The concept of First Lady and Politics in Nigeria

Abstract

Women in Nigeria remain victims of gender discrimination, especially in politics. This monograph examines the possibility of utilizing the First Lady’s institution to achieve gender mainstreaming and consequently terminate the sustained feminine marginality in Nigerian politics. The study finds that the First Lady’s office is self-serving as successive First Ladies since the Babangida military era are merely utilizing their positions to mobilize and rally support for their husbands in power. And, depressingly too, the First Ladies used their esteemed positions to exploit the Nigerian rural women, whose poor political and economic lives, ordinarily, they were supposed to use their vantage position to transform for the better. Ultimately, therefore, the First Lady institution in Nigeria is just a conduit pipe for satisfying the material psychology of the First Ladies and bolstering the women’s political support for their ruling husbands.