Appraising LEGAL Enforcement Promotion and Gender Violence Control in Nigeria

The question of indentifying and defining the impact of gender inequalities on human development has remained a critical sociological discourse that has engaged the attention of scholars, development practitioners, policy makers and civil society organization over the years. Even more worrisome is the growing incidence of gender violence against women in Nigeria which have refused to abate in spite of laws enacted to address this menace. While the continued existence of disparities between women and men in access and control over resources, human rights and the overt discrimination against women throughout history are not only seen as a clog in the wheel of national and international development agendas, importantly, the achievement of gender equality is bound up with all other goals of sustainable development such as governance, poverty reduction and inclusiveness in development planning and practice. Using secondary sources of data and radical feminist theory, this paper seeks to interrogate those factors responsible for the lack of capacity to fully enforce legislation enacted against gender violence in order to fully nip in the bud its continued prevalence in our society. The paper further stressed that sustainable development may be hard to achieve when women are not fully engaged and involved in the process of formulating, implementing and evaluating legislation that tend to solve the prevailing problem of gender equality particularly as it relate to their economic well-being and social equity which most time is exploited through gender-based violence. The paper concludes with the proposition that partnerships and equality between women and men are critical building blocks in the establishment of strong families and viable societies in this rapidly changing world. For if development is not engendered, it becomes endangered.