The Politics of Gender Data: A Critical Analysis of Gender Statistics in Nigeria

Gender statistics are political artefacts that shape policy visibility, resource allocation, and the terms of gender equality advocacy, yet the politics of how gender data are produced, governed, and used in Nigeria has received no sustained critical scholarly attention. This study conducts a critical analysis of gender statistics production and governance in Nigeria, examining the National Bureau of Statistics, sectoral ministries, and international data systems. A critical constructivist paradigm underpins a multi-method design combining institutional ethnography at NBS and three ministries (four months fieldwork), 50 interviews with statisticians, gender policy officers, and data users, and critical analysis of 30 major gender statistical publications from 2018 to 2024. Critical data studies, feminist statistics, and institutional ethnography guided analysis. Findings reveal that gender data production in Nigeria is characterised by political vulnerability to ministry preference, methodological conservatism that excludes non-binary gender identities, geographic undercoverage of conflict-affected zones, and weak quality assurance for gender-disaggregated administrative data. International development partners exert significant influence over which gender indicators are prioritised, sometimes displacing domestically relevant questions. The study develops a Political Economy of Gender Data Framework (PEGDF) that analyses the interests, institutions, and ideas shaping gender statistics as a governance arena. This research makes an original contribution to feminist critical data studies in sub-Saharan Africa. Keywords: gender statistics, critical analysis, data politics, Nigeria, feminist data studies