Dialogue as Advocacy: Reading Zelophehad's Daughters' Petition as a Hermeneutic for Women's Political Leadership Inclusion in Nigeria

The underrepresentation of women in leadership roles within Nigeria's political spheres calls for an urgent review of the feminist approach to advocacy in Nigeria. Previous research on feminist advocacy usually ignored the story of the Zelophehad daughters in Numbers 27:1-11 and Numbers 36:1-13, while advancing women's liberation, as it aligns with a patriarchal structure and appears insufficient for the contemporary feminist pursuit of women's inclusion in political leadership. This study does not focus on “male legal entitlement to inheritance” or on “Israelite women's right to inherit when there is no substantive male inheritor”, as many studies have addressed these areas; rather, it addresses as an area of study how the women carried out a dialogue as an advocacy model in which the women achieved their right to inheritance where there is no substantive male inheritor. This contrasts with the strategies employed by feminist advocacy groups in campaigning for women’s inclusion in political leadership in Nigeria. Methodologically, it draws on African Cultural Hermeneutics, as articulated by Musimbi Kanyoro, to interpret and analyse the Zelophehad daughters' petitions within an African context. The study adopts Nihinlola's hermeneutics of life as its theoretical framework for assessing women's political experiences in Nigeria. The scope of the study covers the cultural and historical contexts of Zelophehad's daughters' narratives and in relation to the women's leadership inclusion in Nigeria.  Significantly, the study reviews the feminist advocacy models in Nigeria. It recommends dialogue as an advocacy model for women’s political leadership inclusion vis-à-vis the dominant patriarchal politics in Nigeria.