Women alone cannot dismantle a system they did not build…

Every year, on March 8th, the world says:
“Happy International Women’s Day.”

But I have to ask

What exactly are we celebrating?

Are we celebrating the progress made? The small wins? Are we celebrating the fact that women survive in a world that was never built for them? The women who have somehow beaten the odds, pushed through the barriers, and carved a seat for themselves at tables built to exclude them? Are we celebrating the illusion of progress…that we persist despite the laws, the culture, the unspoken rules designed to keep us contained?

Or are we simply celebrating the fact that we are still here, despite it all?

Because let’s be honest. In Nigeria and in much of the world, the odds remain stacked against women.

We talk about progress, but what does progress mean in a country where:

A girl can be married off at 13 but can’t open a bank account, legally rent a house, or apply for a National ID until 18.

A woman is told to be educated, brilliant, and excellent, only to be reminded that she should never outshine a man.

A woman cannot pass her citizenship to her foreign-born husband, but a man can.

A widow is stripped of her home, her dignity, and her personhood the moment her husband dies.

A female politician is not just running against opponents but against a deeply ingrained belief that she does not belong.

Women make up almost half of Nigeria’s population but hold less than 5% of political offices

A woman cannot walk into a room without her worth being measured by who she is married to, what she looks like, or how much she is willing to endure.

A woman is still expected to shrink, to make herself smaller, to be grateful for the bare minimum, to be accommodating, to not be “too ambitious” lest she offend the fragile structures around her.

This is not progress.

Is this the progress we are celebrating?

There is still so much more to be done.

Progress is not when a woman finally earns a right that should have been hers from the beginning.

Progress is not when a woman’s “place” is still being decided for her

Progress is not when a woman still cannot walk home at night without fear
Progress is not when a woman fights twice as hard to get half as much.
Progress is not when a woman is “allowed” into spaces that should never have been closed to her in the first place.

So again, I ask: What are we celebrating?

Because if we are not tearing these systems apart, if we are not demanding more, if we are not confronting the roots of why women are still considered “less”, then all we are doing today is decorating oppression with flowers and hashtags.

Women alone cannot dismantle a system they did not build.

So today, I am not speaking to the women.
I am speaking to the men.

To the men in our teams, our industries, our families, our boardrooms, our streets.We do not ask for much.

We ask only this: To be seen as fully human.

Before we are your mothers, your sisters, your wives, your daughters, we are people.
And in a world that already works overtime to silence us, I ask that you are not one of them.

Will you speak up when a woman is being dismissed in a room where she is not present?
Will you challenge the small, insidious ways you have been conditioned to control, to diminish, to excuse, to overlook? Even in yourself?
Will you be a voice when it is easier to be silent?

Because women were made to shift systems. And we will not stop.

Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

We are builders. Creators. Innovators. We take what exists and reimagine it. We see what’s missing and build it. We push, we pull, and we bend the world into something that makes room for us.

To the men, I say make room. And when you have power, use it to amplify, not suppress.

We have been given wings.
And if you do not help us fly, you are part of the reason we are still fighting to take off.

Who else will be our allies?

There has been progress, yes. But there is still more.
More glass to break. More ceilings to remove. More systems to challenge.
More space to take up. More women to remind that they belong everywhere.

TO EVERY WOMAN READING THIS:

Whether you are in the boardroom or the marketplace, in your prime or in transition, in a season of wins or a season of rest—I celebrate you.

Wherever you are, however you are, in whatever season you find yourself in. You are a force.

Not because you have done something extraordinary, though many of you have.
Not because you have broken a record or shattered a glass ceiling, though many of you will.

But because you are here…

And that, in itself, is a defiant act.

Boldness is not always a battle cry…
Sometimes, boldness is choosing yourself when the world expects you to shrink.
Sometimes, it’s starting over. Changing direction. Speaking up. Staying silent.
Sometimes, boldness is just showing up. Again. And again. And again.

So, no, I will not say Happy International Women’s Day.
Because I am not here to celebrate survival.

I am here to demand more.
I am here to call for war on a system that was never built for us.
I am here to say that until we stop fighting to simply exist, this day will not be a celebration…it will be a reminder of how much further we have to go.

So, today, I say:

Take up space. Break what needs to be broken. Build what needs to be built.
And do not stop until the world is unrecognizable.

Keep pushing. Keep building. Keep taking up space.

The world has no idea what’s coming.

Because we are not done.