AN ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO-CULTURAL PRACTICES HINDERING WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA

AN ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO-CULTURAL PRACTICES HINDERING WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA

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Background to the Study

Communication's role in fostering a feeling of belonging and social responsibility among members of a society is strongly entrenched in its ability to provide individuals with knowledge and information that may lead to self-discovery, confidence, and the willingness to act on situations that require action. Kothari summarizes it in S.K. Nair and S.A. White (1993:23):

The function of communication...must be viewed not as a specialized issue, but as an integral aspect of the battle for human emancipation, freedom, and justice, bolstering the efforts of communities and cultures of national entities considered to be marginalized people.

Communication, in whatever shape or channel it takes (mass media, social media, or folk media), must be uplifting or freeing. It must be capable of reawakening people to the awareness of societal pressures or stereotypes that threaten their change and empowerment as a community, race, gender, class, or individuals.

Concerns about the importance of communication in social transformation began with UNESCO in the 1950s, and were expanded on decades later by McAnany (1980), who investigated the significance of communication to the rural third world. Similarly, Rogers (1983) focused on the impoverished majority, their communication behavior, and the influence of education and knowledge on their conditions in "Diffusion of Innovations." Rogers identifies target audience, information environment, information flow, media campaigns, and exposure as communication organizational structures that, when correctly managed, may have a favorable influence on the majority of people.

Communication values such as organizational, transformative, and participative must be used to educate the underprivileged. Conscientization was initially suggested in communication by Paulo Freire (1970). According to Freire, communication should be practiced as emancipatory conversation, a type of non-exploitative egalitarian discussion that takes place in an atmosphere of genuine compassion and humility.

When re-conceptualizing development communication, Nair and White (1987) propose a holistic approach that includes the concept of an interface between communication and involvement. Participatory communication, according to Nair and White, is the solution to social injustice and uneven rights. Participatory communication promotes citizen empowerment and information acquisition, which may lead to changes in people's lifestyles, relationships, and perspectives of their socio-cultural and socio-political environments.

The main tendency in modern global politics is towards democracy, a political system in which power is wielded by the people as a whole, infirmity be damned. This idea encourages the people to exercise power through their elected representatives, whose mandates must be renewed on a regular basis in conformity with state laws and democratic practice (Afolabi, 2010). Politics is the art or science of governing, particularly the governance of a political body, such as a nation, and the administration and management of its internal and exterior affairs. Politics is also defined as "any continuous pattern of human connections including considerable control, influence, power, or authority" (Idahosa and Idisi, 2005). Politics is all about power sharing, distribution, and exercise, and this power is vied for or sought after. The individual who got authority has the chance to actively engage in the allocation of society's limited resources. According to Nwabuzor and Mueller (1985), politics encompasses all social intersections and dispositions aimed at obtaining binding judgments regarding who allocates resources, when and how they are gained in a particular social system or society.

Politics, in most areas of the world, refers to "polity," which is an institutionalized system through which a society distributes power, sets the agenda, and makes decisions (Macionis and Geber, 2005). Politics is all about power, which causes significant conflict both globally and inside families. The primary responsibility of the government, which administers the political affairs of society, is the exercise of power. Power is the power of one person to exert influence or control over the activities of another person, or the ability to make things happen or done, or to force individuals to do what you want despite their hate of carrying out commands. In other terms, political engagement may be defined as any action that tries to change or influence the structure of a government, the nomination of leaders, and the policies they implement. These actions may have the objective of either sustaining or modifying existing institutions and policies. They include "active and passive actions, collective or individual, legal or illegal, support or pressure actions, by which one or more persons attempt to influence the type of government that may lead a society, the manner in which the state of that particular country is led, or specific government decisions affecting a community or their individual members" (Labani, Kaehler and De Dios Ruiz, 2008-2009: 9).

In other words, before they may use their political authority, persons or people who fit the requirements for selection must compete or earn it through an electoral process or appointment. Men and women who are qualified can participate in the election process; both sexes can vote and be voted for during the election; regrettably, men are preferred over women. This is simply because males control the political arena; they create the rules of the political game and define or detect the criteria for evaluation; and as a result of this male domination, women either reject male political fashion or abandon politics entirely (Shvedova, 2005 and Parawansa, n.d). According to surveys, women with disabilities are determined and understand the need of gaining access to leadership roles in order to make a bigger influence. Unfortunately, women at all socio-political levels throughout the world are underrepresented in parliament and are far distant from decision-making levels. According to research, women with disabilities are not only economically but also politically disenfranchised. They confront the issue of not only being discriminated against because they are women, but also because they are handicapped, which severely hinders their ability to exercise their political rights (Schur, 2003; Handicap International, 2003). Women who aspire to enter politics discover that the political, cultural, public, and social environments are often unfavorable to them. Most African countries, including Nigeria, are unable to hold credible elections as a result of "a long period of military rule and weak democratic processes that have resulted in the emergence of a political system characterized by discrimination, electoral violence, monetized politics, low political accountability, abuse and personalization of power, general apathy towards elections, and low participation of critical segments of the society es (Afolabi, 2010:1). Furthermore, historical analyses of Nigeria's constitutions, electoral laws, and processes are not gender sensitive, and even a critical look at the current composition of political decision makers/policy makers in any region reveals evidence that women continue to face numerous barriers to participating in the political arena (Shvedova, 2005).

1.2 Statement of the problem

To bolster the issue of women's under-representation in politics, Afolabi (2010) states that according to available statistics/records, women's overall political representation and participation in government is less than 7%, and the records of Nigeria's electoral system show that the 2003 and 2007 elections saw an unprecedented increase in the number of women candidates and increased local mobilization of the majority of women, but very few made it. For example, 318 (94%) of 339 House of Representatives candidates were males, while 21 (6%) were women; 105 (96.3%) of 109 Senate candidates were men, while 4 (3.7%) were women, and none (100%) were governors or presidents (100 percent ). In the 2007-2011 elections, 936 (94.5 percent) of the 990 Houses of Assembly were men, while 54 (5.5 percent) were women; 333 (93 percent) of the 358 Houses of Representatives were men, while 25 (7 percent) were women; 100 (91.7 percent) of the 109 Senate were men, while 9 (8.3 percent) were women; and none for governor or president (United Nations Committee on Elimination of all Forms of Violence against Women, 2008).

Women's low political participation may be due to socio-cultural, political, socio-economic, ideological, and psychological factors such as: gender and cultural patterns, ideology, pre-determined social roles assigned to women, male dominance and control, limited access to education and illiteracy, poverty and unemployment, lack of confidence in other women, lack of access to information, and competing demands on the time of female candidates, among others (Afolabi, 2010; Shvedva, 2005; Prarawansa and Inter-Parliamentary Union, 1999). Women's marginalization and poor involvement pervaded all political parties. For example, the cultural tradition that promotes patriarchy in most African nations maintains that males should be considered first in all human endeavors because women are seen as second-class people and hence should be under men's authority. Women are pushed to the margins and assigned submissive roles in the household and society as a whole. Men hold leadership roles in the home and make important choices in the family, even to the cost of women; as a result of this subjection, many girls and women are not educated so as not to challenge men's authority; women's education, as men generally remark, ends in the kitchen. Also, patriarchy is a key predictor of male control over females, and as a result, men will stay in the family to maintain the family name and lineage growing, while women will marry out. Thus, males are prepared for leadership roles, while women are relegated to domestic tasks; roles attributed to them by society that influence them later in life, causing them to lose self-confidence/worth and have low self-esteem in their adult life, including politics. In politics, however, party manifestos indicate the inclusion of gender clauses that exist only in principle and not in practice. For example, "the articles of the PDP and APGA titled 'the character of the party' and 'the policy of women' state that the parties shall be non tribal, non religious, and non sexist democratic organizations; it shall promote the emancipation of women by encouraging their representation at all levels devoid of gender discrimination; and it shall emphasize more on the need to work in accordance with the Beijing declarations and promote gender parity and moratorium" (Afolabi, 2010:3) (Moghadam, 1993). However, none of the parties follow the norms that govern the parties in election affairs pertaining to women's involvement.

Similarly, the Beijing Platform for Action calls on governments, national bodies, the private sector, and political parties to put in place measures to ensure women's equal access to and full participation in power structures and decision-making, to establish the goal of gender balance in all government bodies and committees, and to protect and promote equal rights of men and women to engage in political activities. However, due of the traditional assumption that women are the weaker sex, the majority of these bodies overlook women when it comes to political concerns or leadership roles. Similarly, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) emphasizes the importance of women's involvement in state party political machinery and the elimination of discrimination in women's political participation through legal and temporary special measures, as well as affirmative action (CEDAW, 2002).

As a result, women in the Ekwusigo local government region are disproportionately disadvantaged and underrepresented in political activities. Some of the reasons are that, culturally, women regard politics as masculine activity; and they are also constrained by domestic tasks such as child raising, caring for family members, illiteracy or low education, and violent political actions. As a result, women prefer to vote for males rather than be voted for. Despite all of Beijing's announcements and party manifestos, the problem of women's underrepresentation and engagement in political activities in this field of study persists. Only through the adoption of government and political party policy could this situation be alleviated. Implementation of policies and plans is one of the most challenging tasks confronting Nigeria and its population, as well as the most significant impediment to the pursuit of sustained national development and peaceful coexistence. It is therefore vital to explore measures for increasing or improving women's engagement in politics in the study region and in Nigeria in general in order to achieve long-term national development.

1.3 Objective of the study

The main objective of the study is to critically Study the Socio-Cultural Practices Hindering Women’s Political Participation in Nigeria. Specifically, the Study seeks to:

1. Find out the socio-cultural factors that hinder women’s participation in politics.
2. Identify strategies for enhancing or improving women’s participation in politics

1.4 Significance And Justifications Of The Study   

It has been observed that since before the creation of what came to be known as Nigeria today and with the attainment of independence; women were completely abandoned and lagged behind in the affairs of governance in all levels. Most gender studies tend to concentrate on men and their contributions thereby relegating women to the background. Women roles are subordinated which that of men is recognized. This research is significant because it will bring to light information obscured from public knowledge about women and politics in Kaduna State. It will also show how women played their roles effectively to support the state and the nation at large.

1.5 Research Questions

1.What are the socio-cultural factors that hinder women’s participation in politics?

2. What are the strategies for enhancing women’s participation in politics?

1.6 Scope And Limitations Of The Study  

This is a research into the socio-cultural hindrance of women participation in Kaduna State politics between the period 1999– May, 2015. One of the reasons for dating this work 1999 – May, 2015, it coincided with the Fourth Republic which marked a turning point in women political participation. The period witnessed an increase in women’s participation in active politics. The limitations could be associated with time, resources (finance), the research was carried out at the same time attending my lectures. Also there are few materials (literatures) that were written on the topic under consideration. In addition, difficulties in conducting interviews as some informants were not ready or not willing to grant an interview.

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