The Role of Political Parties in Enhancing Women’s Representation in Nigeria’s National Assembly

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the characteristics of political parties that could be conducive to women legislative representation in Nigeria’s National Assembly from 1999 to 2019. The objectives of the study were to: examine the variations in women legislative representation of successive National Assemblies in Nigeria in the Fourth Republic; determine whether or not women are being or have been underrepresented in Nigeria’s National Assembly in the Fourth Republic; identify the role of political parties in ensuring parity in legislative representation in the National Assembly; and suggest possible ways of enhancing the role of political parties for improved women representation in National Assembly. The study adopted the survey research design, using both qualitative and quantitative data. The simple random sampling technique was used to select the key informants that provided the primary data, while the secondary data were taken from published materials such as the official gazettes of the National Assembly, books, journals, magazines, the internet, and so on. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted for data analysis. Therefore, while the content analysis which emphasizes textual representation of data was employed in analyzing qualitative data, quantitative data were represented using percentages. The study revealed a sharp disagreement between political administrators and lawmakers on the factors responsible for women underrepresentation in the National Assembly. Hence, the study showed that the introduction of gender-based quotas and the percentage of women in the National Executive Committee, as party attributes that may undermine women legislative representation. Given the above, strategies suggested to enhance the role of political parties in women legislative representation includes but not limited to; entrenching Affirmative action principles in party constitutions, reduction of undue interference in party workings by its leaders, avoiding the conduct of party affairs at such time that may not be conducive for female aspirants, etc.