Policy inconsistencies and the social politics of gender-based violence in Nigeria: A critical study toward achieving gender equality (SDG 5)

Abstract

Gender based violence (GBV) is the most prevalent and pervasive human rights violation in Nigeria which disproportionately affects women and girls in all sectors of the society. One out of three women aged 15-49 years has experienced physical or sexual violence at least once in her lifetime across Nigeria (FMoHSW, NPC, & ICF, 2024; UN Women, 2024). Most of this violence has occurred in personal relationships. Despite the presence of robust legislative instruments such as the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act of 2015 (VAPP Act) and Nigeria's formal commitment to international agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) on Gender Equality, the rate of gender-based violence (GBV) has not gone down but has gone up. Gender-based violence (GBV) serves in this study as the primary empirical lens through which the dynamics of policy incoherence are observed: it is the concrete indicator of governance failure and the landscape in which the contradictions of Nigeria's gender policy architecture are most visibly enacted. This dissertation interrogates the policy formulation-implementation gap in Nigeria's gender governance architecture, arriving at the conclusion of systemic policy incoherence. It argues that the socio-political underpinnings that sustain gender-based violence at epidemic levels also undergird the structural policy incoherence of the uneven implementation of the VAPP Act, the continued rejection of significant gender legislation by the National Assembly and the incongruence between secular laws and customary and religious legal norms. Using feminist theoretical perspectives and critical policy analysis, including postcolonial feminist theory, feminist institutionalism and Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity, the study examines the interaction of institutional fragility, cultural resistance, lack of political will and patriarchal norms in weakening the efficacy of gender policy. The method used in this research is qualitative analysis. This research draws on Bacchi's (2009) 'What's the Problem Represented to Be?' paradigm and thematic analysis of selected legislative, institutional, civil society and international texts (Braun and Clarke, 2006). The results are intended to demonstrate the linkage between policy fragmentation and socio-political processes, as well as to provide analytically driven recommendations for policy coherence in Nigeria's gender governance. This research contributes to wider scholarly debates surrounding postcolonial gender relations in the Global South and the challenges of translating global gender norms into local legal and social transformation.

A violência baseada no género (VBG) é uma das violações de direitos humanos mais prevalentes e generalizadas na Nigéria, afetando de forma desproporcional mulheres e raparigas em todos os setores da sociedade. Uma em cada três mulheres com idades entre os 15 e os 49 anos já experienciou violência física ou sexual pelo menos uma vez na vida (FMoHSW, NPC, & ICF, 2024; ONU Mulheres, 2024). Apesar da existência de instrumentos legislativos robustos — como a Lei de Proibição da Violência Contra as Pessoas (VAPP Act) de 2015 — e do compromisso formal da Nigéria com acordos internacionais como a CEDAW e o Objetivo de Desenvolvimento Sustentável 5 (ODS 5) sobre Igualdade de Género, as taxas de VBG não diminuíram; pelo contrário, agravaram-se. A presente dissertação interroga a lacuna entre a formulação e a implementação de políticas na arquitetura de governação de género da Nigéria. A violência baseada no género é utilizada como lente empírica através da qual se observam as dinâmicas de incoerência política. Utilizando perspetivas feministas teóricas e análise crítica de políticas — incluindo a teoria feminista pós-colonial, o institucionalismo feminista e o conceito de masculinidade hegemónica de Connell —, o estudo examina a interação entre fragilidade institucional, resistência cultural, falta de vontade política e normas patriarcais. Recorre-se à análise documental qualitativa, adotando a abordagem WPR de Bacchi (2009) e a análise temática de Braun e Clarke (2006) aplicadas a um corpus de documentos legislativos, institucionais, da sociedade civil e internacionais. Os resultados pretendem demonstrar a interplay entre a fragmentação das políticas e as dinâmicas sociopolíticas, gerando recomendações para a coerência política na governação de género da Nigéria e contribuindo para os debates académicos sobre política de género pós-colonial no Sul Global.