Nigeria Has a Femicide Problem It Refuses to Acknowledge

In Nigeria, a disturbing trend continues unabated: women are dying daily at the hands of men while the government and cultural institutions turn a blind eye. What's worse, popular culture — including music — often normalizes violence against women.

Take the recent single "Jay Jay" by Nigerian artistRuger, which opens with the disturbing lyrics: "If a girl worry me, I delete her. Put her inside the bin bag." While "delete" can simply mean removing someone from one's life, in this context — particularly paired with "bin bag" — it carries the connotation of killing.

Hassana Maina, executive director of Anti Sexual Violence Lead Support Initiative, explains that Nigeria's entertainment industry reflects what society deems acceptable. "We are the rot. We are the ones who platform it," she tells OkayAfrica. "And that's because that's what we're all thinking. If we don't accept it anymore, our music and movies would not highlight violence in such ways."

Recent months have seen a horrifying parade of femicide cases across Nigeria. In January, gospel singer Timileyin Ajayi was arrested while attempting to dispose of a nylon bag containing the dismembered body of 24-year-old Salome Eleoji Adaidu. Ajayi, who claimed she was his girlfriend,reportedly expressed no remorse, citing her alleged infidelity as justification.

On Sunday, March 2, a man in Bauchi was arrested for allegedlybeating his wife to death over their Ramadan meal. In January, a man in Anambraset his wife ablaze over suspicions of infidelity. Last December, a man allegedly beat his wife of 17 years to deathover disagreements on her preference for cooking yam.

One fundamental problem is that femicide in Nigeria isn't recognized for what it is. Various euphemisms and descriptions are used for gender-based killings, but rarely the appropriate term: femicide. Ololade Ajayi, founder of DOHS Cares Foundation, a nonprofit organization for women, children, and vulnerable people, says that femicide often results from escalating patterns of abuse.

"Characteristics and red flags to watch out for include domestic violence, threats to kill during altercations, and non-fatal strangulation; these have crossed into attempted cases of femicide," Ajayi tells OkayAfrica. "We have continued to tell women about these things in communities, and we found many women who were victims of this."

Justice remains elusive for victims and their families. Perpetrators areoften freed or manage toescape to other countries, with Nigerian law enforcement and government authorities frequently complicit through inaction or inadequate response.

Cordelia Okonye, whose daughter Augusta Osedion was murdered by her boyfriend in 2023, declined to comment on Nigeria's justice system when contacted by OkayAfrica, simply stating, "There is no justice in Nigeria." For two years, Okonyehas called for the arrest of Benjamin Nnanyereugo, known as Killaboi, whoconfessed to killing her daughter.

The statistics are grim. According to Maktaba Wiki,over 100 reported femicides occurred in Nigeria in 2024, with 50.44 percent being non-intimate partner violence.UN Women data shows that Africa had the highest number of femicides worldwide in 2023, with 21,700 gender-related killings by intimate partners.

However, Ajayi believes these figures dramatically understate the problem. "Femicide is a pandemic in Nigeria. We have not even discovered half of the cases in Nigeria, especially in Northern Nigeria," she says. "Some of these cases ruled as banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism are actually femicide cases. A case whereby a bandit kidnaps a woman, wants to rape her, and he killed her because she refused: that's a strict case of femicide."

In response to the crisis, the DOHS Cares Foundation launched afemicide data dashboard in 2024, an open-source project tracking femicide cases across Nigerian states with over 200 volunteers reporting incidents. The organization also drafted a femicide bill and submitted it to the National Assembly and Lagos State House of Assembly but received an unfavorable response.

"The Lagos State House of Assembly replied in August 2024 to say that there is already a law on homicide and domestic violence. So the law on femicide would be a tautology," Ajayi explains. "We replied to say no. The law on domestic violence and murder does not cover the crime of femicide. Femicide is a hate crime that occurs intentionally because the victim is a woman. It stems from power disparity, misogyny, and gender inequality. Femicide should be recognized as a distinct crime, and there should be a separate law specifically addressing it."

Maina sees these ignored cases of femicide as evidence that Nigeria's system was designed to serve men. "A system that would punish and humiliate people that decide to speak against it is not ready to stop abusing women. We've seen that the Senate President [Godswill Akpabio] has a disdain for women that he cannot even pretend to cover," she says, pointing toa recent incident where senators apologized to the Senate President after a female legislator, HonorableNatasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, accused him of sexual harassment. "How, then, do we expect the law to take effect when the enforcers of such laws are the biggest defenders of the culture of patriarchy and misogyny?" Maina asks.

Last year, Nigerianwomen had to fight against the repeal of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, which would have left them legally unprotected. Even now, Nigeria's Criminal Code categorizes crimes against women as misdemeanors while similar crimes against men are classified as felonies.

Gabari Ufuoma Precious, a women's rights advocate and Urhobo language coach, attributes the rise in gender-based violence and femicide to the weak enforcement of the minimal laws protecting women in Nigeria.

"Nigeria's government shows a mix of action and inaction on women's rights. Policies like the National Gender Policy are not strongly enforced and are hampered by cultural norms," she tells OkayAfrica. "This isn't just a matter of justice; it's a matter of humanity. Femicide is not just statistics; it represents the lived realities of countless women who face daily threats to their safety and well-being. The level of impunity surrounding these crimes is deeply concerning, and it's fueling a culture where violence against women persists."