2023 Guber: Women in Nasarawa State, North Central Nigeria, stripped themselves!

“STOP PUSHING WOMEN TO THE WALL, so this form of reactions would have to stop!” —Adesanya-Davies 

“We should recall, naked protests by WOMEN are always employed as a last resort, this was the case in colonial southeastern Nigeria in 1929” –Adesanya-Davies

“Women who have stripped naked to wage a righteous war must be duly acknowledged” –Adesanya-Davies

A frontline female Politician, Presidential Candidate of MAJA, in 2019 election, Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies, has reacted to the report of the Nasarawa Women, who were said in viral news headlines all week to have, “Strip Naked To Protest Against Governor Abdullahi Sule’s Victory.” She calls on INEC to therefore revisit the election because this is unlike women folk, if unnecessary, saying, STOP PUSHING WOMEN TO THE WALL, So this form of reactions would have to stop!

She described the incident of black clothing, stark undress, and staged topless protest by women in Nasarawa state over the outcome of polls to register their displeasure with the election results as not only heartbreaking, distressing, and upsetting, but disturbing and disgusting  and heart-rending. “Elections need not deteriorate to that level,” she added.

Adesanya-Davies lamented, “When will justice, fairness and due process be allowed to reign in Nigeria’s electoral process with the election results. It’s unfair when people are denied their choices after exercising their franchise towards a free, fair and credible process under unconducive situation.”

The women insisted that their mandate was stolen, stating that their votes must count. It was reported, “The angry women said they did not vote for Governor Abdullahi Sule who was declared winner of the governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) amid controversies.”

Nasarawa women displayed totally spirituality with their protest. “Anyone who stole our mandate and made us vote in vain may this ground that the match on,swallow them, they invoked. There are continues ongoing crying, protests and prayers at INEC Office in LAFIA. ONE WITH GOD IS MAJORITY, they said.

The news further narrates, “Some women in Nasarawa State, North Central Nigeria, have stripped themselves completely naked to protest against the outcome of last Saturday’s governorship and State Assembly elections in the state.

The protesters who displayed placards with various inscriptions accused Governor Sule of rigging himself to power and forcing himself on the people. They, therefore, hurled curses at everyone who participated in denying them what they described as their mandate.

Hurling curses at politicians whom they accused of rigging Governor Sule into power, one of the angry protesters said, “I came here stark naked the way I came into this world to fight for my emancipation.

“Should there be my own compatriots who colluded with them to steal our mandate, I stand here today to curse and declare that may the ground open up and swallow them all.”

On the same issue, SaharaReporters had also reported that, “following the announcement of the election results, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of conspiring with officials of the INEC and security agents to manipulate and alter the governorship election results in the state.

The women believed the mandate of their state at the last gubernatorial election belongs to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and not to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as declared by INEC. The Candidate of the  PDP is their real and actual choice.

The party and the women alleged that the stolen results were taken to various locations including the Government House and the Federal University, Lafia, where APC agents altered and manipulated the figures in favour of the party.

The State Returning Officer for the governorship election, Professor Tanko Ishaya, declared that Governor Sule of the APC polled 347,209 votes, to beat his closest rival, David Ombugadu of the PDP, who had 283,016 votes, but David Ombugadu of PDP, the women said is their actual, real and true choice.

The issue of women opting for nude protests is rather becoming a case of concern in Nigeria. A similar report in a related news on Insecurity on 16th January 2022 by Bamigbola Gbolagunte, in Akure stated that: “Ondo women go half naked protesting against killing, and kidnapping.”

“Hundreds of women in Akoko Division of Ondo State on Saturday staged a peaceful protest against the high spate of insecurity in the area. Some of the women who dressed half naked appealed to security agencies to beef up security in the four local government areas that make up Akoko Division.

It was gathered that the peaceful protests were staged in Oka Akoko, Akungba Akoko and some other towns in the area.The protests were said to have been triggered by the recent kidnap of teachers by some bandits in Auga Akoko, the killing of a police officer by unknown gunmen at Oka Akoko last week and the attack on 17 travellers on Ifira Akoko-Isua Akoko road by armed robbers among others.

Some of the protesters, who held brooms, were half-naked, chanting various solidarity songs along the streets. They called on the security agents and the state government to come to the rescue of the area from the attack of the bandits. They also called on the traditional rulers to ensure that the security of the area is given proper attention.

Consoling the women, Adesanya-Davies said, “Cases of  report of “Women Stripping Naked To Protest” is now becoming rather alarming as they are been forced to react to unacceptable situations of been fed up. They need to stop being pushed to the wall and this form of reaction would have to stop!

Naturally, Nigerian women use nudity to turn traditional ideas of protest into modern practice to release their tension, agony and distress. An article titled: “Undressing for Redress: The significance of Nigerian women’s naked protests” by Bright Alozie, of West Virginia University published on September 3, 2020, when hundreds of women – mostly naked – staged a protest in the Northwestern state of Kaduna, Nigeria, vividly capture the story and history of their disgust.

The women wailing and rolling on the ground, they protested at the killing of people in ongoing attacks on their community in Kaduna state. The protesters, mostly mothers, demanded justice and called on the government, security agencies and international community to intervene.

It reads: ” Such naked protests are not new in Nigeria. Traditionally, among the Igbo and Yoruba of Nigeria, stripping naked signifies a curse against those targeted. Sometimes, mothers strip naked to put a curse on their truant sons or disloyal husbands. In some cases, it signifies their willingness to die for a cause.

Nigerian women have historically employed naked protests to seek redress – with success. In my book chapter contribution on this subject, I documented numerous naked protests dating back to the colonial period. I drew the conclusion that through the spectacle of such protests, women have rewritten the script on their bodies and used nakedness as an instrument of power, rather than shame, in making their voices heard.

Historically, in western and non-western worlds, women have used their bodies to protest unacceptable treatment unimaginable by those in power. In Africa, the nakedness of women, especially mothers and grandmothers, is a historical and symbolic “shaming” tactic. Women’s enacting nakedness on their own terms disrupts dominant notions that depict their bodies as passive, powerless, or as sexual objects for sale.

A brief history of naked protests: Most studies have focused on the role of clothing in society and demonstrated how it can change the perception of an individual. Sadly, there is little research on naked protests, perhaps because society frowns on public displays of the naked body.

The unclothed female body is a powerful site of protest. By protesting naked, women have resurrected traditional forms of sociopolitical protests and resistance like the custom common among Igbo women known as “sitting on a man” or “making war” with men. This custom was a practice where women showed their disapproval of abusive men, men who failed to provide for their family or who disregarded market rules.

Dressed as men in preparation for war, the women wore only loincloths with ferns on their heads, smeared ashes on their faces and carried sticks with palm fronds. They would dance around the house singing lewd and insulting songs that questioned the offender’s manhood, and would pound on the house using their pestles and in severe cases, destroyed the house. They would continue this activity until the offender repented. This act was viewed as the ultimate means by which women sanctioned wrongdoers.

History records several naked or half naked protests by women caused by displeasure with government policies or incidents seen as too dangerous to be ignored. These protests were mostly successful in achieving their objectives.

Naked protests are always employed as a last resort. This was the case in colonial southeastern Nigeria when in 1929, hundreds of naked and half naked women took to the towns of Owerri, Calabar and Aba. They protested harsh colonial policies. An English lieutenant described the women as nearly naked, wearing only wreaths of grass round their heads, waist and knees:

(I began) telling the women not to make noise. They took no notice of me and told me that I was the son of a pig and not of a woman … (They) were calling the soldiers pigs … (and) they didn’t care if the soldiers cut their throats.

This protest resulted in the famous Ogu Umunwanyi or Aba Women’s War. Before the incident, the protesters had employed other means like petitioning the colonial authorities. Eventually, “making war” on the officials became the last resort. About 50 women were killed and 50 others were wounded.

Also, in the 1930s, members of the Abeokuta Women’s Union in southwestern Nigeria walked half-naked in protest against the Alake of Abeokuta’s political actions and forced him into exile.

On July 8, 2002, about 600 semi-clad or naked women from six communities in the oil-rich southeastern Nigeria occupied the main oil terminal of Chevron Texaco. They protested how their water and land had been contaminated by the presence of Chevron Texaco, through oil spills and gas flares. They accused the company of gross exploitation of the people of the region and not distributing enough of the wealth it obtains from oil. They also demanded infrastructural changes.

Before then, their men had tried but failed. The actions of these women resulted in a peace meeting with Chevron Texaco. The company agreed to hire local workers, contribute to local infrastructure, set up a micro-credit scheme to help village women start businesses of their own, and provide communities with schools, hospitals, water, and electricity systems.

Naked protests also dramatically enact protesters’ willingness to put their bodies on the line in order to advance a political cause, such as opposition to government and military interventions. This was the case on May 20, 2017 when some female members of the Indigenous People of Biafra staged a protest in Abiriba, Abia state, against an alleged attack on them by the Nigerian Army. Some women were unclad while others wore undergarments and wrappers.

Similarly, in July 2013, nearly 100 women walked naked through Kokoritown in Delta State to protest the “unacceptable siege” on their community by the Nigerian army.

To conclude, the symbolic resonance of protesting naked has ensured the endurance of the “undress tactic” among Nigerian women today. It has also signalled a return to the old fashioned but effective form of women’s resistance. To fully understand this symbolism, we must not view the protesting naked female solely in sexual terms, as a commodity or an object without regard to their dignity.

Indeed, the female body is a site of immense power both inside and outside. Through naked protests, women engage in re-scripting and reconfiguring their bodies.

These women who have stripped naked to wage a righteous war must be duly acknowledged. So, when you see “our mothers go naked again”, remember that they represent power, subversion and resistance to the dominant scripts engraved on their bodies – scripts of subordination, passivity, sexuality, subservience and vulnerability.

In Nigeria, the extant National Gender Policy (NGP) recommendation of  35% affirmative action is not been   being enforced. Women are even soughting for a more inclusive representation of women with  50% of both elective political and appointive public service positions respectively.

It has been established that,  the under representation of women in political participation gained root due to the patriarchal practice
inherent in our society, much of which were obvious from pre-colonial era till date.

However, concerted efforts is being made by government and non-governmental
organizations to increase the level of participation of women in politics in line with the declaration made at the fourth World Conference on women in Beijing, which advocated 30% affirmative action.

The national average of women’s political participation in Nigeria has remained 6.7 percent in
elective and appointive positions, which is far below the Global Average of 22.5 percent, Africa Regional is Average of 23.4 percent and West African Sub Regional is Average of 15 percent…

Moreso, it is disappointing that Nigeria is yet to produce a female governor in any of the 36 states of the federation let alone a female president for once. The single case of a woman governorship position  in 2023 gubernatorial election, the Electoral Body, INEC says  — The Adamawa State governorship election has been declared inconclusive.

So far, as Governor Ahmadu Umaru, the incumbent governor and candidate of the PDP, is said to be leading, leaving Aisha Binani, the female gubernatorial candidate of the APC slightly behind.

Earlier, Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the PDP, alleged that the INEC was creating tension in Adamawa by failing to conclude the collation of results of the election in the state. The PDP has accused the INEC and the APC of attempts to alter the results to favour the latter.

Nigeria has only produced female Presidential Candidates such as Sarah Jibril, Remi Shonaya, Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies and a few others.There is still so much grounds to be covered in female gender inclusion and participation in Nigeria.

PMA – Voice of Voiceless Nigerians (VVN).