Healthcare organisations

Literacy level in Nigeria is disproportionately distributed based on different variables; the north and south, rural and urban, as well as male and female. A little over 57.1 percent of the population is literate made up of 67.3 percent of the male and 49.6 percent of the female population (FBS 2006). Formal education was primarily introduced into Nigeria by religious groups. Whereas the Portuguese Roman Catholic Missionaries introduced the country to western education in the early 15^th century, other denominations such as the Church Missionary Society (CMS); the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, the Southern Baptist Convention of the United States of America, and the Roman Catholic Church (RCM) came with theirs between 1842 and 1895. However, traditional and indigenous educational systems in Africa generally, and in Nigeria in particular predates western education.

In view of the high level of illiteracy especially in the rural areas, the government set up an Adult and Non-formal Education Commission for Mass Literacy in 1991 with the aim of achieving basic education for all. Also, consistent increase in the number of educational institutions in the country has been recorded at all levels over the years with commensurate turnout of graduates from such institutions. As at 2005, there were over 60,226 primary schools with a total enrolment of over 22 million, 10,830 secondary schools with an enrolment of more than 6 million, and 49 polytechnics with an enrolment of over 182,000 in Nigeria (Table 2.3). There are also 51 Colleges of Education and about 75 universities, and the combined graduate output of Nigerian Universities in 2005 alone from all disciplines was 39,506 made up of 63.7 percent male and 36.3 percent female.

Table 2.3: Summary of pre-university educational statistics

Institution Number of

schools

Total Enrolment

Male Enrolment

Female Enrolment

Primary School 60,226 22,099,553 12,182,055 9,917,498

Secondary School 10,830 6,255,522 3,459,007 2,796,515

Polytechnic 49 182,338 110,532 71,806

Source: Federal Bureau of Statistics 2006

15 2.1.5 Socio-economic conditions

Socio-economic indices provided by the country’s Bureau of Statistics indicate a correlation between per capita income and literacy level, gender, as well as location (FBS 2006). The higher the educational status of the Nigerian the greater the income earned, the higher the mean household expenditure and the greater the access to amenities. There is also a direct relationship between occupational status and gender; the male population has a higher percentage of people with one occupation or the other than the female (AKS 2005). The environment in which the average Nigerian lives also plays a major role in the level of income earned by the person.

During the colonial period before 1960, the economy was dominated by export and commercial activities and there was an absence of a viable industrial sector. After independence, agriculture continued as the mainstay of the economy and contributed about 65 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP) and represented almost 70 per cent of total exports. It provided the needed foreign exchange utilised in importing raw materials and capital goods, and peasant farmers produced enough to feed the entire population. There was enough revenue for use by the government to develop the basic infrastructures needed for long-term development. The main thrust of the economic policy was to maximise the benefits of export-led development strategy. Also, with the setup of the Import Substitution and Industrialization (ISI) Strategy Commission various consumer items, which were hitherto imported, were produced domestically and protective measures like tariffs and quotas were put in place to ensure that the domestic industries were allowed to grow. In the short-run, jobs were created but because the industries were to some extent unnecessarily over-protected by government, the finished products were less competitive when compared with their foreign counterparts.

Between 1971 and 1977 the share of agriculture to GDP declined from forty eight percent to almost 21 percent and agricultural exports as a percentage of total exports declined from 21 percent to about six percent. With the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in the middle sixties, the Nigerian economy has depended on oil, with oil revenue representing almost ninety percent of foreign exchange earnings and about eighty five percent of total exports, thus affecting the agricultural sector negatively. Rural-urban migration increased as people attempted to benefit from the oil windfall. Agricultural produce for exports declined, while food production for local consumption also became a problem. By 1974, the economy became a net importer of basic food and prices of foodstuff remained quite high. The growth rate of GDP was quite high and government expenditures fuelled the inflation rate but despite the oil boom, the private sector was still weak as the existing macroeconomic policies continued to encourage consumption rather than production.

However, by 1976, declining oil revenues, disequilibrium in the balance of payments, growing unemployment, increasing rates of inflation, and political instability confirmed that demand-induced policies were no longer effective. This forced Nigeria, which never had foreign exchange as a constraint, to borrow on the Euro-dollar market and as most of the industrialized countries of Europe and North America were in a depression, the depression that hit Nigeria from 1979, was more or less a client type, without underestimating the problems generated internally. Consequently the economy entered the recessionary phase and further stabilization measures were needed to reverse the gloomy situation. Between 1978 and 1986 it was clear that the economy was suffering from stagflation. The problems were so severe that it called for a comprehensive economic reform package, the Stabilization and Structural

16

Adjustment Programme (SAP), which was set in motion in 1986, to minimize dependence on imports, enhance the non-oil export base and bring the economy back on the path of steady and balanced growth. The programme apparently intensified speculative and trading activities rather than production and gave rise to the proliferation of merchant banks, finance houses, de-regulation of interest rates, privatization of the economy and the industrial policy which did not bring in the needed direct foreign investment. After six years of structural adjustment, the private sector development had not increased production, employment and price stability. The share of manufacturing in GDP was still low, while capacity utilization was a little above 30 per cent. Essentially, the performance of the Nigerian private sector had vitiated the major assumption that under-laid an IMF adjustment programme to the effect that the private sector had the capacity to respond to supply-side incentives. The public utilities mistook privatization and commercialization to mean increased prices without recourse to efficiency and productivity. The unjustifiable price hikes (sometimes in the range of 500-2000%) compounded problems for the industrial sector and the provision of social services. The increased prices paid by consumers further reduced their already declining real wage.

The present economic reform programme is still having serious problems in terms of conceptualization and implementation and Nigeria is now an economy where real wages are not enough to meet basic requirements, social services have deteriorated at an alarming rate, and the real sector is again not linked to the so-called boom in financial sector. Nonetheless, given the country’s potential, commitment of the political and leadership class and appropriate policy mix, the economy may in the near future experience meaningful growth and development which can guarantee high standard of living for majority of its citizens.

2.1.6 Politics and government

With the abolition of slave trade in 1807, and of slavery in 1833, the British not only shifted their attention to legitimate trade, but their government made itself the world policeman to ensure that other nations did like them and abandoned slave trade. It was in the course of discharging this self-imposed responsibility that the British saw the strategic importance of Lagos, got involved in the internal affairs of Lagos, and ceded Lagos to the British Crown in 1861. The trade rivalries between the French and the British led to the Berlin Conference of 1885 and 1886 which was held to avert wars. Here areas of European influence in Africa were allocated to the contending imperialists. The area now known as Nigeria was claimed by, and allotted to the British. Frederick Lugard, was the first High Commissioner of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria from 1900. The Royal Niger Company, which employed him, was granted a Royal Charter in 1886 to monopolize trade in, and control what was known then as the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. The Oil Rivers Protectorate was proclaimed by the British in 1885, given a ‘Government’ the same year, and renamed Niger Coast Protectorate under

‘treaties’ with different coastal potentates. Thus as at January 1, 1900 Nigeria was separately controlled by Britain as follows:

(a) The Lagos Colony and Hinterland (Protectorate), with Lagos as capital – controlled from the colonial office in London

(b) The Niger Coast Protectorate, with Calabar as capital – responsible to the British foreign office in London

(c) Northern Nigeria Protectorate, with Lokoja as capital – controlled from the colonial office in London.

17

In 1906 the Lagos Colony and Hinterland (Protectorate) was merged with the Niger Coast Protectorate to become the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria with Lagos as the Capital, and responsible to the Colonial Office in London. Thus, with the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria already in place, the two resulting Protectorates came under the control of the Colonial Office, but as two distinct and separate territories. They were in fact described as two countries in the Amalgamation Proclamation Instrument of 1914 and until 1946, both territories were governed separately though by one Governor. Later the country was crafted into three regions:

1. The Eastern Region - with its capital at Enugu 2. Western Region – with its capital at Ibadan, and 3. Northern Region – with capital at Kaduna

On the 1^st of October 1960, subsequent to agitations for self-rule amidst defiance by various groups, the country was granted independence from British rule, quickly followed by the creation of the Mid-Western Region out of the Western Region. Each region had its legislative assembly or parliament and regional head referred to as Premier who reported to a Prime Minister at the national level. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was appointed the Head of Government.

A secession attempt by the Eastern Region under the name of Biafra in 1966 resulted in the outbreak of the civil war between 1967 and 1970, marked by heavy human and infrastructural losses. It brought the advent of military rule in Nigeria which lasted from 1966 to 1979 when civilian rule was restored. The army regained power between 1983 and 1999 through a coup d’état, with the attendant collapse of civil rule, law and order, and human and infrastructural development efforts, despite the large inflow of revenue from the sale of crude oil. Further attempts at destabilizing the country resulted in their fragmentation of the erstwhile regions into a 12-State structure, each with its own administrative head and organs of government. The 12 states have currently metamorphosed into a 36-state structure, with a separate federal capital territory. In preparation for civilian rule, the presidential system of governance was introduced and a tripartite structure of government, comprising the executive, the legislature and the judiciary was adopted for the country and all the states. A new constitution for the country was drafted and ratified by the military government for use by the succeeding civilian governments. This has accounted for the inconsistencies, limitations and contradictions identified in the document, which has informed the constitution amendment exercise currently going on in the country. Civil rule was eventually restored in 1999 and has fortunately been maintained to-date. The Federal legislature is bicameral, having two units of legislature, the Senate and House of Representatives. The government institutions under the presidential system and the three tiers system of government in practice (Federal, State and Local Governments) are shown in Table 2.4

The President is the Head of State, Chief Executive of the Federation and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He is also the Head of the Presidency, and together with his Ministers, forms the Federal Executive Council which initiates government policies and programmes and ensures that they are implemented after being passed into law by the legislature. The National Assembly is charged with the sole responsibility of making laws for the governance of the country. The judiciary is responsible for the interpretation of the laws as provided for in the constitution, which also guarantees its independence.

18

Table 2.4: Government institutions under Nigeria’s presidential system

Federal Government State Governmente Local Government

Executive President Governor Chairman

Legislature (i) Senate

(ii) House of Representatives

House of Assembly Council Judiciary Federal High Courts

Supreme Courts / Sharia Appeal Courts.

State Courts, Customary Courts and Sharia Courts.

Magistrate Courts

Source: The Nigerian Constitution, 1999 2.1.7 Cultural features

Nigeria is officially a secular state but records a significant presence of distinct religious groups. Muslims represent 50 percent of the population while Christians make up 40 percent.

The rest are Atheist, Neo-religionists, Baha’i Faith, Buddhists, and Animists and many people combine elements of Christianity or Islam with elements of indigenous faiths. The Christian denominations include the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and a rapidly growing number of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians. The majority of Nigerian Christians is Protestant, but Roman Catholicism is the largest single denomination (FBS 2006).

The culture of the Nigerian people trends along linguistic lines though frequent overlaps over broad spatial and religious inclinations abound. In dress mode, the characteristic flowing apparels of North Africans apparently tending to their Arabian lineage influence the male inhabitants of north and central Nigeria. This is in contrast with the predominantly loose top referred to as “jumper” and trouser, occasionally replaced with caftan and matching cap worn in the southern parts. However, dress mode in some parts of southwestern Nigeria, with a significant Islamic presence tends towards that of the Moslem north. It is worthy of note that a peculiar dress code comprising of wrapper and long-sleeve top with a bowler hat and walking stick characterizes the ceremonial dressing of male aboriginal groups in the Niger Delta. The use of bowler hat and walking stick is not unconnected to early contact with white settlers who arrived the region in the 15th century. The female folks of the northern region traditionally adorn flowing garbs with veil/scarf covering the face/head respectively, in line with Islamic dress code. This mode applies to married or betrothed women, while the unmarried ones are simply dressed in a loose top referred to as “buba” with a single wrapper around the waist and a matching scarf on the head. This female dress mode permeates the entire northern and western regions of the country. In the eastern and Niger Delta regions, the traditional formal dress of the female folks is an elabourately designed blouse and two-piece wrapper with headgear. At other times some, especially those in the young and middle age brackets wear gowns. Although the influence of early missionaries appear to have petered away in the 16^th century, they left some permanent marks on the dress mode of Itsekiri Chiefs in the Niger Delta who still adorn themselves in the manner of a Roman Catholic Priest, and add coral beads as well as other ornaments (Macmillan 2007; Abiola 1978).

Traditional institutions in Nigeria recognize the importance of traditional rulers who run baseline administration at the village and clan levels, thereby complementing institutional administrative structures of government. Various linguistic groups refer to their traditional

19

rulers by various titles in line with the culture and dialect of the people. Hausa/Fulani of northern Nigeria refer to their traditional heads as ‘Emirs’ while their counterparts of Yoruba speaking western region are ‘Obas’. On the eastern parts, descendants of the Igbo race title their traditional rulers as ‘Eze’. There are however many other ethnic groups with concomitant distinctive titles for traditional rulers of such groups. For instance, in the study area the traditional head is referred to as the ‘Obong’, while the titles of ‘Olu’ and ‘Amayanobo’ are headship identities in other parts of the Niger Delta. There are minor intrinsic variants based on dialectal differences, usually to express unique cultural lineage or ranking in traditional social order. In most of Nigeria, and especially in the Niger Delta the chieftaincy institution is hereditary and patriarchal. Titles are also awarded to prominent men and women in recognition of their contributions to society (Abiola 1978).

2.1.8 Gender relations in a historical perspective

Literature on Nigeria’s national development is relatively silent on the contribution of women.

However, recently attention is being focused on women and their role in development, not only in Nigeria but all over Africa (Ogunsheye et al 1982). At the International level, the year 1975 (the first International women’s year) was a period of ferment in ideas about the status of women. Thereafter, the awareness spread to many parts of the world. In Nigeria, though the awareness about the role of women in development gained momentum in the latter half of the 1980s, the role of Nigerian women in development has not been sufficiently emphasized and documented (Okome 2001). In highlighting the Nigerian experience, the pre-colonial, colonial and the post colonial eras will be briefly looked at.

During the pre-colonial era, the role of Nigerian women in development revolved mainly around their efforts in different sectors towards maintaining the kin groups. Pre-colonial Nigerian economy was basically at subsistence level, and women participated effectively in this economic pattern. Apart from being mothers and wives, taking charge of the domestic sector, women contributed substantially to the production and distribution of goods and services (Okome 2000 and Akande 2003). In the agricultural sector, the women farmed alongside their husbands and children. They also participated in local and long distance trade in different parts of Nigeria and were fully involved in the procurement and sales of various food items and related commodities. Women in pre-colonial Nigeria were fully involved in food processing for example; fish drying and garri processing especially in the coastal areas of the Niger Delta, salt production, weaving and pottery making especially in the East and the West.

In Northern Nigeria, even the women in purdah were involved in food processing and also traded, with the aid of their children (Husaini 1992; VerEecke 1995). Most often these supplied the means of subsistence for the entire household. Women also extensively provided health care and spiritual services as most traditional religions featured immortal females as goddesses;

most goddesses in Nigeria were portrayed as river goddesses, fertility goddesses and earthly goddesses. In the Niger Delta area for instance, women provided music, songs and dances required during religious activities. Women also officiated as priestesses, media, diviners, healers, traditional birth attendants and often times as custodians of sanctuaries for gods and goddesses. This is a reflection of the roles and power Nigerian women wielded during the pre-colonial era.

The legal status of Nigerian women in pre-colonial times needs highlighting. Under the pre-colonial customary laws in most Nigerian societies, women were considered free adults. At the same time certain initiations were imposed on them in order to be subordinated to a final