Education for Sustainable Widows’ Empowerment: Evidence from Southwest Nigeria
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Education is acknowledged as a vital tool for the attainment of sustainable transformation and
inclusive societal development. Through acquisition of basic skills, knowledge formal/informal,
various segments of the population especially widows (married women) who have lost their
husband can be empowered to be self-reliant and economically independent in-spite of the vacuum
created by the loss of the supposedly “breadwinner”. Education occupies a unique position in the
national development programme of any nation. It is also acknowledged as the bedrock of socioeconomic
and political advancement of countries (Barro, 1991; National Bureau of Statistics-NBS,
2006). This is because education helps to unfetter and empowers people to economic and social
freedom. It equally helps in transforming human capital for economic advancement. Thus, educated
individuals are seen to be crucial catalyst for any economy (Schultz, 1960; Becker, 1962). A
growing concern is the increasing number of widows in rural southwest Nigeria unable to read or
write with lack of basic skills. The paper examines the role of education as a vital tool for widows’
empowerment, other obstacles to widows’ empowerment in Nigeria with a view to suggesting
policy options for the way forward. The paper engages mainly secondary sources of data and
utilizes relevant sociological theories to buttress the crucial role of education in widows’
empowerment drive
Keywords
HM Sociology