Nigeria: Everyday, Girls Are Pushed Back

Just when we think there is a glimmer of hope for the Nigerian girl child, series of untold narratives are uncovered.

In 2015, 13 year old Oluwatomi published her first book, becoming the first student in her high school (and indeed the entire community) to achieve such a feat. Amidst the celebration of her resilience and hardwork by members of her family and community, Oluwatomi's peers had only one burning question for her: \"Why didn't you wait for a boy to write a book first?\" Unsurprisingly, having been groomed in a society where girls are constantly pressured to be seen but not heard and to abandon their hunger for success to the \"more promising\" boys; Oluwatomi found it extremely difficult to answer this recurring question at school.

17 year old Ene has more frustrations to vent. Being one of the few girls at a local high school who signed up for core STEM subjects, Ene waded through bouts of gender bias before graduating from high school. Recalling her personal experience, she shares stories of traditional gender roles holding sway within the four walls of the science laboratories. The boys assumed leadership of group tasks and experiments, assigning the girls the role of setting up the apparatus and preparing the laboratory for the work ahead. Subsequently, the boys took over from the girls and performed the experiments, with the girls looking on and playing little or no active role. Once again, the girls were called upon to clear up the apparatus and clean up the laboratories after the results had been recorded.

In Nigeria, classroom teachers exhibit little or no gender sensitivity, paving way for gender stereotypes to inhibit the learning process of school children. Many parents and guardians also work hard to ensure that girls embrace gender bias as their daily reality. Worse still, girls are not encouraged to speak up boldly and definitively about issues that affect them. This tripartite cycle is the force that pushes girls back from dawn to dusk, draining what is left of our hope for holistic development of the Nigerian girl child.

Today's girls are tomorrow's pillars of the Nigerian society. Undoubtedly, any attempt at holding girls back from exploring their full potentials doubles as a rather unfortunate effort to truncate endless possibilities.

When will girls break through these barriers and jump gallantly above the hurdles set in their way? That is the question.