By Prosper Mene, April 5, 2025
In a concerning display of frustration, hundreds of women flooded the streets of Kano today, banging empty pots and hoisting placards with messages like โWe Canโt Feed Our Childrenโ to protest the relentless surge in food prices that has pushed millions of Nigerian families to the brink. The demonstration, which began at dawn in the Fagge district, marked a crescendo in public anger over an inflation crisis that has seen the cost of staples like rice, yam, and beans double in the past year alone.
โWeโre not begging for charity, we just want prices we can afford,โ said Fatima Ibrahim, a 42-year-old trader and mother of five, her voice rising above the chants of the crowd. โHow can I feed my family when a bag of rice costs more than I earn in a month?โ Her words captured the desperation felt by many in Kano, Nigeriaโs second-largest city, where women, often the backbone of household economies, bear the heaviest burden of the nationโs worsening cost-of-living crisis.
Organized by a coalition of grassroots womenโs groups, including the Kano Mothersโ Network, the protest drew participants from across the cityโs sprawling markets and low-income neighborhoods. Demonstrators marched toward the Government House, calling on Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf to press the federal government for urgent actionโsubsidies, price controls, or relief programsโto ease the strain. By midday, the crowd swelled to nearly a thousand, with some carrying wilted vegetables to symbolize their dwindling resources.
Nigeriaโs inflation rate, hovering above 30% according to recent estimates, has been fueled by a mix of global supply chain disruptions, naira depreciation, and local factors like flooding that devastated farms in 2024. For women like Ibrahim, who rely on daily market sales to survive, the impact is immediate and devastating. โIf I donโt sell, we donโt eat. But now, even selling isnโt enough,โ she said.
The protest also spotlighted a gender divide in economic hardship. Women, who dominate informal trade and small-scale farming in northern Nigeria, have been hit hardest by rising costs, yet their voices are rarely heard in policy debates. โWe manage the home, we feed the children, why are we ignored when the system fails?โ asked Halima Sani, a protest organizer.
Governor Yusufโs administration responded cautiously, with a spokesperson promising that officials were โactively engaging stakeholdersโ to address the crisis. However, no specific measures, such as the emergency food distribution requested by protestersโwere outlined by the time the crowd dispersed under the late afternoon sun. The lack of immediate action drew sharp criticism from demonstrators, who vowed to return if their demands go unmet.
Todayโs march in Kano joins a wave of similar protests led by women across Nigeria, from Lagos to Maiduguri, signaling a growing movement against economic policies that many say favor the elite over the struggling majority.
