WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

All over the world, education is recognized as the cornerstone for sustainable national development (Oyitso & Olomukoro, 2012). In the last two decades, according to Olaleye (2008), debates on the status of women and the need to integrate them into development process of any nation have ranged on at national and international workshops, seminars, and fora among others. He further asserted that the problems of women opportunities for education looms larger at the turn of twenty-first century in Africa and that women represents two-thirds of the world illiterate adults while girls account for a similar proportion of the world’s outof- school population. However, for women to be integrated into development process, they need quality education, in order to become co-partners in national development.