The Commonwealth Youth Forum is one of the mediums happening in Kigali that brings together youth from across the Commonwealth to build cross-cultural connections and networks, and deliberates on youth-led initiatives addressing emerging issues impacting young people. Ruth Okafor, a young Nigerian gender activist working with Connected Development (CODE), is one of the participants of the forum. Her passion for gender equality and inclusion drove her to advocate for one of the most pressing issues in the world today. Growing up, Okafor was a very vocal young person, and her family always tried to silence her, which led her to be quieter for a while. But that changed when she took a trip to Kano, a city in northern Nigeria (second largest after Lagos) where gender equality is still a big issue. “My family always asked me why I was so outspoken and yet I am a girl. They would tell me that because I was so vocal, it was going to be very hard to get a husband, so it got me into hiding and made me quiet for a long time. I wouldn’t speak out my opinions or thoughts, I always kept it to myself,” she says. While on the trip in Kano, she realised that there were many gender-related issues that needed a call for action, and although she had been silenced for a long time, she decided to be the call for action. “I found young girls who were child brides, I saw a system known as Almajiranci, I saw young children living in harsh conditions at a tender age, so it brought me into sensitising communities and taking up personal projects, going to schools, educating and sensitising girls to not just be girls and leave as girls, but to have a voice in the community,” she says. The almajiranci system is known to be highly controversial and practiced in northern Nigeria. The system has been attacked for promoting youth poverty and delinquency, for failing to teach young boys vocational skills and thus making them unequipped for the workforce, and for radicalising boys and making them perfect recruits for gangs and Boko Haram. Others believe the almajiranci system teaches young boys to be pious, good people who will benefit society. Okafor not only advocates for gender equality for girls, but both genders because in her country, gender-related issues affect everyone from women to men. “In Nigeria, when we talk about gender, some people think it’s probably just about the women only and their rights, but I am a gender activist at all levels, because even men have reporting cases of gender-based violence in Nigeria and it is a big number, gender equality is for all and inclusiveness should include all people,” she says. She says Rwanda is her inspiration on gender inclusion and equality, and admires where the country came from and where it is now, and that Nigeria still has a long way to go in this regard. “To be very honest, Rwanda is an inspiration to me because I see you have over 60 per cent women in parliament. Nigeria has less than 16 per cent, even in the states, even in the executive council, and even in the federal elements, it is hard to push for equality, and for women to be able to run they have to pay for it, that is why we still have a long way to go,” she said. However, she says that some states in Nigeria are doing very well in promoting gender equality and inclusion. She points out that religion and cultural challenges are some of the reasons why there are still gender issues in her country. “Some states hide behind religion and cultural factors to ensure that certain policies that would favour the society don’t scale, which make gender equality hard, especially for women,” she says. Although gender-related issues are not only in Nigeria, Okafor believes that generally, the way forward to tackle the situation around gender is to advocate more for gender equality and inclusion. “At the world level the situation is not yet good but not bad also, as the youth we have a duty to put all hands on deck and join advocacy, and I wouldn’t say that the main issue to the situation is awareness. There is a level of awareness, although not deeply in the rural communities, the youth should be the voice to these issues and also they should be brought to the table and listened to,” she says.
