“Tunde Ednut, Gossimill, Yabaleft, Cutie Juls, Gistlover and many other bloggers in Nigeria, it’s time to wrap it up. The country is facing serious challenges and, at this point, we don’t want to keep seeing posts of girls dancing or celebrity weddings anymore. We want to be seeing updates about what is happening in Nigeria on your pages.”
— AlvinOfLagos calls out Nigerian bloggers.
I don’t even know how this is going to come off, but as a woman, especially a Nigerian woman, there’s something we need to really unpack about the way we are conditioned.
A lot of women are raised to be extremely agreeable, docile, soft-spoken, and constantly aware that “someone is above you.” Whether it is your father, husband, uncle, older brother, boss, or just men generally. That conditioning does something to your brain over time.
Because if you think about it, correction is something society naturally associates with children. A child is the one that gets disciplined. A child is the one that gets scolded, controlled, or physically corrected.
So it is deeply disturbing that grown women are still being treated that way. A grown woman is being beaten, slapped, controlled through fear, humiliated, violated, and somehow society still expects her to remain calm, respectful, submissive, understanding, and morally upright through all of it. Eww.
And many women have not fully mentally separated themselves from that “child position” society placed them in. So even in the face of violence, they still respond from submission instead of self-preservation.
And I’m not saying violence is the solution to violence, but when people say things like “hit back” or “fight back,” what they are really saying is: stop seeing yourself as powerless. Stop seeing yourself as somebody people can violate without consequence.
The reason women freeze, tolerate abuse, or keep enduring violence is not because they enjoy pain. It is because somewhere deep down, society has conditioned them to believe authority over them is normal.
So when somebody raises their hand to hit you and you still stay there trying to preserve morality, preserve respectability, preserve peace, preserve “good woman” behavior, it says a lot about how deeply obedience has been wired into women.
There is no reason in hell a grown adult should be putting their hands on another grown adult and walking away like it is normal. I don’t care if it is your father, husband, boyfriend, or anybody else. Violence should never be normalized as “discipline” once you are a grown woman.
At some point, women have to mentally free themselves from the belief that they are still children people can control physically. You’re not a freaking child, fight back and exit the situation!
To be honest, I’ve noticed something —
a lot of people hide behind words like “resilience” when giving advice.
But sometimes it ends up dismissing what people are actually dealing with.
You’ll hear things like “you’re not trying hard enough” or “you’re not resilient enough”…
when the reality is that the landscape today is very different.
It’s one thing to encourage people to push through.
It’s another thing to ignore the reality they’re pushing through in the first place.
I don’t think it’s too much to expect a bit more awareness and kindness, especially in times like this.
DURING JOB INTERVIEW:
"Why are you leaving your current role?"
Most candidates say: "I am looking for more growth opportunities and a better company culture."
THE WINNING ANSWER:
Some of you are refusing to enter into a relationship because you've been hurt in the past, and you're afraid of giving your heart to another person whom you fear would cause another heartbreak.
If you don't give someone an opportunity to love you, they can't love you. To love is to risk being hurt.