Ethno-Religious Conflicts in Nigeria: Implications on Women

Abstract

Ethno-Religious conflicts have continued to besiege Nigeria for decades. This paper aims to highlight some of the ethno-religious conflicts that have taken place in Nigeria and its impact on women. Considerable work has been done on the issue of Ethno-Religious conflicts in Nigeria but the implications of these on Nigerian women remains scanty. It is in recognition of this that this paper seeks to examine this. Using library findings as well as oral interviews, the paper notes that many women have lost their lives while many others have lost their children and/or their husbands. This situation has led to undue sufferings with the concomitant problems of poverty and penury among the women. Most significantly, it also leads to gender inequality. Gender inequality translates to political, economic and socio-religious marginalization of women in the society. In view of this, the researcher recommends among others that women should be allowed to be full actors in the process of peace building and conflict resolution in Nigeria. They should not be kept at the margin in political discourse. It further advocates that amidst these incessant ethno-religious conflicts that have plagued the nation, protection of women and children should be of paramount importance and all the violations of human rights of women and children addressed with the apt attention it deserves. The decriptive phenomenological method was adopted for the study.