#IWD: Women's Wobbly Stance in Nigeria, a Wobbling Middle Class, and Ibadan railway passengers’ Wanderlust
This week, Nigerian women joined the rest of the world to celebrate the International Women’s Day. Held on March 8, the conversations centered around realization of “an equal, diverse, equitable, and inclusive” world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. People across different strata of the society also raised concerns on how to forge women's equality, celebrate women's achievement, raise awareness against prejudice, take action for equality, and collectively #BreakTheBias.
In Nigeria, however, the #IWD was a mixed bag of sweet and sour stories.
A major highlight of the week, for instance, was the death of 22-year-old Bamise Ayanwole, who went missing after boarding a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Lagos State. Bamise got missing while returning to Ota from Ajah on February 26 and was later found dead, amid allegations of rape and murder. For the umpteenth time, Bamise’s story highlights the danger inherent in the scourge of rape and violence against women in Nigeria.
In April 2020, Nigeria's Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, disclosed that at least 3,600 cases of rape were recorded during the Covid-19 lockdown. In the same breath, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said it received 11,200 reported cases of rape over the whole of 2020.
In 2017, the National Bureau of Statistics said that 2,279 cases of rape and indecent assault were reported to the police. It’s instructive, therefore, that the alleged rape and killing of Bamise brings to the fore yet again the ordeals of women in the society, especially in the absence of safety mechanisms and regulations that can help curb the menace.
Whining to win
This year’s International Women’s Day also met many women and the women groups dissatisfied and vocal with their criticism of the failure of lawmakers to pass certain Gender Bills at the National Assembly. Of the 68 legislations voted on by the national assembly, 5 bills that sought to promote more opportunities for women in political parties, governance, and society were rejected.
In 2020, according to Statista, Nigeria's female population amounted to approximately 101.67 million, while the male population amounted to approximately 104.47 million inhabitants. The female percentage of total population in Nigeria was reported at 49.32 % in 2020, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. So, in effect, a key demography remains a mere footnote in the larger discourse.
Reacting to the rejection, the senator representing Ekiti South Senatorial District, Abiodun Olujimi, said “the men were just set on what they wanted to do” and simply had their way. She also described the rejection as a “sad commentary” on the state of affairs of the nation. But the men only played on a key strength: numbers.
In the 9th Assembly of 109 senators, there are only seven (7) female members. The number was the same in the 8th National Assembly, where just seven (7) members were women. Interestingly, in the 7th assembly, there were eight (8) members.
Winning elsewhere…
Meanwhile, it was not all stories of doom and emotive whining this year. Despite the gloom, there were stories of winning and breaking barriers.
During the week, as part of its effort to mark 2022 International Women’s Day, Google announced $1m support for African women, including Nigerian women entrepreneurs, to help grow their businesses.
Data shows that 58 percent of entrepreneurs running small and medium-sized business, SMBs, in Africa are women. Despite this, women-run businesses show an average of 34 percent lower profits than those run by their male counterparts. So apart from Google, which promised to provide free tools to support women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, numerous other companies introduced initiatives to support women during the week.
Similarly, although Nigeria’s score is below the Sub-Saharan African average of 71 and the global average of 76.1, the nation scored 63.1 out of 100 on the Women, Business, and the Law (WBI) 2021 index.
Nigeria was said to have enacted three of eight reforms to move from 48.8 in 1971 to 63.1 in 2021, ostensibly on the back of legal reforms in the nation’s commercial hub, Lagos.
In effect, there are several grounds to cover and the nation must be deliberate in its integration of women in key position of influence to promote equality and #breakthebias.
Nigeria’s Middle Class and Portable’s ‘Ilu Osu’
More than any period in its history, the emptiness of Nigeria’s disappearing middle class may have been exposed by the current situation of poor electricity supply and fuel scarcity.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released its FY-2021 GDP report last month with the economy recording its strongest growth since 2014. Details of the figure released showed that the economy expanded 3.4% y/y, faster than population growth estimate of 2.7%, for the first time in five years.
But in real terms, the average Nigerian consumer faces a different story.
The inflationary pressure, heightened by crazy domestic prices and weaker disposable income, remains the major headache of the Nigerian “middle class”, which is fast disappearing.
With petrol selling at a price way above N200 in few places where it is available, and the perennially poor electricity supply in some places and total blackout in many places, the Nigerian “middle class” may be facing its most difficult time in recent history.
One of the most important Nigerian musical sensations of December 2021 was one Afro-pop artiste named Portable, whose real name is Habeeb Okikiola. Nicknamed ‘Werey Olorin’, Portable’s breakthrough came from a track titled “Zaa Zuu”, wherein he sang about a certain hamlet that belonged to a set of people he called ‘Osu’. Although the context was different, many Nigerians have appropriated the linguistic property of the said “Osu” to misery and wretchedness.
In recent weeks, in the absence of power and petrol, nothing brings the picture of Portable’s ‘Osu’ to mind better than the sense of misery, darkness and abject poverty that pervades most Nigerian “middle class” neighborhoods.
As oil prices rally, leading to higher diesel prices in the domestic market, middle class Nigerians and entrepreneurs in the real estate sector managing serviced-apartments are beginning to explore cheaper alternatives and embracing pitch darkness.
On Thursday, as Brent neared $130.7 a barrel, diesel was dispensed at N625 per litre in many filling stations in Lagos and Abuja.
Analysts fear it may rise to N650 a litre, leaving many households who rely on diesel-powered generating sets in the lurch, with a forlorn air of ominous silence, darkness and poverty— the quintessence of Portable’s “Ilu Awon Osu’!
Lost in Wanderlust
On Thursday, passengers on a train travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to Lagos State, were reportedly stranded when the train ran out of fuel and grounded to a halt in the middle of the road.
One Isaiah Obadare, a Twitter user who posted a video of the incident on his page, said that crew members explained to them that the train stopped because it ran out of fuel.
The Nigerian Railway Corporation later said that the train gauge had an issue while the engineers thought the diesel in the train tank would take them to Lagos.
Interestingly, the embarrassing development is happening at a time that the rail is fast becoming the ideal means of transport for most Nigerians, especially due to the insecurity on the roads.
Last June, Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, said that the Lagos-Ibadan trains conveyed 42,000 passengers in the month of June 2021.
On Thursday, the price of aviation fuel rose by 35 per cent from N430/litre to N580/litre, with oil marketers predicting that the price of the product might hit N700/litre by next week if the global crude oil price continued to fluctuate. In effect, prices of air tickets will rise exponentially, forcing many away from the airports.
Yet, in the weird ways things are configured in Nigeria, the train too is becoming unreliable.
For passengers whose wanderlust pushed away from the road and air, and finally to the rail, what would be going through their mind when crew members brought fuel to refill the train in the middle of the jungle?
They must have been lost in wonders.