AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND WOMEN POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF SELECTED COMMUNNITIES IN LOCAL COUNCIL AREAS IN EBONYI NORTH ZONE OF EBONYI STATE

Abstract

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND WOMEN POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF SELECTED COMMUNNITIES IN LOCAL COUNCIL AREAS IN EBONYI NORTH ZONE OF EBONYI STAT

Controversies surrounding the position of women and their level of participation in political and social activities is as old as the history of mankind. Without much doubt, women have and will continue to play significant, but complimentary roles in national development both in the ancient and modern societies. Natural potentials endowed on women added to their numerical strength had positioned them to occupy a pride of place in the society. Over 160 million Nigeria’s population, women contribute to many facets of national development ranging from politics, entrepreneurship, human resource development, home management and peace building. Despite these enormous contributions by the female folk to nation-building, women in most parts of the world still suffer neglect, relegation and discrimination of all sorts. Nigeria government in many occasions have put forward policies as measure to ameliorate the problem of women neglect and relegation to the background on critical national issues and to restore the dignity of women and their pride of place in nation building. Affirmative Action Policy was introduced to raise the level of women participation in politics and other national affairs, yet agitation for inclusion of more women had continued to be a matter of concern in the contemporary society. This research covers: Background to the study, statement of the problem, research questions, review of related literature, research methodology, data presentation and analysis, discussion of findings, conclusion and recommendations.