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.
“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.