“No Equality, No Progress: The Urgent call to end violence, exclusion, and injustice against Nigerian Women”

Adinya Arise Foundation’s (AAF) International Women’s Day 2025 message

As we mark International Women’s Day 2025, we do so with heavy hearts, not in celebration, but in resistance against the deepening crisis facing Nigerian women and girls. Thirty years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which promised a future of equality and justice, Nigerian women remain at the margins violated, silenced, and excluded. The hope of gender parity feels like a distant dream as we grapple with rising femicide, escalating gender-based violence, economic and political exclusion, increasing maternal mortality, and the horrifying reality of human trafficking.

A Nation at War with Its Women

1. Femicide and the Epidemic of Gender-Based Violence
   Nigerian women and girls are being killed simply for existing. The streets, our homes, workplaces, and even religious spaces have become battlegrounds where women’s lives are taken with impunity. Every day, we hear stories of women raped, murdered, set ablaze, and brutalized yet, justice is rare. The increasing normalization of gender-based violence is a stain on our collective conscience.
2. Political and Economic Exclusion: A System Designed to Keep Women Out
   The Nigerian political system has systematically pushed women out of governance. Today, fewer women sit in the Senate than ever before not because women do not vote for women, but because a corrupt and exclusionary system ensures they never make it to the ballot. The economy, too, remains hostile to women, trapping them in poverty while male-dominated institutions control wealth and power. How can a nation develop when half of its population is denied access to leadership and resources?
3. Maternal Mortality: Dying While Giving Life
   Nigeria remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth. Women continue to die needlessly due to lack of access to quality healthcare, the failure of government investment in maternal health, and an economy that renders life-saving medical care inaccessible to poor women. The Senate leadership has failed to prioritize women’s health, treating maternal mortality as an afterthought rather than a national emergency.
4. Human Trafficking: The Silent Genocide of Our Daughters
   Nigeria has become a trafficking hub, with young women, girls, and children sold into slavery, prostitution, and domestic servitude often with the complicity of those meant to protect them. Human trafficking is modern-day slavery, yet our government does not act with the urgency this crisis demands. Every trafficked girl is a stolen future, and every day we delay action, we lose another daughter to this horror.

A Call to the Men of Conscience: Stand Up for Women and Girls

We call on all grandfathers, fathers, uncles, nephews, brothers, and leaders who care for their own to rise up and stop the killing of women and girls, all forms of abuse, and the systemic exclusion of women. If you love your daughters, if you cherish your sisters, if you honor your mothers, then you must not be silent while other women are abused and murdered.

A society that allows women to be violated, silenced, and excluded is a society that is doomed to fail. It is time for men of conscience to stand up and:

Reject and resist all forms of gender-based violence.

Speak out against the exclusion of women in politics, business, and decision-making.

Create an environment where women and girls can thrive, free from fear, oppression, and limitations.

Enough is Enough: Women Will Not Be Silent Anymore

Adinya Arise Foundation (AAF) refuses to stand by while Nigerian women are erased, violated, and excluded. This International Women’s Day, we demand:

An End to Femicide and Gender-Based Violence: We call for strict enforcement of laws against rape, domestic violence, and the killing of women, with no room for political interference or religious excuses.

Equal Political Representation: We demand a minimum 50% representation of women in political offices, starting with the 2027 elections. Political parties must remove barriers to women’s participation.

Economic Justice for Women: Women must have equal access to resources, business funding, and employment opportunities. The financial exclusion of women is deliberate oppression.

Urgent Investment in Maternal Health: The government must prioritize free, quality maternal healthcare in all rural and urban communities. No woman should die giving life.

A National Emergency on Human Trafficking: We demand the full implementation of anti-trafficking laws and a crackdown on traffickers and their sponsors.

This is Not a Celebration—This is a Call to Action

This International Women’s Day, AAF reminds Nigeria that gender equality is not a privilege, it is a right. We refuse to accept a system that kills, silences, and marginalizes us. Women and girls are the backbone of this nation, and we will rise, resist, and reclaim our place in politics, the economy, and society.

To every Nigerian woman and girl: Your voice matters. Your life matters. Your dreams matter. We will not stop fighting until every girl is safe, every woman is free, and every mother survives.

No Equality, No Progress. The Time for Change is NOW.

InternationalWomensDay2025

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