An Overview of the Difficulties of Fostering Women Participation in Leadership Roles in Nigeria: A Study of Our Husbands Has Gone Mad Again By Ola Rotimi

Abstract

In the development and post development era, issues of women participation in political offices and leadership roles have been the debate all over the place. There have been struggles, agitations, reflection calls for equity between the male and female counterparts in both elective and appointive positions in the political space. Women are the extra-creation of God, according to the Biblical account of creation. This makes the woman to be an extra-ordinary being which should be seen as such and should be treated as such. This paper takes a critical look at the issues associated with problems of women participation in politics, leadership roles in different parastatals and even at the home front by looking at the work of Ola Rotimi: Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again. In this play, Lejoka-Brown the main actor sees women as an instrument to be used and dumped. But the target of this paper is to increase the participation and influence of women at all levels of decision- making in public and political life. This paper induces on the society, the idea of the womanist perspective in which the African woman is given the total freedom to explore her world with her male counterpart. It is a wholesome recognition of nature and traditional assignment to womanhood. Women want to see themselves taking their place beside men without feeling threatened. The thrust of this paper is to challenge the dominant ethos of the men's image over that of the women in political, economic or religious leadership. There is no doubt that the women too have some potential and rights to contribute meaningfully to the development of their society. In fact the role of women in terms of services cannot be under estimated. Therefore they should be given maximum support by their male counterparts.