Ethico-religious re-orientation of Nigerian women for the sustenance of political empowerment

Abstract

Most Nigerians are not sufficiently aware of the extent to which the Nigerian woman has been displaced, dislodged, disoriented and marginalized since the colonial days. A thorough examination of any African Society will reveal overwhelming evidence of the contribution which women have made in the past. In spite of the enormous contributions of women to the development of different African communities, the Nigerian woman has constantly been made to play a second fiddle in the scheme of things. So much has been written on the dismal failure of Nigerian women generally in politics, particularly during the first, second and the ill fated third republic. Most oral traditions, surviving religious cult and extinct political institutions all attest to the significant position women occupied in the social, economic and political evolution of the different African Communities. Even the two tenures of eight years of Obasanjo’s civilian regime of 1999-2007 saw very few women at both the executive and legislative arms of government; this was indeed unfair to womanhood and an act of marginalization and exploitation that should be corrected. This paper is therefore designed, to examine the evolutionary trend of development with special emphasis on the educational barrier and self antagonistic attitudes of women, unethical conduct and uncomplimentary remarks as well as religious constraints and improper orientation as factors militating against women’s participation in Nigerian politics, with some remedial strategies/ recommendations that will correct these anomalies.