-
Gender Sensitivity In Nigerian Federal Governance And The Effects On Affirmative Action Since 1999
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 2]
Page 1 of 2
-
-
-
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
According
to Arowolo and Abe (2008:13-14), “the essence of political participation
in any society, either civilized or primitive is to seek control of
power, acquisition of power and dispensing power to organize society,
harness and distribute resources and to influence decision making in
line with organized or individual interestâ€. All groups including women
seek to influence the dispensation of power in line with their
articulated interests as a fundamental motive of political
participation. Women, in their gradual consciousness of state of mind
also, in recent times, increasingly seek power equation and distribution
and redistribution of resources in their favour. Although, careful
observations have indicated that the participation of women in Nigerian
politics is hugely noticeable at the level of voting and latent support.
As
noted by Okolie (2004:53), views political participation as “freedom of
expression, association, right to free flow of communication; right to
influence decision process and the right to social justice, health
services, better working conditions and opportunity for franchiseâ€.
Political
participation is one of the key ingredients of democracy in its real
sense, hence, taking the conceptualization of democracy by Diamond
(1989: xvi) into cognizance, “democracy provides the equal opportunity
platform for political participation and fairness in such competition,
thus; a system of government that meets three essential conditions:
meaningful and extensive competition among individuals and groups,
especially political parties, for all effective positions of government
power, at regular intervals and excluding the use of force; a highly
inclusive level of political participation in the selection of leaders
and policies, at least through regular and fair election, such that no
major(adult) social group is excluded; and a level of civil and
political liberties, freedom to form and join organizations sufficient
to ensure the integrity of political competition and participationâ€.
Similarly,
Onyeoziri (1989:6) highlighted four domains of democracy which include:
“the domain of individual and group rights and freedoms; the domain of
popular and equal participation in collective decision; the domain of
accountability of government to masses publics and constituent
minorities; and the domain of the application of the principle of equal
citizenship in all spheres of life-social, economic and politicalâ€.
In
view of this, gender equality promotion is presently accepted globally
as a development strategy essential for reducing poverty levels among
men and women, improve health and living standards, and also enhance
efficiency of public investment. The attainment of gender equality is
not only seen as an end in itself and human rights issues, but also a
prerequisite for the development of sustainable development.
The
plight of Nigerian women, like their counterparts in other parts of
developed countries have been characterized by lack of adequate
representation, undue domination of men in the socio-political scheme of
things; lopsided political appointments and the general imbalances
associated with very unjust treatment of the female citizens in its
entirety. Therefore, it common place to observe that, the womanhood is
reduced to mere infidel and a second-class citizen, hence, there is the
commonality of general belief system that the best place for women is
the “kitchenâ€. This trend therefore has brought about tremendous
misrepresentation of women right at the level of the family down to the
circular society. Thus, the purported irrelevance associated with the
status of women in society has merely reduced an average woman to an
inferior commodity. The Nigerian woman is therefore, discriminated upon
from, in most cases, acquiring formal education, mistreated and
perpetually kept as house-help; the average Nigerian woman is seen as an
object for prostitution, force marriage, street hawking, instrument
of
wide-range trafficking, a misfit in the society and these ill
perceptions have no option than to deepen the level of marginalization
of Nigerian women (Erunke, 2011).
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 2]
Page 1 of 2
-
-
ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]Gender Sensitivity in Nigerian Federal Governance and the Effects on Affirmative Action since 1999 is a study set out to unravel how effective gender sensitivity has been in the Nigerian Federal Governance and the impacts of Affirmative Action since 1999. It examines Dimensions of heated Debates on Gender and Affirmative Action, especially as various controversial opinions rages over the introduction of Gender Based Affirmative Action. The study reviewed the major current Federal Affirmative Act ... Continue reading---
