CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
This systems of
communication that is radio pays a major role in mobilization of women for
politics in Nigeria. For majority of women groups in Nigeria, improving
the lots of Nigeria women is a prime target for many of them also, the
experience of the management of women is all facts of life is feasible to
cultural practice of gender relations within the Nigeria Society. Let for
many of the enlighten women in Nigeria, these practice have become
acceptability of life and are not to be questioned.
The radio, because it
is cheap, have become affordable easy access and have become a base means
of mobilizing Nigeria women for politics. One thing that is glaring today
in some of the Radio Stations in Nigeria is the presence of Nigeria women
as news-makers. The women groups in Nigeria this have the greatest task
of carrying out enlightenment campaigns over the Radio to educated Nigeria
Women on their right and what constitutes violation of such right, some of these
women groups that carries out campaign for women empowerment and participation
of women in politics are viz.
WOMEN IN NIGERIA (WIN), NIGERIA
The zonal workshops
on women in Governance and Decision making network and working as a group was
covered by the Imo State Radio and Radio Nigeria in Imo States. The zonal
network groups are following capacity building framing activities designed to
provide and contribute to the broader goal for empowering and advocating
for the full participation of women and potential women leaders in
governance and decision making interactive from the South Eastern States OF
Nigerian and in particular from Imo State.
In Imo State within
the last six months two senatorial zone were selected for internal zone
networking workshops. The zonal networking workshops take place over three
days. The first workshop was held in Orlu, East and Orlu west, while the
other senatorial zone was Owerri Municipal local governments.
The primary aim of
these zonal networking workshops is to encourage participate to collaborate and
associate together in other to achieve common goals within their
communities. Zonal networking also serves as a platform in which women
can demand accountability from their leaders on a venue for information sharing.
At the zonal networking workshops that were held in Imo State, women were
encourage to take active apart in their unions to organize meeting with
tier leaders to discuss the role of women in leadership positions, participants
were also encouraged to organize awareness and skill programs to enable them to
contest and hold political offices. In addition, participants were
encouraged to build and maintain stratagem adhere with one another to enable
them identify and find solution to common problems within their communities.
Another topic that
were treated include:-
The on-going local
government reforms process and implication for women. Benefits of
reworking as groups, current situation of women in governance And
decision-making of each senatorial zones, women’s rights, constraints to women
participation in politics, managing and balancing private and public life for
women in politics and the act of public speaking. The Nigeria women
through encourage to overcome their mistrust of one another and other organization
and work together toward their shared goals. Women therefore
need to understand networking and works as a group involves and how to maximize
its benefits. The zonal networking workshops were quite interactive
and interest. In Orlu Senatorial zone many women participated in the
workshop and equally women from Owerri Senatorial Zones also was in attendant.
Meanwhile. Many of
Radio Stations scattered all over Nigeria are coming up to address the culture
of silence that was characterized by absence of women in politics in
Nigeria. As addressed in the media (Radio) the liberation of women would
imply the liberation of a host of other poor. Women’s position is similar
to that of the poor, the manual laborers, the marginalized, the minorities, and
both there and religious. Herein, then, lies the true significance of
tracking women’s issue in communication. The adoption and acceptance of
women’s values in public communication will change our culture of silence.
There reduces will not only liberate women but also a host of other
marginalized and oppressed groups [our emphasis].
In the area of
information pertaining women in politics, our local Radio Stations are also
coming up with beneficial information’s in form of revamping sector into a
dynamic tools for facilitating effective women and politics relations.
1.2
NIGERIAN WOMEN’S MOBILIZATION IN THE PAST
Throughout
the twentieth century, Nigerian women have the social power under their control
in their own interests, and in the interests of the community. The Aba
women’s wars of 1928 –1929, the Egba women’s movement of the early 1930s to the
1950s, the Oghanete women’s uprising of 1984 the Ughelli women’s anti-tax
protects of 1985 –1986 and the Ekpan women’s uprising f 1986 are some examples.
In 1928 –1930, Aba women rose in mass protect against the oppressive rule
of the Colonial government. These Igbo women of eastern Nigeria feared
that the head count being carried out by the British was a prelude to women
being taxed. The women were unhappy about the over taxation of
their husbands and sons which they felt was pauperizing then and cause economic hardships
for the entire community.
They also represented
the British imposition on the community of warrant chiefs, many of whom carried
out what the women considered to be abusive and extortionist actions such as
obtaining wives without paying the full bride wealth and seizure of
property. Previously, new village leaders or heads had been
democratically chosen and removed by the people themselves. Power and
been diffuse, decisions were reached informed or through village assemble of
all adults who chose to attend. While they had less influence then many
women did control local trade and specific crops. Women protected their interests
through assemblies. This had been changed by the colonial
government which appointed its agents as warrant Chiefs to rule over the
people. The abuses of the British appointed natives judged and tax enumerators
impelled the women to stage a protect on 24 November 1929, Using a deeply
rooted practice of censoring men through all night song and done ridicule
(sitting on a man) the woman rampages spread. Late December 1929 the women
forced the Umuahia warrant chiefs to surrender their caps thus launching
their successful campaign to destroy the warrant chief system. In Aba, women
song and demand against the Chief and then “proceeded to attack and loot the
European trading stores and Bardays Bank and to break into the prison and
release the prisoner. Some 25,000 Igbo women faced colonial repression
and over a two month period of insurrection, December 1929 to January 1930, at
least 50 were killed.
Similarly, between
the 1930s and 1950s, the women of Igbo in Western Nigeria pressed for and
subsequently secured the abdication of the Aleke or King of Egbaland from his
throne he was forced to abdicate on the grounds that he was collaborating with
the exploitative colonial government. The Egba women also claimed that
the King was hiding under the cover and protection of the colonial government
perpetrate misrule, hardships and oppression on Egba people, and especially on
the women.
These instances of
women’s political intervention during the colonial approach demonstrate the use
of market power and the expression of indigenous feminism’s. Rapid and
massive mobilization was possible because of women’s strong societal
organizations and effective communication networks based on concentration in
the markets and disposal along the trade routes, Nigerian women’s actions have
to do with market control and with duel focus on both the state and those among
their own menfolk who were instruments of the state first, women engaged in the
business of long and short distance marketing took the initiative in mounting
mobilizations. But peasant women and town women joined the market women
to constitute a mess movement. The social power mashed by this analyses
centered on the women’s ability to withhold food frame the cities. They paralyzed
the trading system within which they exercised considerable power. Not only was
food denied the cities, but cash crops were denied the colonial authorities and
their merchant allies in repeated confrontations over who should determine
prices (in the Western Nigeria Cocoa holdup during the second world war for
example).
Second, women
mobilized not only against the British State directly but also against
collaborating indigenous men whose power was under primed by a male deal with
men in the colonial regime. In so doing, women stood against class
formation which distorted popular control over indigenous political
institutions. The women manifested their distress at the deterioration of
their own circumstances with the encroachment of capitalist relations. As
such their actions where feminist in as much as they were aimed specifically at
defensibly the interest’s women. However, the discourse which women
used then and now to explain their motives and objective cannot be assumed to
resembled feminist discourses from other societies or periods, and requires
analysis in its own right. In mobilizing against the colonizer-Chief
alliance among men, women were acting simultaneously on behalf of women and
on behalf of both men and women in the peasant and trading classes.
We see here the coincidence and inflexibility of feminist and class politics in
the history of Nigeria women’s uprisings. To what extent have these
qualities persisted in women’s uprising in the post-colonial era?
Since independence in
1960 Nigeria has been characterized by political instability and series of
coups which degenerated into the guided civil war. The oil boom of the
1970s profoundly transformed Nigerian society from one based on agricultural
exports to one based on exports of crude oil. The State
received dollars from oil sales and here relaxed the exhortation of
alternative revenue sources such as exports crops and agricultural
development. A massive class of middle men flourished on the basis of
State connections Nigerian women were mobilizing again against the State and
indigenous men folk.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
In agreement with the
assertion of Luka (2011), that “Politics is too serious a business to be left
solely in the hands of men, the continuous low political participation of women
in Nigeria becomes a major concern. Since the beginning of contemporary democracy in Nigeria, women
participation in electoral politics has been constantly militated against and
grossly unsuccessful. Their participation is on very slow pace and their
success thus abysmally low. For instance, in the (Lower and Upper Chambers of
the) National Assembly for the 1999
general elections, there were only 3(2.75%) female senators out of the 109
seats that won elections- Hon Mrs Florence Ita-Giwa (ANPP, Cross River State),
Hon Mrs. Stella Omu (PDP, Delta State) and Hajiya Khairat Abdul Razaq (later,
Hajiya Gwadabe- PDP, FCT).
A slight increase occurred in the number of female senators in the 2003
general elections. There were 4 (3.7%) victorious female contestants for the
senatorial seats.
In addition to the above, with vacancy in 36
states in Nigeria there are no female governors in the country neither has
there been any female president or vice president. Imo state which is the focus
of this study, had 27 available local government chairmen seats out of which
only few was occupied by a woman. The statistics above provide strong evidence
to the fact that the participation of women in politics is still very low in
Nigeria. There has been and still instances of women holding high political
positions of leadership in countries like, Britain, Philippines, Brazil,
Liberia, Germany etc, but in Nigeria reverse is the case. Women are also called
to be leaders and not mere followers because they have equal rights as provided
for in the 1999 constitution of Nigeria. The mass media especially the radio
has an important role to play in mobilizing women for political participation,
as this is one of the primary functions of the mass media.
1.4 Objective of the Study
The
main aim of this research is to find out the role of radio in mobilizing women
for politics in Nigeria, specifically the study intends to:
1.
Find out the extent to which women use
radio in Imo state
2.
Examine the role of radio in political
issues in Nigeria
3.
Find out ways radio can be used to
increase women’s participation in politics.
1.5 Significance of the Study
This
research work will be very useful as it will help expose the general public
most especially women on the importance of allowing women venture into Nigeria
politics and also lead. The research will also help to see the different
challenges women are faced with in terms of politics and ways of overcoming
those challenges. Also this research work will also expose the women to the
important of radio and the effect it has on them in exposing them to political
issues in Nigeria.
1.6 Scope of the Study
This
research work will examine the women participation in politics and the role of
radio in exposing women to political issues in Nigeria.
1.7 Methodology
Secondary
sources of gathering data will be largely employed for this study. This
research will be based on content analysis, which involves critical review of
related materials, literature, journals,
magazines, and textbooks, it will also
involve sourcing or browsing the net for materials. Communication with
authorities in the field will also not be overlooked.
1.8 Delimitation of the Study
The issue of
finance for the general research work will be a challenge during the course of
study. Inability to gather most recent academic materials will be a major
limitation of this study. However, it is believed that these constraints will
be worked on by making the best use of the available materials and spending
more than the necessary time in the research work. Therefore, it is strongly
hoped that despite this constraint, its
effect on this research report will be minimal, thus, making the objective and
significance of the study achievable.