AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF NEWSPAPER IN MOBILIZING WOMEN FOR POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA

ABSTARCT

This study was carried out on the role of newspaper in mobilizing women for political participation in Nigeria. To achieve this, four significant research objectives were formulated. The survey design was adopted and the simple random sampling techniques were employed in this study. The population size comprise of politically ambitious women in Ikeja, Lagos State. In determining the sample size, the researcher conveniently selected 70 respondents while 55 were received and 50 were validated. Self-constructed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected and validated questionnaires were analyzed using frequency tables and percentage. The result of the findings reveals that print media contribute towards mobilizing women for political participation. The findings also revealed that societal culture and norms affects women participation in politics in Nigeria. Furthermore, the study showed that the problems facing women in participating in politics include; cultural and religious factors, gender imbalance, lack of internal democracy, lack of funds, and violent nature of Nigerian politics. In regard to the findings, the study recommends that the mass  media such like the newspaper should  continue to  set  women  agenda  during  and  after political  campaigns.  They  should  continue  to  educate  women  on  the  need  to  be politically conscious in the society. And since  women  are  politically  conscious  to  participate  in  the  political process, they should be encouraged by all stakeholders in the society to continue in this direction. With stakeholders encouraging them, they will break the barriers of religion and traditional  belief  systems that have kept women  bound not to express themselves freely when it comes to politics.

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background of the Study

Nigerian women make up of half the population size of the country, yet the constitutional policy of women getting one-third of seats remains a mirage. With only one-third of seats in politics, there is still that misrepresentation of the marginalized group. Statistics has it that only 6 percent of ministerial and sub ministerial officials in Nigeria are women (Population Reference Bureau, 1998).

According to Gender Audit and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Parline database (2011 and 2015) as cited in Agbalajobi, (2015,p.88); There was no seat for women in 2011 and 2015 for the governorship office and also the house of assembly with 990 seats; women got 36 and 54 seats in 2011 and 2015 respectively. All these reveal that women participate in politics but there is still that under-representation of women in Nigeria even after women are only vying for one-third of seats to represent their group. Could this be as a result of paucity of knowledge or could this be a result of low level of sensitization by the print media?

According to Klein (2005,p.17), political participation refers to ‘citizen’s rights to influence public affairs’. In line with this thought, political participation can be identified as those actions taken by the citizens of a country either to influence or to support government and politics. It derives from the freedom to speak out, assemble and associate; the ability to take part in the conduct of public affairs; and the opportunity to register as a candidate, to campaign, to be elected and to hold office at all levels of government.

In Nigeria, women play a minimal role in politics. Just few women are found in political leadership positions although the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Chapter 4 sections 30 and 40 guaranteed rights to all citizens of Nigeria- both male and female- rights that are basic and fundamental to all without discrimination between both sexes Onabajo,  (2000,p.13).

Women have been actively engaged in political struggle since the 19th century. Women like Queen Amina Nikatau of Zaria, Madam Tinubu of Lagos, Olufunmilayo Ransom Kuti of Abeokuta, Margaret Ekpo and Hajjia Gabon Swabia among many others have fought to give Nigerian women a pride of place in Nigeria’s history Luka (2011). In the areas of politics, these women amongst others contributed immensely to the mobilization and sensitization of women with a view to ensuring that women participated actively in politics. According to the former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Professor Attahiru M. Jega, ‘Women should not be reduced to only voting and supporting male candidates win elective positions’.