When Will Women Get to Live?

I have been avoiding social media, X especially, to protect my sanity from the sad news that took over the social space. In the space of about 7 days, about four women were reported killed. Every tweet carries gory and unbearable narrations that make my heart poignant. However, avoiding social platforms has also been a self-question of my morality. Avoiding or shielding myself from reading about these terrible events makes me feel I am dissociating myself from my society’s reality – my society’s reality which sees women being killed and harassed.

Virtually everything in Nigeria’s system makes one question the quintessential of the country but nothing irks me more than the system’s nonchallance. The government enacts policies that stifle the livelihoods of the citizens. The unemployment rate keeps increasing, and the educational system fails to revamp and recognise individual brilliance. People kill humans without fearing consequences because the judicial system does not work enough to be feared. It doesn’t make it rational, but in countries where the law is effective and feared, a serial killer would not live freely for thirteen years, flaunt pictures and videos online and even tweet like nothing is wrong.

Nigerians have been crying #JusticeforChristiannah because Christainnah Idowu, a 21-year-old 300-level student from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), was murdered by her acquaintance. A man. In 2024, despite the continuous outcry for justice and a safer society for women, we are still confronted with the brutal reality of women being harassed and murdered. Every day, it feels like the news carries fresh reports of violence, and the helplessness I feel deepens with each headline. I have friends, siblings, and loved ones who are women. I fear for them. 8 out of 10 women in any circle have been harassed or molested at some point in their lives. They are not safe. When would women really get to live without fear?

It is not enough to tweet #JusticeforChristiannah and feel like we’ve contributed to the fight. Yes, these hashtags are important for visibility but they are just the beginning. They cannot bring back the lives lost, and they certainly do not guarantee any significant shift in how the justice system responds to these crimes. And we forget easily. How do we bring back a 21-year-old student, with a future full of promise, who was robbed of her life by someone she knew? But we all know the system is so flawed and the only thing we have is to campaign online for justice, knowing full well that the legal process might be drawn out or, worse, dismissed.

When will women get to truly live? Not merely survive, but exist in a society where their safety is not a privilege, but a right? I don’t have the answers, but I know that something has to change. Women have been fighting for too long, for the right to walk the streets without fear, to pursue their dreams without harassment, and to simply live. How many more women will be harassed and molested and, hmph, killed before they actually live?

As expected, some argue that men are also killed, and no one is denying that. The violence and insecurity in Nigeria affect all of us, but we must be specific about the issue at hand. This is not a gender war. It is a call for recognition that women, because of their gender, are disproportionately targeted. When we say “Stop killing women,” we’re not diminishing the value of men’s lives or any human’s life; we’re highlighting an urgent crisis that needs immediate attention. Women are being harassed and raped, and we cannot afford to deflect from that reality by bringing up other arguments that, while valid in their own right, do not address the immediate issue of violence against women.

The legal system must be restructured. The culture of silence and indifference from the government needs to be eradicated. It is not enough to enact laws if they are not enforced. It is not enough to say “justice will be served” if justice is delayed or denied. We need a judicial system that holds criminals accountable swiftly and a society that values the lives of women enough to protect them in the first place. I don’t know how we would achieve this, but we have to.

This is deeply personal for me because every day, I worry about the women in my life. I worry about the girls I will born. I question what kind of world they will have to navigate, and what kind of dangers they will face simply for existing. This is not about moral high ground or virtue-signalling — it’s about life and death. Women deserve better. Women deserve to live.