PUBLIC POLICY AND GENDER POLITICS IN NIGERIA
INTRODUCTION
Despite the seemingly progressive actions by various regimes to redress women's conditions, the institutional environment dominated by men manifest contradictory gender politics. In Nigeria, as elsewhere, power relations are predicated on gender, which may be exercised in different domains (Pereira 2002:1). This chapter examines public policy and gender politics in governance, the social sector (widowhood practices) and education.

PUBLIC POLICIES ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS
Since the end of Second World War, there has been a widespread global concern for women's rights. Several international instruments have been adopted to attempt to resolve the problem of women's marginalization. The long list of international instruments include the 1948 Declaration on Human Rights, the 1976 Covenant on Human Rights, the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination, and the 1985 Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies.
The Nigerian state has also responded to the international environment through adoption of public policies and programmes to redress the imbalance in gender differences in the social, economic and political spheres. In 2000, the Nigerian government adopted the National Policy on Women. The government considered the policy as its commitment to the development of all sectors of the society and to institutionalize processes which will pilot the Nigerian society towards social equity, justice and a much-improved quality of life (WRAPA, 2000). Specifically, the objectives of the National Policy on Women are to ensure that the principles and provision of equality of rights, obligations and opportunities before the law and non-discrimination against any citizen, as contained in the Nigerian constitution, are effectively enforced, and to mainstream the gender perspective in all policies and programmes