If sustainable development is the latest challenge of the international community and Nigeria, the effective political participation of women for gender equality will be of utmost priority. This is because of the enormous socio cultural, political and development roles women play in the family and the larger society. In Nigeria, women make up more than one third of work force. In fact, women head about one third of households. As if this is not enough, millions of these Nigerian women are cut off from main stream of social, economic and political development and programme by a combination of harsh socio economic and cultural circumstances. The Nigerian women and women from other developing tropical world are beneficiaries of socially determined injustices, exploitation in these predominantly rural communities surrounded by network of gender determined relationships. Women in Nigeria have openly asked the government and political stakeholders to implement the 30% affirmative action. It is argued that active political participation of women in Nigeria democracy will ensure their contribution towards decision making process leading to gradual dismantling of gender inequality and in balance which is a means of transforming the society to greater heights. The paper argues that poor participation of women in the political process in Nigeria defies all purposeful and meaningful strategies for their socio economic and political survival. The authors submit that the overall gamu of political reforms initiated by various governments in Nigeria have not yielded the desired results as they further implanted inequality in Nigeria. However, if we continue to ignore gender inequality in political participation, we may be faced with serious political inequality in future.
Keywords: Political participation, Gender equality, Democracy, Sustainable participation.