RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN THE CONSTITUTIONS OF NIGERIA, 1960- 2007 CASE STUDY OF AFIKPO

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1        BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

This study is written in view of the growth of the waves of feminism, which pay special attention to women’s rights within the society that is more or less gender insensitive. It is following the regard of women as human legal entities who or which are endowed by nature or by law with the capacity to enter into legal relations such as contracts of employment, commercial contracts and marriage contracts without detraction from social constraints. Thus this study is concerned with the sum total of rights and duties concerned with the women as provided in the constitution by reason of their legal affiliation to the state-Nigeria.

Rights, as used in this regard, are privileges or prerogatives that are conferred on a person or a group by law. In other words, they are lawful claims, which the state defined and is ready to protect.1 Rights (both political and civil rights) according to Olakanmi Olajide, are fundamental freedom which all men and women, are entitled, without discrimination. These, he further noted, are based on the laid down philosophy of the international law which reads: “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.2

Rights are entitlements that are essential for human existence. Umozurike, Oji U. observes that these rights are third generation rights. The first generation rights, which were first to be recognized are: the right to life, liberty, dignity, etc; the second generation rights are: the right to education, health, work, etc; and other third generation rights include the right of self-determination, to develop, to natural wealth and resources, etc.3 However it must be pointed that in spite of the declarations for these rights, there are still agitations for freedom and rights which are evident in the different waves for the rights of women, thus showing that these rights are not being enjoyed by the people they are meant for.

Chukwudifu A. Oputa says that every human being (i.e. both male and female) is a valuable creature on which justice is built. The Bible commands us to love one another, but justice asks that if we cannot love, at least we do not injure. For anything that constitutes an injury is thus against the law, after all the law cannot compel us to love. However, he maintains, it is pertinent to

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note that the violation of rights, especially of women is the fault of the countrymen who have failed to cultivate law culture or acquire the virtue of reverence of law.4 Olisa Agbakoba submits that when injustice, discrimination and degradation of human value tend to thrive, human right groups such as women liberation movement or wave of feminism is very imminent.5

There is no doubt that women have played dynamic and constructive roles and thus contributed tremendously to societal development, but those roles as well as their status are yet to break the chauvinistic and patriarchal dominance. They are socialized to accept inferior position to their male counterpart.

Afikpo, the second metropolitan town in Ebonyi State, has the population of 61956 out of which women are 29864.6 Here the women represent about 48.9% of the population and also command numerical strength. But the age-long inferior status or perception of women that emanated from cultural and religions beliefs have continued to affect them (women). Some of these beliefs have been practiced for so long that they are embedded in the societal norms, and such that the laws of the land or constitutions and international instruments, which protect the rights of women, are flagrantly infringed in the guise of cultural and religions beliefs. Jivka Marinova notes that:

We represent over half of humanity. We give life, we work, love, create, struggle, and have fun. We currently accomplish most of the work essential to life and the continued survival of humankind. Yet our place in society continues to be undervalued.7

Despite the equality in right enshrined in the Nigeria constitution, some statutes and international instruments, the male dominated society of Afikpo preferred the application of some of these discriminatory aspects of the customary law, which adversely affected the status and position of women. For instance, in the case of Nzekwu Vs Nzekwu (1989) Z.N.W.L.R. (pt 104) C.A., the Supreme Court held that “on the event of the husband’s death, a widow who has no male issue has only a right to occupy the building or part of the building belonging to her husband subject to good behaviour”.8 This judgment witnessed remarkable dissatisfaction on the grounds that it was repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience; also it was said to

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be unconstitutional to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and African Charter on Human and People’s Rights which Nigeria was signatory. But the ruling, which was dispensed in favour of the customary law, remained, thereby equating the human right charters or provisions to the laws, which the wicked do not obey and the righteous do not enforce.

There is a saying in Afikpo that; an old woman never forgets the dance steps she learnt while she was still young. The fact that the old woman (still) remembers or knows the dance suggests her possession of admirable mental capacity. Some of these proverbs of Afikpo are however being undermined by other negative, derogatory and sexist ones which are, in the majority and are constantly, being used to highlight the inferiority of women. Some of these proverbs are:

i.             A woman whose husband has just died and she prepares to go to market knows what killed him;

ii.            A dog trained by a woman (always) bites people to death;

iii.           A woman whose husband has decided to hate cannot solve the problem by mere cooking of delicious soup; and

iv.          When a woman is getting old, it would seem as if money (bride price) was not paid to marry her.

These proverbs portray women as unreliable and inferior to men. In

other words, they are used to consolidate gender gap, subject women to the state of servitude and perpetuate the dual burden of domestic task and sexual or professional obligation. O.O. Bisi and A.A. Abiola, noted that in this type of society, the educated and rich women are not left behind, only that uneducated and poor women especially in the rural communities are worse victims than educated and rich women in the urban centres.9

As noted earlier, the constitutions of Nigeria have provided checklists of the fundamental rights. The vague interpretations of these rights prove that the constitution have betrayed the seeming desire, especially of the women to discontinue with patriarchal tradition of our society. For instance, in the 1999 Constitution, the pronoun “he” appears 235 times and the word “woman” is used only two times such as in section 26(2) (a) and 24 (4)(b).10 The implication of the application of any of these provisions affects such cases that may concern the rights of women and hinders the development of women.

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