Happy International Women’s Day? Nigeria has nothing to celebrate, By Chioma Agwuegbo

There’s nothing to rejoice till the federal government and society stop paying lip service to ladies’s rights and take significant motion to handle sexual harassment, gender-based violence, and the political exclusion of girls. Till Nigerian ladies now not need to struggle for primary dignity and respect, there could be no real celebration. Ladies deserve greater than empty phrases; they deserve change. Till that change happens, there may be nothing to rejoice.

Yearly, sure worldwide days are commemorated globally to rejoice progress and achievements and restate dedication to points affecting particular teams, whether or not local weather, kids, humanitarian points, or ladies. Worldwide Ladies’s Day acknowledges (or ought to acknowledge) how far nations have come within the struggle for equality — at dwelling, within the office, and politics.

However allow us to ask the ladies of Nigeria who endure violence day by day, from femicide by the hands of their intimate companions to microaggressions, as a result of Nigeria, as it’s presently constituted, isn’t a secure place for girls. The tragic actuality is that for a lot of Nigerian ladies, our struggle for rights, dignity, safety, and the area to easily exist – not even thrive – is a day by day one.

In a rustic the place sexual and gender-based violence is pervasive, the Worldwide Ladies’s Day appears like a hole spectacle, a circus act that’s neither entertaining nor coordinated, or a funeral we’re pressured to attend. Our funeral. Ladies dwell in worry, not simply in our houses however in every single place: within the streets, in locations of worship, in our places of work, in colleges, and even in supposedly hallowed chambers.

Every considered one of us has a narrative to inform: A narrative of harassment, of violence, of a diminished voice or dismissed grievance, of capitulating to dangerous behaviour from males as a result of the choice is to be socially ostracised as troublesome, being made to really feel lower than a equal human, even in areas that are supposed to be secure. Expertise and social media introduce new layers of violence and breeding floor for abusers to focus on ladies with out consequence or accountability. Ladies are pressured to take care of inappropriate feedback, unsolicited advances, and threats of violence for stating opinions, disagreeing with opinions, or simply having opinions. Ladies who’re victims of violence proceed to be blamed, their tales dismissed, and their abusers stroll free.

A lot has been written and stated concerning the chaotic and disgraceful dealing with of the allegations of sexual harassment in opposition to Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, raised by Senator Natashi Akpoti-Uduaghan. The Senate has repeatedly dedicated blunders and perpetuated obvious illegalities just because a girl dared to talk out. Whereas Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s battle ought to encourage us all, the broader challenge of systemic and institutionally enabled gender-based violence in Nigeria can’t be ignored.

The perpetrators, in the meantime, proceed to thrive, as Nigerian legal guidelines stay toothless and largely unenforced, and violence in opposition to ladies and women is but to be accorded the urgency and precedence it deserves, each in nationwide discourse and precise motion. Even with the existence of legal guidelines such because the Violence Towards Individuals Prohibition Act (VAPP) and the Little one Rights Act (CRA), understanding and utility are weak, and justice stays out of attain for most girls.

And but, 12 months after 12 months, we’re bamboozled with platitudes by the identical authorities and legislature that refuses to create legal guidelines and institutionalise insurance policies that advance and shield ladies and women. We’re informed that now we have “come up to now, we’re making progress,” when the fact is that we’re regressing at an alarming fee.

This systemic retrogression is much more evident in Nigerian politics, the place ladies’s illustration stays appallingly low and, in 2025, has regressed to 1999 percentages, when Nigeria first returned to democracy. Ladies are both excluded from decision-making or relegated to tokenised, marginalised roles that don’t carry actual energy. Nigeria, the so-called Large of Africa, sits on the backside of the continent with ladies’s political illustration. At one hundred and eightieth out of 185, Nigeria ranks amongst the bottom for girls’s parliamentary illustration globally. Yearly calls on Worldwide Ladies’s Day for the implementation of 35 per cent affirmative motion or the rise of girls in political areas by those with the ability to institute these legal guidelines are a joke and tantamount to an insult to Nigerian ladies.

A lot has been written and stated concerning the chaotic and disgraceful dealing with of the allegations of sexual harassment in opposition to Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, raised by Senator Natashi Akpoti-Uduaghan. The Senate has repeatedly dedicated blunders and perpetuated obvious illegalities just because a girl dared to talk out. Whereas Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s battle ought to encourage us all, the broader challenge of systemic and institutionally enabled gender-based violence in Nigeria can’t be ignored.

Ladies’s rights are neither a social nor a charitable challenge; they’re a elementary human rights challenge that calls for justice, equality, and systemic change throughout all spheres of society. Ladies’s full, uninhibited participation in public life is crucial for financial and societal growth, as our full participation within the workforce, schooling, and management contributes on to the development of Nigeria.

So, what’s there to rejoice on Worldwide Ladies’s Day in Nigeria? Whether or not “Accelerating Motion” or “For All Ladies and Women: Rights. Equality. Empowerment,” what’s there to rejoice? What does it imply to rejoice when ladies endure vilification and the emotional and bodily toll of harassment and violence simply to take part in our nation’s politics?

What progress have we genuinely made when legislators are considering the repeal and reenactment of the Violence Towards Individuals Prohibition Act (VAPP), which took over eight years to be adopted by all Nigerian states (besides Kano)?

Ladies’s rights are neither a social nor a charitable challenge; they’re a elementary human rights challenge that calls for justice, equality, and systemic change throughout all spheres of society. Ladies’s full, uninhibited participation in public life is crucial for financial and societal growth, as our full participation within the workforce, schooling, and management contributes on to the development of Nigeria. A authorities in any respect tiers that doesn’t perceive this doesn’t bode properly for the nation.

There’s nothing to rejoice till the federal government and society stop paying lip service to ladies’s rights and take significant motion to handle sexual harassment, gender-based violence, and the political exclusion of girls. Till Nigerian ladies now not need to struggle for primary dignity and respect, there could be no real celebration. Ladies deserve greater than empty phrases; they deserve change. Till that change happens, there may be nothing to rejoice.

Chioma Agwuegbo is the chief director at TechHerNG, an organisation that makes use of know-how and digital instruments for the development of girls and women. She writes from Abuja.