AN EVALUATIVE STUDY OF WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

For Eme Edith and millions of other Nigerian women, taking part in elective politics is not easy. Women often do not receive the support and mentoring they need to compete with their male counterparts. In turn, many voters do not fully appreciate the benefits of having a mix of men and women in government. As a result, there is currently a low representation of women at all levels of government in Nigeria. In the country’s general election in 2011, female candidates fared poorly, with only 32 women elected to the national parliament out of 469 members, which is barely 8% representation. To address this, the paper suggests providing budding female politicians with training and support, complemented by community enlightenment campaigns. With this assistance, Nigerian women, will now be better equipped to participate in forthcoming national and local elections in Nigeria come 2015. Keywords: Women in Politics, Political Participation, Affirmative Action, National Agenda Policy and Political Strategies. Introduction Redefining the role of Nigerian women in political life was the focus of a recent conference held for female political leaders at the national and local levels from the leading political parties and women legislators in the National Assembly. The two-day conference, focused on enabling women to earn positions of leadership within and outside political parties, to be more strategic and effective within those roles, and to raise the profile of Nigerian women as an important voting bloc. The Senate President, Senator David Mark, recently in Abuja said that women were underrepresented in all political structures in Nigeria. Mark, who was represented by Senator Helen Esuene, said this at the Nigeria Women Strategy Conference, with the theme: “Building Bridges of Opportunity; 2015 and beyond.” He said that though women had participated actively in politics in the country, they had nothing to show for their participation except to mobilise for the electoral success of other people. The Senate president stressed that marginalisation of women could be addressed through the collaborative efforts of men and women. According to him, “We know that gender disparity in political participation is a global phenomenon and not peculiar to Nigeria alone” (Mark, 2014:2), He said that the level of women’s participation in politics in Sub-Sahara Africa was 20.2 per cent, Asia, 17.9 per cent, Pacific 14.9 per cent and Arab 10.7 in Europe, it is 20.9 (Nordic countries excluded) and Americas, 22.7. Mark (2014) adds that Nigeria as a country falls far below the above regional