The uproar around Rahama Sadau’s photo, that she had to apologise, and the fact that officials are now legitimising the harassment she has been receiving is everything you need to know about the failed Nigerian psyche. How do you even begin to fix this? We’re in so much trouble.

Many people are having to be delicate but honestly this is not a conversation about who/which region is backward or isn’t (tbh that conversation reductionist and insulting). This is about failure, and the uniquely extensive ways the North systematically fails women.

And, more importantly, how the North does so, without receiving as much attention or scrutiny as other regions (which—surprise, surprise—also have their own ways of failing women) do.

The last thing we should be doing is thinking oh it’s an ‘Arewa Twitter’ issue. It’s not—it’s an issue we should all be concerned about. I can’t think of any other Twitter groups that get such exceptionalism. It’s not helpful at all. How can we just be looking as it’s happening?

And why we all need to be concerned? Beyond the fact that who knows how many people are suffering similar issues, it’s important that people/orgs in the region (there always are) already working to provide solutions/amplify issues receive the support they clearly crucially need.

Tbh, it’s not the time for separationist ideas, bigotry or prejudice—because that fixes nothing. We’ve seen how powerful independent infrastructure can be and how just paying more attention to an area or issue is often essential to building the needed infrastructure.

Questions we should be asking instead of ‘should we just separate?’

- Who are the locals/local orgs working in this area?
- What are their projects and what we can support?
- Who are the officials/figures we can pressure to act up/speak out?
- How can we keep paying attention?

I definitely don’t know how to fix whatever drives these issues but they are far too common. Women and young people in Nigeria are vulnerable (for young women it’s double!) but the North in particular does not receive as much attention from us—which only enables so many wrongs.