First Lady syndrome: the (en)gendering of bureaucratic corruption in Nigeria

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Periodical article

Title:	First Lady syndrome: the (en)gendering of bureaucratic corruption in Nigeria
Author:	Okeke, Phil E.
Year:	1998
Periodical:	CODESRIA Bulletin
Issue:	3-4
Pages:	16-19
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	female elite women
Abstract:	The establishment of the National Women's Commission in Nigeria in 1990, and the subseqeunt creation of the office of the First Lady at the federal, state and local government levels, have paved the way for the increasing public presence of Nigerian women in the country's military regimes. A number of policies and programmes aimed at improving women's well-being, especially in the rural areas, have been initiated through these official outfits. However, the basis for their creation and organization closely align them to the whims of the male ruling class and their usual channels of bureaucratic corruption. Moreover, the representation of women in these regimes does not appear to have charted a new course for their emancipation. Rather, these regimes have only found a way to silence the large female collective and promote the interests of the male ruling class. The office of the First Lady is well integrated into the government machinery. To the extent that the First Ladies' claim to power is tied to their relationship with men in power, their actions can only reinforce the very basis of Nigerian women's subordinate status. Notes, ref.