Nigerian female presidency within the global gender template: exploring the peculiarities, problems and prospects

Abstract

While many global conventions focus principally on increasing the number of women in parliaments and executive cabinets, attention has not been drawn to female presidency in Africa, and indeed, in other parts of the globe. Drawing extensively from secondary sources with the aid of descriptive and narrative tools, this essay explores the major issues and main debates on power tussle, gender and political empowerment, particularly within the peculiar context of the Nigerian political ecology. Influenced largely by the global feminist discourse and agenda in examining the current perspective in Africa, it also highlights the important role women have and can play in the democratisation process of the Nigerian society and brings to light some of the nation's peculiarities and of course, important strides in women emancipation in order to analyse how these can be explored towards achieving female presidency in Nigeria.