A groundbreaking national study has revealed that Nigerian men no longer want to be seen as mere Automated Teller Machines for their families.
The report, “The New Breadwinner: Masculinity, Caregiving and Economic Prosperity in Nigeria” released yesterday by public strategy group, Gatefield, shows that Nigerian fathers are abandoning the age-old transactional breadwinner model for a more hands-on, emotionally present form of fatherhood.
According to the findings, the data is striking, with fathers mentioned emotional presence 156 times as their core definition of fatherhood, while financial provision was mentioned only 84 times, thus the message of ‘presence overcoming paychecks’.
But the report also carries a warning for activists, NGOs and policymakers on how they speak to Nigerian men.
According to Gatefield, combative and imported rights-based slogans like “dismantling the motherhood penalty” and “unpaid care work” backfire badly. The study found such language makes Nigerian men ‘six times more defensive’ and shuts down conversation.
When the conversation was framed around “household peace and prosperity,” “child well-being” and “shared economic resilience,” men were 70% more receptive and five times more persuasive.
The report laying bare the dark side of the breadwinner pressure, said that when a man’s entire identity is tied to money, economic failure becomes personal failure, leading to shame, depression and withdrawal from the family.
“Anytime I’m not able to do that, I’m uncomfortable; I don’t even want to be around anybody,” one father told researchers.
The study exposing a deep class divide, shows that while federal public servants get 14 days paternity leave, over 80 percent of Nigerian men in the informal sector, including mechanics, drivers, traders – lose their daily bread if they stay home to nurse a baby or support their wives.
Even where fathers want to share care, money stands in the way. Middle-class families, the report says, outsource housework to paid helps. Poor families cannot and are left to struggle.
On Way forward, the Gatefield report therefore called for a total shift in strategy.
It wants government and advocates to ‘sunset combative ideology’ and adopt unifying, pro-family messaging; to reform paternity leave, to cover private sector and informal workers; to enlist Imams, Pastors and traditional rulers as champions of mutual responsibility and financial transparency in homes; and to fund community-based crèche networks for low-income families.
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