WOMEN POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA (1999 – 2023)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60787/AASD-v2i1-27Keywords:
Politics, political participation, democracy, marginalisation, governanceAbstract
Women make up over fifty percent of the population of Nigeria with huge socio-economic contributions, yet politically the women are largely marginalised as they are visibly seen occupying less important political positions. The paper interrogated the participation of women in the political landscape of Nigeria within the democratic dispensation of the Fourth Republic. A qualitative research, it employed the historical descriptive method of data collection and analysis, leaning on the feminist theory as the basis of analysis of the interplay between the struggle for power and the implication on the female folk in the country. Among others, the research found out that women are critical stakeholders in the Nigerian State yet several factors such as economics, the nature of politics, cultural practices and other socio-political factors shut the women out of political prominence. This results in women occupying very few positions, and is not able to clinch some exalted offices in the land. It recommended that the Nigerian government should implement the 30 and 35 per cent international affirmative action and the national gender policy on women; there is a need for the institutionalisation of a functional endowment fund to help the women bankroll the expensive nature of the political processes in Nigeria.
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