CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background To The Study
The discriminatory
practice in education which favored the male over the female was very
unprogressive yet the government could not do anything to either stop or
reverse it (Kema, 2003). The colonial government laid a very bad foundation for
education generally and record that in Nigeria, the colonial government
initially did not show any interest in educational development at all. The
early efforts were made by the Christian missionaries who came to evangelize to
the people.
In 1986, the federal
ministry of education in Nigeria created a special unit, women’s education. This
showed that unit the government. was beginning to respond to the urgent need
for the development of women. This special right accorded to women in education
suggests that apart from women benefitting from general education, there will
be a measure of encouragement to them towards specialization in sciences,
engineering, and technology. Another area were the federal government of
Nigeria intensify in the establishment of mass literacy commission. The effort
of government has been complimented by the non-governmental organizations, who
in several ways, especially through the offer of
scholarships, and grants to secondary and higher institution female students have
greatly promoted women’s
empowerment.
Women empowerment is
dated back to international women movement. Many women organizations worldwide
set up credit and saving components as a way of both enabling women to increase
their incomes, and coming together to address wider gender issues. The
micro-credit summit programme is not only out to reach women but also to
empower them.
Women empowerment is
not a modern concept. Women all over the world including countries in the south
have been challenging and changing many gender inequalities since the beginning
of history. These struggles have not been supported by many men who have not
been outraged at injustice against women.
Man is by nature an
independent social being and cannot develop, actualize and objectify himself
through labor in isolation from others and from the social environment (Mbah,
2005). Men have to interact with others to live well and to achieve more
meaningful sustainable socio-economic development. The relationship between men
and women has for a long time been marked by the sub-
ordination of one group
to the whimps and caprices of another. Women’s posit being relegated to the
background and placed in a dependency position makes it almost
difficult if not impossible for them to take their own decision on issues and
problems to affect them more especially on reproductive health.
Onu (1998) opined that
“women are at control most of the non-money economy (subsistence agriculture,
bearing and raising children, doing domestic labor) and taking important part in
the money economy (trading, the formal sector, wage employment)”. He fu everywhere
world, women have two jobs, around the home and outside it. This assertion
implies that women have a lot in of contribution to make towards the healthy
socio-economic development of every county but women are constantly denied this
opportunity by the nature of our societal organizations, and the cultural set
up that makes it more comfortable for men to maintain the status quo. Today,
awareness has led to the recognition of the important role women can play in
national development and this calls for an urgent need to address these
critical areas that have hindered full recognized women’s development and
empowerment.
CEDPA (1997:8) argued
that there exist countries barriers that hinder women’s efforts to improve Compared
to the men, women quality have less access to crucial resources such as
information, education, skill training, health
(especially reproductive health
and family planning),
cash income and credit, all of which
are necessary for survival within the current economic depression.
According to the United
Nations Millennium Campaign to reduce world poverty by the year 2015, women
work two-third of the worlds working hours. The overwhelming majority of the
labor that sustain life-growing food, cooking , raising children, caring for
the elderly, maintaining a house, hauling water is done by women, and
universally this work is accorded low status and with little or no pay. The
ceaseless cycle of labor rarely shows up in economic analysis of a society’s
product and value.
Women earn only 10
percent of the world income. Where women work, they are limited to a set of
jobs deemed suitable for women invariable low pay, low status position.
Furthermore, there are
certain laws or customs that prevent women from getting loans or credit, or
having the right to inheritance or to own their homes, they have no assets to
leverage for economic stability and cannot invest in their own or their children’s
future.
Presently, women have
more opportunities for education and stronger legal rights in many countries;
they are taking leadership roles in local communities and stand at the fore
front of peace movement. Perhaps the greatest change will come when
women and men agree to work together for are well established by international
agreements, notably the international agreements on eradication of
discrimination against women (CEDAW), which explicitly include women within the
definition of human and hence in all international human right conventions.
In our society,
community development practice is not new. Before the colonial era various
communities employed communal efforts as mechanism for mobilizing community
resources to effect physical improvement and functional facilities in their
various localities. In the social, political and economic aspect of their
lives. Through communal labor farmland were cultivated, homes steeds
constructed and other needed amenities provided.
In the colonial era a
new concept of community development was introduced in the area of mass
mobilization for self help activities. Community development in recent times
has come on top of the agenda of federal, state and local government in Nigeria
.This re-awakening is justified for obvious reasons. It is common knowledge
that Nigeria communities have been showing no appreciable improvement in the
provisions of basic needs like food, house, medicate educational facilitates
and provisions of social amenities like roads, water supply electricity e.t.c.
This
situation has steadily degenerated into state of poverty diseases, filth,
ignorance, unemployment for the majority of the people and their coping
mechanism drastically eroded and is at the brink of collapse.
In the third National
development plan (1975-1980) the country’s rural development policy was for the
first time incorporated in the framework of national development. The policy
stipulated that the main objectives of the rural development are to increase rural
productivity and income, diversify rural economy through the provision of basic
social amenities such as health centers, pipe borne water and feeder roads
.Also the establishment of local government areas in 1976 by the military
government down to the grassroots in order to enhance full participation of the
community members. But this has not made transformatory impact; it rather seems
to have aggravated the problems. Rural areas (communities) still remain in
deplorable conditions.
Under the present administration,
the reviewed community development policy seeks to build the enthusiasm among
the various partners involved in rural development. This study focuses on women
who have also been recently affirmed as principal prerequisites for a
successful approach to rural development.
From the onset, women
have prided themselves in participating in what is today rural development.
However, in societies where the agrarian’s mode of production
dominates, roles are often directed or dictated by the society and culture.
This limits the role, challenges of women to family related activities (criele
and smoke1977).
Women in Nigeria like
their counterparts in other parts of developing countries ,are mostly involved
in food production to feed their families .According to world Bank(1993),women
in Nigeria are responsible for production of about 70 percent of the total food
supply. NCEMA (1990) and FOA (1979) also showed that the contribution of women
to food production was 50-60 percent in Asia and more than 30 percent in Latin
America. The main activities of women in rural communities is mainly
participating in agricultural production (cocoa, oil, palm, rubber
,coffee).This crops serves as sources of revenue for the government . The women
also are involved in agro forestry production particularly around the rural
compound and farm stead.
The major problem
facing the Bwari community and every other community in Nigeria is that of
deprivation of women’s right to participate in their full capacity in
religious, economic, political and social activities just like their male
counterparts. This hinders their ability to operate in their full capacity in
development project in the local government, like every other local (rural)
area. The literate women in Bwari outnumber that of the illiterate but still
create little ignorance among some of other women defending their rights.
Another major source of
problem is the men controlling the affairs of their families, prevents or
sanctions their wives from participating or partaking in some activities of
women from the local government.
Some men whose wives
are appointed or elected leader stopped their wives in such leadership roles
thereby compounding the problems of women organization in the Bwari local
government area of the F.C.T.
Another source of
problem is lack of finance. This affects the organizational structure of men as
a result of the fact that majority of the women are house wives who depend on
their husbands. There is need for the women to finance themselves independently
so as to stand a better chance to assist in their homes and also in the
society. Also incompetence in management and control of women organization by their executives hinders their development and efforts. At
times some women leaders seem to antagonize one another when working together
towards achieving a set goal. Child bearing also affects women in participating
in other activities.
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