Democracy, Women’s Political Participation and the Policy Environment in Nigeria

The issue of women’s political representation has gained salience in recent times. To this effect, increasing number of countries has sought to improve female representation and political participation generally. While some countries have adopted quotas as part of the electoral landscape, others have formulated laws to this effect while some have resulted to tokenism showing little or no attention to this all important global agenda. In the particular case of Nigeria, it is observed that the country has persistently showed a lackadaisical attitude as well as ‘let-my-wish-be-done’ approach to women’s issues and their political empowerment which has been largely based on regime-type, personifying the interest and the intention of the leader that utilizes them as add-ons without any democratized policy making process towards their up-liftment. This paper argues that the Nigerian policy environment has not really been democratized to engage more women in political participation. Thus policy making has remained fundamentally male dominated and its environment largely repulsive to engaging more women in the country’s quest for development. Since women’s political participation is determined by governmental policy, the paper canvasses a democratized environment and gender friendly policy that involves more women in the determination of their fate to reducing the effects of male domination and its effects on the nation’s development. Utilizing secondary sources of data, the paper recommends reorientation and aggressive girl-child education and resilient active participation of women in politics for policy turnaround and the development of the country. Keywords: women’s political participation, quotas, policy environment, democracy and development