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Chrisland Schools on Victoria Island in Lagos was recently in the news for the wrong reasons. Nigerian newspapers – and some further afield – carried the story of an incident in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, during the World School Games in March 2022. There were allegations of drug use, pornography and sex by under-aged children – four boys and a girl – representing their school in the games. The students allegedly had sex and it was recorded. The recording later went viral.
Four teachers, three male and one female, have been charged in court over the incident. The teachers were charged for allegedly concealing the sex tape. They were the supervisors of the Dubai trip.
The incident raises some important issues around the issue of patriarchy because of the way in which blame was apportioned. Some media reports blamed the mother of the ten-year-old girl. The father was never mentioned. Nor was the conduct of the parents of the four boys involved ever mentioned. The boys were not strongly reprimanded, the girl was.
As a gender scholar who has studied women’s history and masculinities, I see this as another case of patriarchy promoting the differential enjoyment of privileges between males and females. The manner in which the incident was reported by the press and the style of apportioning blame seem to suggest that males can get away with certain actions, but females cannot. Males don’t have to uphold society’s moral codes like females do.
This raises the question of whether women in Nigeria abet patriarchy – and, if they do, why.
Patriarchy in Nigeria
Patriarchy is a socio-cultural system that privileges maleness over femaleness and enthrones masculine domination of women.
This system is evident where authority is vested in men as a category, and especially in senior men or old men, who, as custodians of their cultures, ensure general compliance with social and cultural norms. Patriarchal dominance evolved into a formidable institution with clear political undertones.
Read more: https://theconversation.com/patriarchy-persists-in-nigeria-and-men-arent-the-only-ones-who-keep-it-that-way-183462