LAGOS, Nigeria – During the biggest protests in the recent history of Nigeria, 13 women gathered to support their fellow citizens who risked their lives to take action against police brutality.
The women were all in their twenties and thirties. Everything at the top of their fields. Many have never met in person. They had previously found each other on social media and called their group the Feminist Coalition. They jokingly call themselves ‘The Avengers’.
“We have decided that if we do not get in there, the people who will suffer the most will eventually be women,” said Odunayo Eweniyi, a 27-year-old technology entrepreneur and founding member of the Feminist Coalition.
They raised hundreds of thousands of dollars last year over crowdfunding sites to support the protesters who were on the streets to expose human rights violations by a police unit known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS. The Feminist Coalition provided basic services to the protesters: legal aid, food in emergency care, masks, raincoats. But when the army fired peaceful protesters and the protests disappeared, the Feminist Coalition did not do so.
Now their sights are higher. They want equality for Nigerian women, and they focus on issues such as sexual violence, women’s education, financial equality and representation in politics.
The fight for equality will not be easy. A bill on gender and equal opportunities, first introduced in 2010, has been repeatedly voted on by the Senate in Nigeria.
And then there is the matter of being proud feminists, in a country where the word feminist is commonly used as an insult.
It has been laden for years with identifying as a feminist in Nigeria. The coalition’s decision to use the word in the name of the organization, and the female symbol in their yellow logo, were shown. Many of the protesters who benefited from their assistance were men – and not all of them supported women’s rights.
“We only used the word because we wanted to let them know where the money came from,” she said. Eweniyi said.
We spoke to some women behind the Feminist Coalition about why they joined and what they are trying to change in Nigeria.
Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi
Before Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi started her non-profit organization, Stand To End Rape, in 2014, it was common to open the newspaper in Nigeria and find in the crime coverage a photo of a victim of child rape, without thinking about how public identification might affect her life. Women were raped and murdered, with no consequences. Many healthcare providers had no idea how to gather evidence of rape.
Me. Osowobi, 30, is trying to change attitudes by changing public policies and practices. Her non-profit organization holds seminars to help people prevent sexual violence, and a network of rape survivors, where survivors can share experiences, mentor each other and feel less alone. She has been working on legislation banning sexual harassment and violence.
But men usually choose whether to pass such legislation.
“We need more women to get into those spaces and make important policies and decisions that strengthen the voices of other people,” Ms Osowobi said.
Tito Ovia
It was Tito Ovia’s national youth service that made her realize that she wants to work on public health. Posted to the AIDS Control Agency in Nigeria, she noted that due to lack of data it is difficult to see if money spent on HIV / Aids prevention is making a difference.
Me. Ovia (27) founded a company with friends in 2016 that aims to ensure that healthcare across Africa is driven by data and technology. The company, Helium Health, assisted hospitals and clinics in compiling electronic medical records and hospital management systems.
She said she did not expect the work of the Feminist Coalition to be so serious and that they would support protesters because they risked their lives to try to change a police system that made young people cruel.
“I thought it was going to be a lot nicer than that, let me not lie,” she said laughing. ‘I thought we would meet each other, we would drink, we would bitch over men. We will do work. I did not know that lives would be threatened. ”
Damilola Odufuwa
Before the feminist coalition, Damilola Odufuwa (30) founded Wine and Whine, a support group for Nigerian women.
She wanted to create a safe and fun space where young women could gather, have a drink and complain about sexual harassment in the workplace, the pressure to get married, the patriarchal system and its gatekeepers, and any other frustrations they had has – and then start inventing solutions.
Me. Odufuwa, the head of public relations in Africa for a large cryptocurrency exchange, recently returned to the UK from Lagos when she started Wine and Whine. She was hit by the treatment of women in Nigeria.
She and her co-founder Odunayo Eweniyi – the same duo behind the Feminist Coalition – made Wine and Whine also carry his feminism as a badge of honor.
“We are a feminist organization,” she said. Odufuwa told a male talk show host in 2019 about Wine and Whine.
“Oh!” replied the host, sounding astonished at her use of the word.
“We are very feminist,” she replied laughing. “Your response tells me that feminism is considered this bad thing.”
Odunayo Eweniyi
Odunayo Eweniyi, a 27-year-old technology entrepreneur, did not realize how big an agreement would be that would place ‘feminist’ in the group’s name.
“It didn’t have to be a rally for the whole movement,” she said. “I am honest, now that it is very proud of the fact that we used the word ‘feminist’ because people relate to it in a way that does not equate the word ‘feminist’ with the word ‘terrorist’.”
Although Nigeria has a history of feminist movements, the identification as feminist is considered radical.
Me. Eweniyi recently got tattoos from her favorite comparisons: the comparison of Schroëdinger, the golden ratio and the uncertainty principle.
She works to reduce insecurity in Nigerian women’s lives.
The beginning of the savings program that Ms. Eweniyi launched in 2016, called Piggyvest, tackles one of the most important issues identified by the Feminist Coalition – financial equality for women. The idea is that people can save and invest even small amounts of money. It has more than 2 million customers – men and women.
Laila Johnson-Salami
As the anchor of one of Nigeria’s biggest TV news programs, Laila Johnson-Salami remembers her male co-presenter in a clear way that he told a producer to say his name first.
But she was uninhibited. Through Newsday, the program on the TV channel Arise, she kept Nigerians informed of the protests, which accepted the hashtag #EndSARS.
At 24, she is the youngest member of the coalition. Her main goal, according to her, is to attract a younger audience. And recently, she launched a podcast that could help her achieve that.
She uses her platform to hold politicians accountable, but said: “If I know anything for sure in this life, it is that Laila will never go into politics.”
The interviews Johnson-Salami does on the Broken Record Podcast are very different from her television interviews. They are intimate conversations about everything from the importance of vulnerability to adoption and investment.
Fakhrriyyah Hashim
“The time is over, it’s over,” tweeted Fakhrriyyah Hashim in February 2019. ‘You’re done with the monster acts against women.’
Her tweet kicked off the #MeToo movement in northern Nigeria. In it, Mrs Hashim created the hashtag #ArewaMeToo – Arewa means ‘north’ in Hausa, a West African language spoken by most northern Nigerians.
In an extremely conservative region with what Hashim (28) called a “culture of silence”, #ArewaMeToo has unleashed an avalanche of evidence on sexual violence. When social media and street protests erupted, the Sultan of Sokoto, the highest Islamic authority in Nigeria, banned it.
Another campaign that Mrs. Hashim launched #NorthNormal, urging Nigerian states to enforce laws that criminalize violence and broaden the definition of sexual violence.
Her women’s rights activism has led to her death threats and abuse. Now she has put some distance between herself and the people behind the threats after entering into a fellowship at the African Leadership Center in London.
The members of the Feminist Coalition all worked from their homes due to the pandemic. So she was only able to raise online awareness and funds in London during the #EndSARS protests.
“I knew we would achieve this no matter what goals and objectives we set,” she said. Hashim said.
Karo Omu
It is estimated that two thirds of Nigerian girls and women do not have access to sanitary napkins. They can not afford it.
Karo Omu, 29, has been fighting for the past four years to get pads and other sanitary products from Nigerian girls. She focuses on girls in public schools who come from low-income families, and girls who had to flee their homes and live in camps.
In northeastern Nigeria, there are 2.7 million displaced people as a result of the violent and uncontrolled uprising led by the Islamic group Boko Haram and its offenders. And for many women and girls living in the camps, it is a struggle to get enough food and clothing, let alone expensive sanitary napkins.
Her organization, Sanitary Aid for Nigerian Girls, distributes reusable pillows, purchased with money put together by Ms Omu and her colleagues, so that girls have to worry a little less. Some of the girls who have helped them before have never had a booklet.
“Women’s issues are fought by women,” she said.