Dear Society, the boys you refused to train are harming the girls you’ve spent years trying to discipline.
On Thursday, March 19, Nigeria woke up to disturbing news it would never have imagined. Men from the Ozoro community, in Isoko North LGA in Delta State, came out in numbers and took to the streets to chase, molest, assault, and rape women. According to reports, there is a cultural festival observed in the community during which women are traditionally expected to stay indoors. However, this year, there was no official warning, and those who heard only heard it very late, mostly through informal means like WhatsApp. This means some women would not have been privy to the information, and it was almost as if that was their plan all along, because as soon as these women stepped outside, it became a hunting ground.
The videos that circulated were horrifying to watch. In one, a woman on a bike was dragged off by a group of men who tore at her clothing while she screamed. In another, a woman ran while attackers pulled her dress from her body, leaving her exposed in the middle of the street in broad daylight. As said before, in an earlier article, Nigeria has a rape problem, and the rape of women during the Ozoro festival is not new. The only difference now is the cameras — we now have video proof of it happening.
The Alue-Do Festival is described as a fertility celebration where married couples who are seeking children visit the goddess’s temple. That is what we were told, but what happened on March 19 in Ozoro was not about fertility, and nothing was spiritual about it. It was men who decided to turn it into a “raping festival,” believing that the occasion gave them permission and that women’s bodies were available for their use. The Ovie of Ozoro Kingdom himself said he has never, in over twenty years as a king, known of any festival that involved the harassment or rape of women in his community. That means the King did not sanction it, and neither did their tradition. The men in the community made the decision themselves and hid it behind culture, causing women to suffer.
Ese, a TikTok content creator, took to her page to share how, during one of the festivals in the community, men dragged her pastor’s child outside and inserted a rod into her private part. She claimed issues like these had always happened during the festival, and this one only got attention because of the video evidence.
Thanks to social media for raising awareness and spreading the news, citizens of Nigeria are now demanding justice for the women who fell victim.
More than 500 women’s rights organisations, united under Womenifesto, joined the outcry and described the alleged abuses as a violation of constitutional rights. The Delta State Police Command Public Relations Officer posted on X that the Commissioner had ordered an investigation and that no custom or tradition is superior to the rights of citizens. The Delta State government called the acts barbaric and unacceptable, and the Nigerian Bar Association called it gender-based violence in its most primitive form and demanded prosecution.
The community head, identified as the chief organiser of the festival, has been arrested, and the suspects have been moved to the state criminal investigation department. Only time will tell what the outcome means in reality, because Nigeria has a long history of how these cases resolve, or more accurately, how they don’t.
The boys who perpetrated this evil did not materialise from nowhere; they grew up somewhere. They were raised in communities that made them feel entitled to women’s bodies. They watched what happened when men harmed women and saw that the consequences were negotiable. Nobody trained them otherwise; instead, they spent years taming and teaching girls how to survive men.
Other parts of the world have also exhibited similar patterns. For instance, the men in Japan have turned exam season into what social media now calls “groping day”, a day where they deliberately target female students on trains to harass them. They take advantage of crowded spaces, and the victims cannot report them without jeopardising their exams. These are examples that show how men across different cultures and continents exploit opportunities when they believe there will be minimal repercussions for their crimes.
This socialised entitlement is reflected in the culture, which has for years been used to cause harm. For us to prevent issues like these from happening, we need to understand that culture is not static. It can change and evolve; it is not immune to accountability. Female genital mutilation was once defended as tradition; child marriage still is. And just because we call something “culture” does not mean we should not scrutinise it. People must also be held accountable, and they should be prosecuted accordingly. We need to establish that Nigeria is not the kind of country where you can just rape someone during a festival and go home.
Women of Ozoro do not need sympathy; they don’t need statements or empty promises; they need justice. And until there are consequences to match the harm being done, nothing will change. Not in Ozoro, or anywhere else.
