight a snake and runs, and a woman comes around to kill it, all is well if
the snake is dead.

2. Agba merin l’o nse’ku: Agba okunrin, agba obirin, agba omed gba alejo
The meaning here is tht four group leaders mange the affairs of State:
Leaders of men, women, youth and stranger.

3 Ajeje, owo kn o gb’eru d’ori This adage states: One hand cannot lift a
heavy load to the head.

4. Eye o le f’apa kan fo. The bird cannot fly with one wing

5. The family arrangement in which husband were not the sole bread winner who
compete with their wives. The family was a cooperative entity. There were
hardly any enshrined doctrine of the full time house wife.

POLITICAL PARICIPATION

Women should learn that since they have been out of politics for a long time they would have
to enter from the grassroots level. This means they have to become card carrying members of
different political parties and compete first as Counselors, Chairmen of Local Governments,
Members of States Houses of Assembly before trying to become Governors or Senators. They
must know that the only job you start at the top is grave digging

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

Most Nigerian women do complain of lack of funds to go into politics. YES, THAT IS TRUE.
BUT PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR WARDROBE, YOUR TRINKET BOX AND
YOUR SHOE RACKS WHEN YOU GET HOME.

How many times have you bought “Aso Ebi” and the latest fashion which, in most cases you don’t
need. Nigerian women have been ranked as the most expensive and ironically the most wasteful in
home management in the world. A conscious effort to change these attitudes is one of the greatest
challenges that faces the Nigerian woman if she is to play any substantive leadership role in the 21st
century.

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