Independence must reach the everyday woman
As Nigeria marks 66 years of independence this October 1, we celebrate the freedom, resilience and progress that have shaped the nation since 1960. But Independence Day also gives us an opportunity to ask a more personal question: what does independence actually mean in the everyday lives of Nigerian women?
Every October 1, Nigeria celebrates the story of becoming an independent nation.
The flags come out. Schools and civil sector goes on public holiday to celebrate the freedom of the nation. Radio and tv stations air speeches about freedom, resilience and the progress Nigeria has made since independence in 1960.
But Independence Day also offers an opportunity to ask a different question: what does independence mean when we look at the everyday live of a typical Nigerian woman. Nigeria gained political independence from British colonial rule decades ago. But political independence at the national level does not automatically translate into equal access to resources or an equal voice in decisions that shape society.
Freedom Is More Than A Flag
Independence is often understood as the ability of a nation to determine its own affairs. But for an individual, freedom can be much more personal.
It can mean being able to earn and control income, own property, access financial services, build a business, participate in public life and have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect your family and community.
On these measures, Nigerian women have made progress, but the gaps remain visible.
For example, World Bank data show that in 2024, 52.2 per cent of women in Nigeria had an account at a financial institution or mobile-money provider, compared with 74.3 per cent of men. That is a 22.1 percentage-point gender gap in account ownership. An account may sound like a little thing but it’s not because access to financial services can affect whether a woman can save securely, receive payments, access credit, manage a business or build financial independence.
Economic independence is not simply about having a job. It is also about having control over the resources that come from that work. Women work and still have limited choices. A woman can work and still have limited access to capital. She can run a business and still struggle to own assets. She can contribute significantly to her household while having little influence when it comes to major financial decisions.
Independence is not just the absence of a legal restriction. It is also the presence of genuine choices. So the questions of independence we are asking today are: Can she start and grow a business? Can she access finance? Can she own and control assets? Can she remain in the workforce after having children? Can she make important decisions about her own life especially when she’s married?
There is also a question in who gets to decide. There is a very visible gap when it comes to politics. Nigeria is home to millions of women, yet women remain significantly underrepresented in the country’s national legislature.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union currently reports women holding about 4.2 per cent of seats in Nigeria’s House of Representatives.
Following the 2023 elections, women won only 14 of the 360 seats in the House of Representatives. Here, the gap is visibly wide.
Parliament is where laws are debated, budgets are scrutinised and national priorities are shaped. When women are consistently underrepresented in these spaces, the country loses opportunities to draw on the experiences and perspectives of a large part of its population. This does not mean that every woman will think alike or that women can only represent women’s interests. They cannot. It means that a democracy is stronger when women have meaningful opportunities to participate in the institutions making decisions about their lives and communities.
The danger of talking about women’s empowerment only in terms of exceptional success stories is that we can miss the structural questions.
We celebrate the woman who becomes a CEO.
The woman who wins an election.
The woman who builds a successful company.
The woman who becomes a professor, doctor, engineer or community leader.
Those stories matter. They show what is possible.
But independence must also be measured by what is possible for the woman running a small shop in a rural community, the young woman entering the workforce for the first time, the farmer trying to access finance, the mother balancing paid work and unpaid care, and the woman who wants to participate in decisions affecting her community.
The question should not only be, “Can a Nigerian woman succeed? It should be how difficult are we making it for her to make decisions especially when her choices are limited. That is a much bigger question.
Nigeria’s independence story belongs to everyone; men children and women.
For women, that future cannot be defined only by representation in photographs, celebratory speeches or occasional appointments. It must include access to economic opportunities, financial services, assets, safety, leadership and decision-making spaces The goal, however, is not simply to create more impressive statistics.
It is to build communities where a woman’s opportunities are not unnecessarily narrowed because she is a woman.
So this Independence Day, alongside celebrating Nigeria’s sovereignty, perhaps we should ask ourselves a more personal question:
What would it look like for independence to be felt in the everyday lives of Nigerian women?
It would look like a woman having the resources to make choices about her future.
It would look like her voice being present where decisions are made.
It would look like economic participation translating into economic power.
And it would mean that freedom is not simply something we celebrate as a nation once a year, but something more people can experience in their everyday lives.
The next chapter should ask not only whether the nation is free, but whether that freedom is reaching everyone especially the women who run and organize homes while they are been seen as people that can’t take decisions for the nation.