Nigeria’s global status on women’s safety is deeply concerning. According to the 2023 Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index report, Nigeria ranks 16th worst country in the world for women, out of 177 nations assessed. The country also ranked among the 15 lowest countries in the world in terms of women’s safety in a separate study.

The statistics are worrying, and calls for urgent action to reverse the ugly situation. But how do we achieve this?  Quite simple. Forget long conferences, forget grammar. Law and enforcement; that’s the difference between nations where girls walk freely and nations where girls grow up in fear.

People deceive themselves thinking Western men are naturally better. They are not. Go and study their history, they were once as brutal, as misogynistic, as violent as any oppressive system in Africa today.

So what changed? The law.

You see their politicians, athletes and celebrities, one small scandal involving a woman or a girl child and their entire career collapses instantly even before the court gives a final verdict.

And if his shalaye (explanation) doesn’t hold water? He chop Prison. And beyond prison, the law will mark him for life. Once convicted, his name goes straight onto the sex offenders register and from that moment, he is banned from working anywhere near vulnerable people like children, elderly, or anyone considered vulnerable.

The system doesn’t just punish him once; it follows him forever.

• A boss verbally abuses a woman at work ???? dem call police.
• A lecturer sexualizes a female student ???? dem call police.
• A husband raises his hand, raises his voice ???? dem call police.
• A boyfriend stalks a girl or shows up uninvited to her house ???? dem call police.
• A neighbor peeps at a girl through the bathroom or window ???? dem call police.
• A stranger catcalls a schoolgirl aggressively on the street ???? dem call police.
• A man blocks a woman’s path, grabs her wrist or tries to force conversation ???? dem call police.

But in Nigeria, a politician can proudly boast about beating and cheating on his wife; and nothing happens. A known fraudster can assault a girl in a club, and by the time it reaches the police, his stolen money has already swept the case under the carpet.

What’s the difference?

• Law.
• Law.
• Law.

In the West, money cannot save you from the law. In Nigeria, money buys your way out of justice. If we want a sane society; no woman should have  to wrestle with her abuser in public. No girl has to beg for protection online. The system itself steps in.

That’s what we don’t have in Nigeria, a system that bites. Make real laws that protect women and girls. Enforce those laws swiftly and without sentiment.

In Nigeria, a man touches a girl in the market, harasses a student, or corners a girl in a bus, and people call it “normal”.

They say, “e dey happen all the time, those boys no dey hear word” He doesn’t even know he has committed a crime, because the law has never screamed at him.

But prison reforms men faster than advice. If he has seen his neighbor or brother jailed for touching a girl without consent, his brain will reset instantly he sees a girl.

Ask the average bricklayer, keke rider, mechanic, vulcanizer, do they even know what “consent” means? Does he know that even if he spent 100k on food and gifts for a girl who visits at night, he still has zero right to force her?

Many women themselves have absorbed this broken thinking, you hear dem say “Why did she go there if she didn’t want to do anything? Why did she eat and take his money if e no wan nack”

Law should correct culture, but in Nigeria culture is louder than law.

Look at Somalia, they (The Pedos law makers) knew child marriage laws would block their wickedness, so they removed the law. Why? Because law is powerful. It can either protect or enable evil. Whoever controls the law controls the fate of girls.

So how did the Western world shift? Their women revolted. They disrupted society. They fought government. They forced policy. They joined politics. They demanded international pressure. They refused to move on after every case of abuse or killing of a girl child.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, we cry online for 12 hours, trend hashtags for one day, kokoro alate in Ibadan shout and cash out. content creators harvest engagement, then we move on, waiting for the next story like it’s entertainment. And everyday, Girls are dying. Laws are sleeping. Society is scrolling.

Until Nigerians, especially women, fathers of daughters, and true allies, force the system to rewrite the law and enforce it without tribal, religious, or family apology, nothing will change.

A nation that cannot protect its daughters is not developing, it is decaying.

John Noah Onaolapo

Lagos, Nigeria.