In June 1945, thousands of railway, postal and clerical workers in Nigeria walked off their jobs. The trains stopped running, offices emptied, and the country's essential services ground to a halt.

Trade unions had been pushing for higher wages since 1941, a response to terrible working conditions and rising prices made worse by World War II.

When the war broke out in 1939, the colonial government enforced severe economic restrictions to support the war effort. British officials prioritised diverting food to soldiers on the frontlines, and forced railway and factory workers to work overtime. They also regulated the cost of goods in a desperate bid to limit inflation and stabilise the wartime economy, and demanded farmers grow cash crops instead of food crops. This disrupted Nigeria's food production and made life difficult for ordinary people. After months of fruitless negotiations with the government about improved wages, workers had no option but to follow through on their threat.

The strike started in Lagos with 40,000 workers, and quickly spread to other cities. For six weeks, the demonstrations shut down economic activities nationwide. But the success of the strike was not reliant on the efforts of the workers alone. Nigerian women played a crucial role.

Before the strike, the Lagos Market Women Association (LMWA), led by Alimotu Pelewura, fought against the government’s wartime price controls, which ate into their profits. The traders protested by storming official meetings uninvited, submitting formal petitions to British colonial officials, and organising large, vocal street protests.

When the general strike kicked off in June 1945, the women needed no convincing to rally together and support the movement. They successfully persuaded traders across Nigeria to sell items to strikers on credit or at reduced prices. Other women showed solidarity by donating to the Workers' Relief Fund, which helped sustain the strike.

Adunni Oluwole, an actress and preacher, emerged as a political force during this period, feeding workers and speaking at meetings to encourage them to maintain momentum. They called her "workers' mother."

The strike ended in August when the government conceded to demands, dropped lawsuits against the workers, and paid them improved wages.

The role women played in the 1945 general strike would become part of a long tradition of women's resistance in Nigeria, from the Aba Women's War of 1929 to contemporary movements like #BringBackOurGirls and #EndSARS.

When Women Fight…

Ijebuland's cultural significance extends beyond garri Ijebu and the colourful Ojude Oba festival that celebrates its heritage every year. It is incomplete without the story of the women-led resistance that kicked against unfair taxation before the country's independence.

In 1947, women gathered to protest the colonial government's petrol tax, which directly affected transport workers, but also female traders who used their services to move their goods. Even after the striking transport union paid the £300 tax demanded by the government, Ijebu women insisted it had to be abolished.

On March 11, 1947, they marched to the palace of the Awujale, the town's traditional ruler, to press their demands. When the Resident, one of the highest-ranking representatives of the British colonial government, arrived to observe the gathering, they stoned his car.

Colonial taxation in Western Nigeria started with import and export levies, before expanding to direct taxation under the 1918 Native Revenue Ordinance. This system imposed heavy burdens on citizens, requiring even women as young as fifteen to pay taxes. Enforcement was brutal, including home invasions, public humiliations, and stripping of women to determine if they were of tax-paying age. Defaulters faced jail time and property seizure.

While Ijebu women fought the petrol tax, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was the face of another anti-tax movement less than 80 kilometres away. Her Abeokuta Women’s Union (AWU), which began as an exclusive club for the town's middle-class women, grew into a powerful political resistance that welcomed market women and other working-class women of varying backgrounds. Their primary target was Oba Ladipo Ademola, the Alake of Egbaland, who implemented British colonial policies, including women's taxation.

Between 1946 and 1948, the union grew to about 100,000 members. To resist a controversial poll tax—a mandatory fixed amount regardless of income—the women employed various tactics, including refusal to pay taxes, mass demonstrations at the Alake's palace where they slept for days, market boycotts, and press conferences. Despite police crackdowns extending to Ijebuland, involving mass arrests and tear gas attacks, the women remained steadfast.

Eventually, the demonstrations attracted national and international attention. In 1949, the Alake resigned, and the controversial tax was suspended.

Taxation was also the inciting incident for the most famous women-led resistance in Nigerian history. The 1929 Aba Women's War was a protest against the repressive practices of local warrant chiefs who started conducting a census, raising women's fears that they would be taxed like men, regardless of economic status.

The British government's response to the nonviolent demonstrations was brutal: police officers opened fire on unarmed protesters. Around fifty women lost their lives, and roughly fifty more suffered injuries. However, the women's war resulted in significant reforms, such as the removal of some warrant chiefs from office and a revamp of the colonial government's structure to allow for deeper participation from Nigerians.

In Northern Nigeria, women's resistance took shape under a different colonial context. The British ruled the region through indirect rule, using emirs and village leaders to implement colonial policies under the Northern Peoples' Congress (NPC).

The region was so conservative that women were not allowed to attend political gatherings due to cultural conventions. The social order started to change in 1950 when Aminu Kano formed the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU). The party’s women's wing, led by Gambo Sawaba, became the face of Northern women's resistance. The group's agenda was to expand women's access to religious and secular education while creating space for them to exercise their political and economic rights.

These women boldly challenged unfair practices, pushed against child marriage, and often campaigned for girls' education and job opportunities for women. Despite the severe consequences faced for her activism, including multiple arrests, floggings, and imprisonments, Sawaba and many others like Ladi Alexandria Shehu remained resolute in their mission to liberate women.

Women in the Eastern and Western regions gained limited voting rights in the 1950s, but women in the North remained completely shut out from polling booths. In 1956, they marched to the Kaduna office of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the regional premier, asking for voting rights in future elections.

Sawaba and Shehu famously argued for voting rights for the region's women before the Willink Commission on Minority Groups in Nigeria in 1957. It took years of sustained advocacy before the government finally conceded in 1976.

New Faces Of Resistance

The legacy of these women lives on in movements defending equality, justice, and dignity. Their battles established a precedent, demonstrating the power of women to successfully oppose colonial control, organise protests, and rally support.

The abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls from their school in 2014 by the terrorist group Boko Haram sparked one of the most significant protests in contemporary Nigeria. Local outrage over the government's inaction escalated into a global movement demanding accountability. Led by women like Oby Ezekwesili, Aisha Yesufu, Hadiza Bala Usman, and Bukky Shonibare, the Bring Back Our Girls group staged daily protests in Abuja, and fuelled a social media campaign that pressured local and international leaders to act. Their activism forced the world to pay attention and led to the rescue of some of the Chibok girls.

The #EndSARS protest of October 2020 was a manifestation of young Nigerians reaching their breaking point with police brutality, particularly from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). What began as scattered demonstrations across major cities quickly gained momentum, with thousands flooding the streets demanding justice for victims of harassment, extortion, and extrajudicial killings. Initially unplanned and coordinated mainly through social media, the growing movement soon required a proper structure to protect the interests of the protesters.

Women provided this crucial backbone through the Feminist Coalition (FemCo), a group of young women activists who stepped in about a week into the protests. They took charge of fundraising, managed logistics, arranged legal support for detained protesters, organised medical care, and ensured protesters had food and water. Despite the tragic events of October 20, when security forces opened fire on peaceful protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate, killing several people, the movement successfully forced a national conversation about police brutality and governance.

Nigerian Women Are Pillars Of Resistance

Throughout Nigerian history, women have led the charge for justice and resistance. While methods have evolved from market boycotts to digital activism, the core principles of collective action, resilience, and grassroots mobilisation remain unchanged.

Similar to how #BringBackOurGirls triggered a global reaction and #EndSARS forced the dissolution of SARS, women-led movements in the past pressured authorities to act. Even in the face of brutal consequences, Nigerian women have always resisted oppression, and their impact is undeniable. History must remember them as architects of change.