Ugonwa Uzor-Umeaku
When Britain’s Supreme Court ruled on April 16, 2025 that the Equality Act’s use of “woman” refers strictly to biological sex, it made headlines globally. In the UK, it meant trans women could lawfully be excluded from women-only spaces like hospital wards and shelters. But here in Nigeria, that ruling has triggered a fresh debate around something we’ve long struggled to pin down: who our laws actually protect, and how the absence of clear definitions can leave millions vulnerable.
Nigeria’s Legislative Limbo
For nearly a decade, Nigeria’s Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill, which would guarantee women equal access to education, employment, inheritance, healthcare and more, has lurched from committee after committee without ever becoming law. Introduced in 2016 and “re-engineered” in 2019 to address religious and cultural objections, it still sits stalled. Many senators insist the 1999 Constitution already protects women, but advocates say its vagueness has real human costs.
Real Life Snapshots
Child Marriage: Nationwide Prevalence
According to UNICEF’s 2023 Nigeria Child Marriage Report, 44 percent of girls marry before their 18th birthday, over 24 million child brides. Nigeria ranks third globally in child marriage prevalence (UNICEF, 2023).
Personal Story
In Nigeria’s northwest, Aisha Ahmadu was forced to wed at 17, ending her dreams of becoming a doctor. Poverty and tradition weighed more heavily than her ambitions (interview, Sokoto, 2024).
Mass Wedding Outrage
In May 2024, plans by a Niger State lawmaker to hold a mass wedding for 100 orphaned girls sparked national outrage. A rights group petitioned to stop the ceremony, gathering over 7,000 signatures. Officials later deferred the event pending age-verification checks (Premium Times, May 2024).
Widow Disinheritance
In Plateau State, Talatu Yanzem, a young widow pregnant with her sixth child, was evicted from her home and had her farmland seized by in-laws after her husband’s death. This reflects findings from the National Bureau of Statistics Widowhood Survey 2021, which reports that 42 percent of Nigerian widows face disinheritance under customary norms despite constitutional guarantees of equal asset rights (NBS, 2021).
Land Rights for Women Farmers
Women perform 70 to 80 percent of all agricultural labor in Nigeria, yet only 10 percent of registered landowners are female (FAO Nigeria Land Tenure Study, 2019).
In the South-East, just 10.6 percent of women own land versus 38.1 percent of men. In the South-South, 10.9 percent versus 5.9 percent (World Bank Land Ownership Database, 2022).
Without title deeds, women farmers lack collateral for loans and face eviction when disputes arise. This is a barrier highlighted in a 2022 Oxfam Nigeria report on rural livelihoods (Oxfam, 2022).
Gender-Based Violence
Rising Reports of Rape
The National Crime Victimization Survey 2022 shows reported rape incidents climbed from 29 percent in 2020 to 65 percent in 2022 of all sexual-violence complaints. The survey also found 48 percent of women believe wife-beating is sometimes justified (NCVS, 2022).
Trafficking Victims
In 2022, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) Annual Report indicated that 77.3 percent of identified trafficking victims in Nigeria were female (NAPTIP, 2022).
Legal Framework
The Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act 2015, Nigeria’s most comprehensive gender-based violence law, has been domesticated in 35 of 36 states as of December 2024. Yet enforcement remains uneven. Kano is the lone holdout, corresponding with nearly 200 reported SGBV cases there in the first half of 2024 (Premium Times, Jan 2025).
Political Representation
Women hold only 7.3 percent of Senate seats and 3.6 percent of House seats, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s March 2025 report. Fourteen states have never elected a female assembly member. In March 2025, Senator Akpoti Uduaghan, one of just four female senators, was suspended after alleging harassment by party leadership. Critics say this move underscores persistent institutional barriers (IPU, 2025; The Guardian Nigeria, Mar 2025).
Gender Identity and Legal Definitions in Nigeria
While the UK ruling directly addressed gender identity, Nigeria’s legal landscape remains largely silent on the matter. Public discussions about transgender rights are still limited, and most existing laws focus strictly on traditional, binary understandings of male and female. The Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2014, while aimed at unions, has also discouraged broader debate on gender identity. Currently, Nigeria’s laws do not explicitly recognize transgender individuals. Legal frameworks relating to gender remain centered on biological sex as traditionally understood (Human Rights Watch, 2023).
The UK’s decision highlights how definitions within legal texts can have significant implications. They either offer clear protections or leave gaps. In Nigeria, the lack of detailed legal definitions continues to create uncertainty around the rights and protections available to different groups within the population.
Cultural and Religious Underpinnings
Deeply entrenched customary laws, from purdah practices in the North to patriarchal inheritance norms in the South, often override statutory protections. Widows like Talatu, child brides like Aisha, and women farmers without land titles all face barriers rooted in tradition. While the Constitution and international treaties demand equality, it is in village halls and mosques where the real battles over gender definitions are fought.
Voices from the Ground
“When the law doesn’t define who we are, we become invisible,” says Hauwa Shekarau, a Lagos-based human-rights lawyer. “In the UK, they’ve at least drawn a line on the map, no matter how you feel about its location. Here, our map is blank.”
Civil-society groups such as WIMBIZ and WRAPA argue that clear legal language is vital for economic growth and social stability. Yet public messaging still warns of “foreign ideologies,” hampering progress (WIMBIZ press release, Feb 2025).
A Way Forward
Define and Protect
Draft legislation that explicitly includes cis women, widows, girls, trans and non-binary Nigerians, closing loopholes that leave people invisible.
Enforce with Accountability
Empower institutions such as courts, police, and human-rights commissions to uphold laws on the ground. Track prosecutions, land-title grants, and VAPP convictions.
Engage Communities
Partner with traditional, religious and youth leaders to challenge harmful customs. Highlight stories like Talatu’s and Aisha’s to build empathy and mobilize change.
Intersectional Advocacy
Link gender equality to poverty reduction, food security, and youth development. Invest in women farmers, expand microcredit, and ensure girls’ education.
Media and Public Dialogue
Use radio, social media and town-hall forums to demystify gender and legal definitions. Make the law a tool of empowerment rather than exclusion.
The UK’s biological-sex ruling may seem a distant legal technicality. Yet it shines a spotlight on the power of definitions to shape lives. In Nigeria, where gaps in our laws cost real people their homes, health, and futures, the deeper question is: When will our laws start seeing everyone they are meant to protect?
Until we draw those lines clearly, too many Nigerians will remain invisible.
