ABSTRACT
Political participation is a voluntary
act which encompasses wide range of political activities, including
voting at election, contesting for political and party offices,
attending political rallies, joining political parties and many more.
Although, these political activities are considered to be "free zone" to
all qualified citizens, especially in liberal democracies irrespective
of disparities in wealth, education and gender, experiences in African
countries generally and Nigeria in particular show that certain cultural
values have systematically over the years impeded female gender from
participating in politics, at least to a certain degree which to some
extent tend to re-define the tenets of participatory democracy. With
convincing data, the paper unveils the extent these cultural values have
impeded the female folks from participating in politics in Nigeria and
proposes alternative suggestions.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The question many people ask or will
likely ask is why have the issues of women become so pronounced in both
political and academic cycles today? The immediate response is that,
there has been an awakened consciousness that women worldwide suffer all
kinds and forms of discrimination. This, it has been argued, can only
be fought if a worldwide and collective approach to the problem is
evolved (Madunagu, 2003; Aliegba, 2005). The women question has also
come up seriously as attempts by proponents of women’s rights have
fought and continue to fight to make the women issue a major agenda for
developmental.
Thus, programmes related to women have
gained prominence, and have brought about the (2009) Cairo Programme of
Action, which came under the auspices of International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD). One of ICPD’s critical goals is to
bring education, and encourage women’s economic contribution, which will
ultimately lead them to political participation (Agishi, 2002). We need
to note that the struggle for the rights of women started long before
the creation of the International Human Rights System. For example, in
1993, the Inter-American Women’s Commission of the Organisation of
American States (OAS) that was formed in 1928 adopted a convention on
the nationality of women, which was the first legislation on women’s
rights (Aliegba, 2005; CENGOS, 2002).
In the United Nations system, women
fought for the recognition of sex discrimination in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the Committee on the Status of
Women(CSW) was created parallel to the Commission on Human Rights
itself, at its first meeting in1946. As a consequence, the United
Nations General Assembly adopted the convention on the elimination of
all forms of discrimination against women, signed in 1979 and came into
force in 1981 (Aliegba, 2005). In addition, the Berlin Conference of
1995 gave worldwide collective support for women issues for world
attention.
Nigeria is a signatory to several
international instruments affirming women’s rights and equality with men
(World Bank, 1994). Prominent among these international instruments are
the Convention on the Political Rights of Women, which was adopted as
far back as 1952 but ratified by Nigeria in 1980. The convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women was adopted in
1979 and ratified by Nigeria in 1985. Furthermore, the Nigerian
Constitution enshrines in it the principle of gender equality. In spite
of the numerous international and national instruments as well as
Constitutional provisions affirming the equality of men and women in all
spheres of life, Party Politics inclusive; very few womenhave
participated in the management of Nigeria, public institutions such as
Political Parties, Legislative Assemblies and executive councils are
depicted as “male clubs”. A peep into what transpired in the past
republics including the most recent election (2011) that brought the
present government into power still witnessed the marginalisation of
women in politics.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The incessant
discrimination against women in politics is reaching a breaking point in
Nigeria as a whole. There is even the problem of women discrimination
among the female folks, not to talk about discrimination between men and
women. Women are regarded as second class citizens as a result of the
presumption that the kitchen is the place where women belong, bringing
into question their role in politics.
- What is the level of women involvement in Ondo State politics?
- What are the challenges facing Ondo State politics?
- How can women involvement in Ondo State politics be improved?
- How can improved women involvement in politics accelerate overall national development?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
(1) To know the level of women involvement in politics
(2) To know the challenges facing Ondo State politics.
(3) To know how women involvement in Ondo State politics can be improved.
(4) To know how improved women involvement in politics accelerate overall national income.
1.4 Basic Assumptions
The basic assumptions that will guide this research work is as follows
1 That there is levelling ground for women to participate in politics in ondo state
2 That women are willing to participate in politics in ondo state
3 That there is more charismatic and able body educated women who are ready to lead the people
4 That there is no discrimination of women in ondo politics
1.5Definition of Basic Terms
Woman: An adult female person
Politics: The art of
science of government or governing especially the governing of a
political entity such as a nation, and the administration and control of
its internal and external affairs.
Involvement: To occupy or engage the interest of something.
The major Trust of the Liberal Framework
- Lens of gender and gender equality
- Emphasis on traditional understanding of human nature and
personhood: rationality, individual autonomy, self-fulfillment
(characteristics possessed by all).
- Sex and gender neutral; all human beings possess a common nature.
- A just society is a society that allows individuals to exercise their freedom and fulfill themselves.
- Emphasis on equality of opportunity; all persons deserve an equal
change to develop their rational and moral capacities so that they can
achieve personhood.
- Because society has the false beliefs that women are by nature less
intellectually and physically capable than men it excludes women from
many opportunities and civil rights as men are given.
1.6 Methodology
Both theprimary and secondary sources of gathering data would be adopted in carrying out this research.
The primarysources: these are the data
that would be generated by me for the purpose of this research. The
primary sources of data collection which will be most suitable for a
quantitative research of this kind will involve the administration of
questionnaire on people on their views on political participation. The
questionnaires will be well structured in a close-ended form which will
provide the respondents with several options to choose one without being
bias.
In administering the questionnaires a
purposive sample method of probability will be used. This means random
selection of people from one entire population. For this research a
sample size of 200 people would be selected from the estimated
population of 1000 people. The selection will be made based on efficient
representation of the entire population.
Methodology
Sources
This can be either primary or secondary sources or both.
Population
The study population will centre on people from Ondo State.
Sampling
Sampling procedures will be employed to determine the number and specific respondent of the study.
Techniques of data collection
A self administered questionnaire and
interview guides will be used to collect data from respondents. In this
method, the respondents will be asked to complete the questionnaires
themselves. This method will be chosen because it will help respondents
to complete the questionnaires and interview guides at their
convenience.
Method of Data Analysis
The data will be arranged and collated
in order to sort for the ones that have been answered partially or not
answered. After editing and coding the data will be entered into the
computer using the statistical package for the social sciences software.
The data will be analysed using basically descriptive statistics
involving mainly frequency distributions and cross tabulations.
1.7 Scope of the Study
Basically the scope of this research will only be woman participation in politic in ondo state.2007-2011
1.8 Limitation to the Study
The limitations to the study are as follows:
In ability to gather all questionnaire from respondent as a result delay on the part of respondent in answering questions
- Bureaucracy problem as a result of in ability of respondent to fix appointment for interview.
- Another problem that i may encounter in the course of this research
is the inability to cover all areas of interest as a result of time
constraint
But I will try my possible
best to cover all lapses and make sure this research carried out within
the limited time frame given to me.
Organization of Chapters
This study will be
organized into for five chapters. Chapter one introduces the background
of the study and gives a description of the background to the study, it
enumerates the research problems, issues, time, events, aims and
objectives of the study, the scope and limitations of the study. It
further gives a general overview of the subject matter.
Chapter Two dwells on a
review of the literature and the theoretical framework of the study, it
focuses extensively and essentially on previous and existing work on
women participation in politics.
Chapter three and four
of the study will focus on the research method itself, here data from
the primary and the secondary would be analysed. Here the various
independent variable particularly women and politics in relation to the
research questions formulated. This shall also be evaluated and
interpreted accordingly. This shall be followed by detailed discussions.
Chapter five includes
the summary, suggestions, recommendation and conclusion of the study,
the area uncovered in this research be shall be identified, suggestions
and recommendation shall be given for further studies.
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