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
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.
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?
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.
