Identification of the critical success conditions for
sustainable national development usually generates
engaging debates. This study identifies the variables of
women empowerment and rural development for
consideration. Hence, the general objective of the study
was to examine the plausibility of positioning women
empowerment and rural development as critical success
conditions for sustainable national development in
Nigeria. The specific objectives were to (i) identify
methods of encouraging women empowerment in
Nigeria and (ii) recommend measures for accelerating
the pace of rural development in Nigeria. The research
methodology is logical argumentation. The theoretical
framework of the study is the empowerment theory
framework. In general terms, findings of the study
suggest linkages among women empowerment, rural
development and sustainable national development.
Findings of the study further show that the subject of
women empowerment in Nigeria is still filled with
rhetoric and also indicate an assumption that urban
settlement is preferred to rural dwelling in Nigeria. In
positioning the place of peace in sustainable national
development, the study recommends as a concrete
evidence of women empowerment, the recognition by
official pronouncement, of the National Council of
Women Societies, as a national peace ambassador. The
study also recommends the convocation on regional
bases, national stakeholders’ forums, having evidently
true rural dwellers in attendance, to examine the attitude
of the rural dwellers, to the effects of modernization,
which government has concluded the rural dwellers desire. The outcome of such forums would provide
roadmaps for rural development in the Nigerian state.