An Evaluation of Nigerian Women's Political Engagement in Nigeria

Nigerian women continue to face severe under- representation in elected and appointed positions, while comprising half of the nation's population and exerting considerable influence in the voting process, particularly in organising and promoting the process at the lowest levels of society. Political hurdles, socio-cultural issues such as patriarchy, religious dogma, anti-egalitarian behaviours, and conventional views of women in politics and socioeconomic hurdles such as low income, a lack of resources, electoral processes and political party structures, have all been identified as barriers to women's political engagement as such, the objective of this study is to evaluate Nigerian women's political engagement in Nigeria quantitatively. The study used quantitative research methods where the questionnaire was administered to 150 respondents. The result of the findings shows that low levels of female appointments to the national parliament are significantly related to women's political voting eligibility, according to the research at t = 3.125, df = 148, and p = .002, which implies that voting eligibility of women is a significantly positive predator of appointment of women in politics. It further shows that both men and women in Nigerian politics have been the primary sponsors of politics aimed at increasing women's representation in government. The study concluded that it would take a while for women to get to that point where women will be significantly participating in Nigerian politics because women face so many problems in public places. In the same way, Nigerian women need to make their own culture that goes against the deeply rooted traditions that say what women should or shouldn't do or be, especially in an African setting and recommended that the government should look at the current federal constitution, policy-making, and regulatory framework, to see if any regulations might make it harder for women to participate equally, such as rules that require a lot of signatures to register as a candidate or high deposits of money that can be unfair to women candidates. As a result, laws that give women and men equivalent rights and responsibilities should be passed.