GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIAN POLITICS

Abstract

This study investigates the factors that limit women’s participation in Nigeria’s politics using as a case study, the period between 2007 to 2016, with emphasis on Ondo States. Among these factors are socioeconomic development, the country’s cultural heritage, historical legacies and institutional designs. The study engages both primary and secondary sources, including field survey, personal interviews and questionnaire. A total of 200 women were selected from Lagos and Ogun States through simple random sampling for the administration of the questionnaires. The study reveals that the patriarchal system and male domination of the society, which relegates women to subordinate role, has created women’s inferiority complex and alienated them from the mainstream politics in Nigeria. The Nigerian political culture of thuggery and gangsterism has made the political terrain too dangerous for most women to venture into mainstream politics. Besides, the stigmatization of women politicians by fellow women discourages the political participation of the former while religious beliefs and institutional arrangements that restrict women to family responsibilities in the country coupled with lack of decisive affirmative action to encourage women’s political participation, have created a legacy that limit women’s political participation in Ondo State respectively. Consequently, the study emphasises the need to address those factors that entrench women subordination in Nigeria’s politics. These include, among others, the reformation of all religious, statutory and customary laws and practices that perpetuate women’s subordination in the country and the explicit specifications and modalities of affirmative actions on women’s political participation and clear guidelines for implementations in the Nigeria constitution.

CHAPTER ONE

• Background of the study

The increasing dominance of women’s issues and the resurgence of women’s movements have raised popular consciousness and intense academic discourse on poor participation of women in politics (Peterson & Ruyan, 1999: 48 & Akinboye, 2004:233). Though women’s low political participation is a universal phenomenon (Shaul, 1982; Waylen, 1996:11; Akinboye, op.cit:233; Lewu, 2005:62; Rai, 2005 & Pokam, 2006), the imperative of women participation in democratic governance and human development cannot be over emphasized (Amadiume, 1997:81; Bruce, 2004:113; Babatunde, 2003; Bari, 2005). Sustainable democratic government relies upon the participation of all citizens in determining through elections and political processes, who governs them. It also depends upon the equality of all citizens under the law (Sodaro, 2001:247, Anifowose, 2004:205). Women’s legal status is closely linked with their political participation and has an impact on their ability to contribute to and benefit from economic and social progress. The involvement of women in political activities underscores this correct assertion that

Without the active participation of women and the incorporation of women’s perspective in all levels of decision making, the goals of equality, development and peace cannot be achieved (AkiyodeAfolabi & Arogundade, 2003). The possibility for all citizens – both males and females to participate in the management of public affairs otherwise known as mass or popular participation is thus at the very heart of democracy (Sodaro, 2001:247). Putting it more succinctly, the Inter-Parliamentary Union incorporated in the Universal declaration for Democracy that: The achievement of democracy presupposes a genuine partnership between men and women in the conduct of the affairs of society in which they work in equality and complementarily drawing mutual enrichment from their differences (Inter-parliamentary Union, 1999). Although equal political opportunity for women is a goal shared by both men and women and despite increased support of women’s equality, for thousands of years, women records poor participation in politics and decision making positions (Waylen, op.cit:10; Anifowose, 2004:204; Pokam, 2006; Henderson, 2006). This is despite the fact that women constitute roughly half of the current world population (PascaudBecane, 1999; Babatunde, 2003; Anifowose, op.cit:204; Bari, 2005). In Nigeria, like in other parts of the world, women are at least half the country’s population. According to the report of the 2006 Census, women constitute 48.78% of the national population, yet this numerical strength of women does not automatically translate to increase in women’s participation in political activities in the country (Kukah, 2003:162; Abdu, 2003; Nigeria CEDAW NGO Coalition Shadow Report, 2008). While the global average representation of women in national politics is 10%, in Nigeria, the figure has hardly ever been more than 3% (Ajayi, 2007:138; Inter-parliamentary Union, 2007). From the country’s independence to 48 years after, there have been various degrees of women’s participation in politics and governance and varying sets of limiting factors to women’s political participation (Johnson, 2003; Agomo, 2004; Adu, 2008). This global low women’s participation in politics has prompted the emergence of campaigns to increase women’s political presence in countries around the world. The first major international action in favour of women universally was taken by United Nations in 1946 when it set up a commission on the status of women (Peterson & Runyan, 1999:11; Akiyode-Afolabi et al, 2003). In 1975 during the International Women’s Year, the UN General Assembly launched the UN Decade for Women (1976 – 1985) with a view to creating greater global awareness on the status of women and the girl child (Akinboye, 2004:13). This concern climaxed with the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 held in Beijing, China with the theme “Equality, Development and Peace”, the aim of which was to review and appraise the achievements of the UN Decade for Women (Omotola, 2007:33). One of the major activities of the year was the World Conference on Women that took place in Mexico. In 1976, the UN Assembly again established the Voluntary Fund for the UN Decade for Women to implement the objectives of the Decade (Oyekanmi, 2004:44). It also adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which became effective in 1981 (Rai, 2005:3). In 1985 however, the General Assembly gave the Organization an expanded mandate to join the UN group of agencies as the United Nations Development Fund for Women 4 (UNIFEM) with the mission to promote the economic and political empowerment of women in developing countries. In addition, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) work towards strengthening women’s political leadership and their participation in political decision-making bodies (Olojede, 2004:120). These events marked a watershed in human resource development as it brought women, the other half of the world’s population, into development.

• STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The challenge of women’s participation in the political process in Nigeria gained significant attention, following the country’s return to democracy in 1999. With the transfer of power from the military regime to a civilian democratic administration, one would have thought that women would also be represented equally based on the Beijing Declaration. On the contrary, with the percentage increase of 2%, 4% and 6% in women political participation and 6.3%, 8.8% and 7.3% women representation in the national parliament in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 39%in 2011 elections respectively, it is obvious that the perception that democracy would automatically boost women’s political involvement has not been validated after sixteenyears of Nigeria’s return to civilian rule (Okocha, 2007; Akioyede-Afolabi, 2003; The Nigeria CEDAW NGO Coalition Shadow Report, 2008:3 & Adu, 2008:27). Against the backdrop of this study, this research work will examine the extent to which those factors have affected the participation of women in Nigeria particularly Ondo states from 2009 to 2016. It will also present comparative analysis of women political representation in the legislative and executive organs of the two states with a view to determining any correlation between the two states.

• OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the extent of gender equality and women participation in Nigerian politics. However, the study seek to achieve the following objectives

1. The benefit of gender equality and female participation in national development
2. The importance of integrating women into the polity

• The extent to which women participation will enhanced national development

1. Ways of eradicating gender inequality

• RESEARCH QUESTION

For the successful completion of these studies, the following research question is put forward

1. What is the benefit of gender equality and female participation in national development?
2. What is the importance of integrating women into the polity?

• To extent does women participation enhanced national development?

1. What are the ways of eradicating gender inequality?
   • SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is conceived that at the completion of the studies, the findings will be beneficial to the ministry of women affairs who are responsible for women education and empowerment, the study will also be of great benefit to investigate the electoral process general elections and it will concentrate on gender and party politics in other to enhanced women participation in modern politics in the state.

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDIES

The scope of this studies covers gender equality and women participation in Nigerian politics in Ondo state. However, the study has some constrain and limitations which are:

AVAILABILITY OF RESEARCH MATERIAL: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study

1. b) TIME: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher have to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.
2. c) Finance: finance is a major constrain to the scope of these research work, this is because the researcher has to combine academic work and the research work which limit the amount of fund allocated to the studies

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Gender: Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behavior, activities, and attributes that a particular society considers appropriate for men and women.

Gender Inequality: Gender inequality refers to disparity between individuals due to gender. Gender is constructed socially through social interaction as well as biologically through chromosomes, brain structures and hormonal differences (Wikipedia).

Woman: Women is defined as an adult female person.

Women Right: These are inalienable, integral and indivisible parts of universal human rights.

Women Violation: These are gender-based violence, which may likely result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women including threats, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in private or public life.

Women Empowerment: This refers to the provision and availability of opportunity and services which enables women.

1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDIES

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows

Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), statement of problem, objectives of the study, research question, significance or the study, research methodology, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlight the theoretical framework on which the study its based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.  Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.

1.9 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This study employed the use of survey research design. The choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals.

The data collected was not an end in itself but it served as a means to an end. The end being the use of the required data to understand the various situations  it is with a view to making valuable recommendations and contributions. To this end, the data collected has to be analysis for any meaningful interpretation to come out with some results. It is for this reason that the following  methods were adopted in the research project for the analysis of the data collected. For a comprehensive analysis of data collected, emphasis were laid on the use of absolute numbers frequencies of responses and percentages.  Answers to the research questions were provided through the comparison of the percentage of workers response to each statement in the questionnaire related to  any specified question being considered and hypotheses formulated were adequately tested.

Frequency in this study refers to the arrangement of responses in order of magnitude or occurrence while percentage refers to the arrangements of the responses in order of their proportion.

The simple percentage method is believed to be straight forward easy to interpret and understand method. the researcher therefore choose the simple percentage as the method to use. The formula for percentage is shown as.

% = f/N x 100/1

where f = frequency of respondents response

N = Total Number of response of the sample

100 = Consistency in the percentage of respondents for each item contained in questions.

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