by Toluwalope Omoyeni

The concept of Feminism is quite simple. It’s the advocacy that seeks to bridge the gap between men and women, in terms of social, political, cultural and even financial rights.

As simple as it seems, feminism is arguably the most misunderstood concept of recent times. Here in Nigeria, feminism is even more complex and complicated as everything else is. Maybe we should not even go into this business.

Here are 5 reasons why feminism is bad business in Nigeria;

1. Run a masterclass, a conference or lecture, a talkshow, a Twitter thread, make billboards, TV and radio ads on feminism and some Nigerians (male and female alike) will never understand. Not because they can’t but they are just not moved about why women want to be equal to men. With them, not all things are possible.

2. Nigerian men consider feminism talks as an excuse for women to be lazy and domineering. They can’t adapt to it because it will mean no more food when and how they want it. Feminism = no cooking. Association of Nigerian husbands and boyfriends are not having any of that claptrap.

3. By reason of my imagination, some Nigerian girls will begin to introduce themselves as Feminist whoever. It will soon become a title and a prefix before names, because in Nigeria, we always fail to see the point. Hello sir, I’m Feminist Ebele Abdullahi, nice to meet you.

4. The diverse cultural and traditional myths that are celebrated in this very African country of ours leaves no space for feminism to thrive. We are waist-deep into our culture, though most of us try to deny it. How can you explain to or convince Northerners about feminism when they still do not see anything wrong in child brides? How?

5. A lot of Nigerians just believe we have bigger issues on our hands. Maybe in our free time, we’ll discuss feminism on Twitter and there alone but for now, let’s talk about why power supply is still suffering from this generational epilepsy, why our budget was padded and why we’re not allowed to buy gala in traffic.