Will Nigeria ever be a safe place for women?
If it’s not workplace harrasment we must deal with,
it’s eight year old girls being sold as money wives all bc “dem sabi cook wetin remain”.

Upon this, the police who have to protect us turn around and rape us.
I am so fucking tired.

We have created so many hashtags to speak on the numerous women who lose their lives at the hands of rape whether from the police or from family members.

We cannot catch any breaks cause from #SayHerNameNigeria,
it’s #EndWarOnNigerianWomen.

I am exhausted from being exhausted.

Nigeria doesn’t remember our names as women & it pains me that women’s lives are seen as disposable.
It pains me that this country is a thriving hub of child sex trafficking.
That FGM is still a thing.
That over 70% of the deaths of poor teen girls are from unsafe abortion.

It pains me honestly and I am so tired of being outraged.
My life as a Nigerian woman shouldn’t have to be about constantly been on red alert.

Constantly watching my drink.
Constantly keeping awake in an uber before I’m driven off to be raped.
Constantly being catcalled in Yaba.

We created #JusticeForOchanya.
Where did that hashtag go except as a reminder that Nigeria does nothing to not just protect young girls,
but erase the systems and men that they need protecting from.

We created #JusticeForRapeInNigeria
but we were reminded that when,

the perpetrators are from affluent families, all would be done to silence us especially as women without money and class privilege.

We created #SexForGrades
but again the system showed us that even with all the evidence,
to them it’s nothing but us publicly displaying our pain.

We stood together and said #IStandWithBusolaDakolo.
But we were once again reminded that we can never ever lean on the judicial system.
That our judges wld play devil’s advocate.
That they wld be the ones to replay our pain.
That even with shouts, the only thing sure was hurt.

We were barely recovering from #SayHerNameNigeria and watching our bodies become toys in the hands of the Nigerian police,
when we had to create #EndWarOnNigerianWomen.

Even then, we were just told that our rights as Nigerian women to determine motherhood was for men to decide.

It was #JusticeForObiamaka a fourteen year old girl who was raped & killed while reading at home.
Nothing done almost four years later.

Now it’s #JusticeForTina.
Murdered by the police while standing at a bus stop.

It’s #JusticeForUwa.
Raped while reading in church.
Dead now.

When would all these horror stories end?
Just when?

If we say we hate men, by now you should understand why.
By now you should understand where #menaretrash is coming from.
By now you should NOT be dismissive of our pain as women.