鈥榃hat a man can do, a woman can do better鈥� is something every Nigerian woman has heard at least once, either from her schoolteacher on International Women鈥檚 Day or a relative trying to convince her to turn on the generator in the dead of the night.

Unfortunately, the sentiment behind this phrase rarely lasts beyond the moment it is spoken. Out of 109 seats in Nigeria鈥檚 Senate, only are occupied by women, and women continue to be overrepresented in low-paid sectors like childcare and teaching. In the past few years, it may seem that corporate baddies have begun to outnumber men in the workplace, but social media is not real life, and does not translate into equal opportunities or working conditions.

According to a by the International Labour Organisation, women make up 70% of Nigeria鈥檚 poorest residents, and women earn 20-30% less than men despite having equal qualifications. This gender gap is most glaring in engineering and technology. Only of women study engineering and technology in Nigerian universities. It is 2026, but female engineers in Nigeria are still as rare as unicorns.

Esosa* is one of the few women who have chosen to pursue a career in engineering, and in this article, she discusses what it means to be a woman in a male-dominated field.

What is the ratio of men to women in your workplace?

For every one woman you find here, there are three men, and that is how it is in most engineering spaces. In secondary school, I was the only girl in the engineering class. University wasn鈥檛 any better; out of the 83 students in my department, there were three girls. It is very hard for a woman to break into engineering. If not for the fact that I graduated with a First Class, one would think that I was a diversity hire.  

How do you feel about this imbalance in your workspace? 

Objectively, I know it is bad and really exhausting, but this is how it has been since the first day I decided to become an engineer.  Frankly, I鈥檓 not sure how I鈥檇 adapt in a better environment; I鈥檝e just never pictured it. 

I鈥檝e noticed that men have very fragile egos. Once a man sees that you are doing better than him, he will accept any narrative, no matter how ridiculous, instead of admitting that you are simply brilliant. At university, my classmates spread rumours that the only reason I had such good grades was that I slept with lecturers. I still face these sex-for-benefits allegations now that I鈥檓 in the labour market. My male colleagues even joke about it to my face.

Ah? As how?

It has happened so many times that I can鈥檛 pinpoint one incident. A senior lecturer once told me that the only reason I never had a carryover was that my lecturers knew I was brilliant and giving me bad grades would raise suspicion. According to him, about 90% of them had an eye on me but could not act on their desires because they had no leverage. 

While I was interning, one of my supervisors locked us both in a data centre so that he could tell me the sexual fantasies he had been having about me. Data centres are usually very loud, so no one could hear what he had to say. No one would have heard me either if I had needed to scream. Thankfully, he stopped at just words.

Did you report him?

No, it would have backfired on my career. Women are severely outnumbered, and men will stand in solidarity with each other when things like this happen.  Before that incident, a coworker reported one of our bosses for sexual harassment and was made into a social outcast by the entire office. A staff member said to my face that if she had done such a thing to him, he would have arranged for her to be beaten and raped. When things like this happen, if a woman doesn鈥檛 laugh it off, she would be told she鈥檚 overreacting and subsequently labelled a bitch.

To protect myself, I blocked his number and stopped going to work early so we would never be alone together. Even after choosing to keep quiet, I still suffered for it. My tardiness made me seem unserious. It was a bitter thing to swallow in a space where I was still struggling to be taken seriously.

Why do you feel like you have to struggle to be taken seriously?

The men I鈥檝e worked with will refer to sexism as 鈥榩erks鈥� women in engineering get. For instance, some supervisors won鈥檛 assign physically demanding tasks, such as inspections, to women. At first, it may look like an act of kindness until you realise that fieldwork is more than 50% of your job description. 

In the long run, we would have gained very little work experience, and when it鈥檚 time to be considered for a promotion, the men would be the better options.  A woman has to work twice as hard, have serious connections, or sell her body to compete with her male counterparts. It鈥檚 hard to find women in high positions in this industry. I didn鈥檛 have anyone to mentor me or warn me of this when I started my career.

Does this have any impact on the way you approach your work?

Yes, in every way you can think of. I find myself constantly getting interrupted when I speak at work, and I鈥檝e had my ideas credited to others several times. Because of this, I鈥檓 constantly on guard around the men I work with. It is so easy to be taken for granted, even more than I already am. 

My work outfits consist of baggy trousers and big, unflattering shirts. I also don鈥檛 wear make-up just to divert attention from myself. Outside of work, I am a completely different person. I love wearing nice clothes, partying, and going clubbing, but I am extra careful about hiding my extracurricular activities. Men do these things, and nobody bats an eye, but I would become a joke if anybody from work saw that side of me. 

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Would you say all the men in this field act the same way?

I鈥檝e worked at four different companies with different sets of people, and the overall experience is consistent, but I鈥檝e also had a lot of good male mentors. One of these mentors was the Sub-Dean of my faculty when I was in university. Once, a lecturer reported me for misconduct (he made advances toward me, and I rejected him). When he called me into his office for questioning, and I explained the situation, he wrapped up the matter immediately. He even told me that the best way to get those lecturers to leave me alone was to start asking them for money.

Why do you think the gender gap in engineering is so wide?

Men exaggerate just how difficult engineering is, and I think it鈥檚 because they are trying to gatekeep the profession. They also make it harder for women to move up the career ladder. While I was interning at a big government parastatal in Abuja, I noticed that there were only two female engineers in the engineering department, and while the men were sent on inspections, meetings and training every other week, the women were always in the office.

When I asked my supervisor why, he said that women can鈥檛 just travel and leave their families, so the organisation doesn鈥檛 send them on trips. I鈥檝e worked at a company that not only gave maternity leave, but also had mothering rooms, where new moms could bring their kids to be babysat while they worked. I know that if organisations wanted to make it easier for women to work demanding jobs, they could. They just don鈥檛 bother to.

Next Read: 5 Nigerian Women Talk About Learning Their Bodies

But sex education is so much more than a birth control or pregnancy scare lesson; it also includes conversations about vaginal health. A refusal to talk about sex means girls grow up learning reproductive care from social media, where they learn harmful practices like douching and resort to questionable herbal mixtures to treat vaginal infections.

This commonplace ignorance is also what fuels the stereotype that every itching around a woman鈥檚 genitals is a sign of poor hygiene.

In this article, four women share their most embarrassing experiences with vaginal infections and the cost of ignorance on their reproductive health.

1.) 鈥淢y Elder Brother Said My Vagina Was Smelling鈥� 鈥� *Rose (25)

A few years ago, I noticed that I had chunky vaginal discharge. At the time, I didn鈥檛 know about vaginal hygiene, so I thought that if I rinsed with water and wore clean underwear, it would go away with time. 

After a few months,  the discharge turned green. For some strange reason, I believed it looked like that because my panties were old. When the discharge started to smell, I thought it was caused by the hot weather because I was plus-sized at the time. Back then, vagina talk was dirty talk, so I didn’t know who to speak to about it. 

One afternoon, I was sitting with my brother and mum when my 24-year-old elder brother started sniffing aggressively. He sniffed until he was directly in front of me, then he made a sour face and said very loudly that my 鈥榖um bum鈥� was smelling. It felt even worse because I knew he was right; the smell was so bad that other people could smell it, but I didn’t know what was wrong with me. 

After an intense bout of tears and doomscrolling, I found articles suggesting that drinking enough water and cutting out soda would help. You can imagine how that went.

I didn鈥檛 realise that I had an infection for an entire year until I went to the hospital to treat an ulcer in my intestines. While running tests, the doctor asked me if I had an infection. I said I didn鈥檛 because at the time, I believed only sexually active people could have vaginal infections. Until I finished treatment, I didn鈥檛 ask the doctor what the infection was because I was too scared to ask questions.

It鈥檚 just very sad that I went a whole year without knowing that I had a vaginal infection.

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2.) 鈥淭hey Called Me a Prostitute Because I Had a Vaginal Infection鈥� 鈥� *Esther (23)

In my first year of university, I was 17 and basically clueless about everything, including my vagina. Unlike now, where we have women who talk freely about their bodies, conversations about vaginal health were centred around shame and hygiene. My only source of information was from friends, fear-mongering Facebook posts, and misogynistic memes about smelly vaginas, itching, pubic rashes and boils.

Girls with these conditions were known as 鈥榙irty girls鈥�, and I developed an obsessive phobia of being labelled a dirty girl. It wasn’t enough just to bathe and wash down there; I wanted to kill the germs that would make me stink. My search led me to my roommate, who introduced me to a group chat created by a vendor who sold intimate products. 

The girls in the group swore by practices like washing the vagina with hot water and Dettol daily and spraying perfume on panties before wearing them.  I started doing all of this and more. After a few days, my vagina began to itch terribly, and my discharge was off. I couldn鈥檛 complain to anyone because the symptoms were the same as what the girls in that group were trying to prevent, and I felt very ashamed. 

In hindsight, that group wasn鈥檛 created to give information about vaginal health. The vendors used shame and fear-mongering to sell their products, because why was anyone telling a 17-year-old that vaginas should smell like flowers?

When the infection started to get really bad, I bought the yoni pill that the vendor marketed as the cure to any vaginal infection. I confided in the roommate who introduced me to the vendor that the pill was making things worse. She reassured me that it would get better.  Three days later, I saw my pictures in a collage with dirty panties on my campus鈥檚 most popular WhatsApp channel. Apparently, someone had sent an anonymous message telling the handler that I had a vaginal infection. The person had included my full name, department and level. A year later, right before her final exams, my roommate confessed that she was the person who sent the message and my pictures to the handler.

People equate having a vaginal infection with being promiscuous, and in her message, she had mentioned that I had slept with half of the campus. Mind you, I was not even sexually active at the time. Strangers sent in stories about my 鈥榝ishy鈥� vagina, and men I had never met claimed they had slept with me.

People would stare and whisper as I walked around my faculty. I became depressed and stopped going to classes for about three weeks. My third roommate noticed and asked me what was wrong. Then she took me to the pharmacy, got me drugs and had me burn all my underwear. 

After that incident, I became very self-conscious. It took three years for me to feel comfortable with my body enough to try intimacy, but the silver lining is that it has also made me very knowledgeable about reproductive health. Now, I know better than to buy pills recklessly or to put things in my vagina that don鈥檛 belong there.

3.) 鈥淚 Found Out I Had an Infection During Sex鈥� 鈥� *Dabira (24)

Early last year, I noticed that my discharge was watery and I had a fishy smell coming from my vagina. It went on for about a month, but I didn鈥檛 realise that it was an infection. I had never even heard of bacterial vaginosis (BV) at the time. 

I had just started dating my girlfriend at the time, and we were about to have sex for the first time. We decided to try oral, and the moment she put her head between my legs. She stopped, took a deep breath, and said,  鈥楤abe, I think you have BV. 鈥� 

I was mortified. She was very gentle about it, but I still felt dirty and ashamed. My girlfriend is a practising nurse, so I didn鈥檛 need to go to the hospital; she gave me the medication I needed. Even though she tried her best to make things less awkward, my ego was bruised. I couldn鈥檛 stop thinking that she saw me as unhygienic. 

I couldn鈥檛 have sex for months after, and it took a lot of conversations and reassurance for my self-esteem to return and for me to be comfortable with intimacy again. 

4.) 鈥淭he Smell From My Vagina Stank Up an Entire Classroom鈥� 鈥� *Darcy (20)

In my first year of university, I lived in a dormitory with public bathrooms. One day, I realised I needed to shave down there, but I had run out of hair removal cream and could not get another tube anywhere on campus. After a while, I gave up on the hair removal cream and decided to use a shaving stick. 

I wasn鈥檛 comfortable with having people around while doing something so intimate, so I decided to wait till late at night to do it because the bathroom would be empty then. At 2 am, I went to the bathroom and began. While I was mid-shave, the lights went off, and I panicked. In the process, I dropped the razor on the floor, picked it up, and ran back to my room. 

The next day, I used the same razor, rinsed it, and continued shaving with it. After about two days, my vagina started to itch badly, the skin around that area was covered in small boils, and there was swelling in several places. The worst symptom was the awful smell. 

My roommates complained about a strange smell in the room after a while, so I started wearing trousers and covering my legs with blankets and wrappers to keep the smell in. The inflammation was so bad that I couldn鈥檛 wash myself properly. The smell worsened from poor hygiene and from the sweat that came with always covering my legs in heavy layers.

One afternoon, the discomfort got particularly bad, and it was too hot to wear trousers, so I wore a skirt to class. Halfway through the class, the lecturer noticed that something smelled bad.  Everyone (including me) agreed and began searching for the smell in the small space. It took me a few seconds to realise that the smell was coming from me. Thankfully, no one had noticed yet. That experience was the last straw. I left school immediately and went home. 

I went to a hospital with my mom for treatment and was directed to see the matron. After telling her my symptoms, she asked me if I had a boyfriend.  I was confused by the question, but I told her I didn鈥檛. 

She nodded and began to talk about STIs and how chastity was very important. My mom mentioned that I had not brought up sex at any point, to which she replied that small girls like me could not be trusted, and she could tell that I had slept around from the look on my face. We left and went to another hospital, where I was told I had a mild bacterial infection and an inflammation likely caused by the razor. 

Since then, I鈥檝e been unable to use a razor to shave. I also started to wipe myself when I feel like I鈥檝e sweated between my thighs. It was an awful experience, but at least I鈥檝e become more conscious about reproductive health. 

Next Read: 5 Nigerian Women Talk About Learning Their Bodies

These same statistics report that approximately 3 million people are unemployed. At first glance, this sounds like good news, but these statistics consider a person 鈥榚mployed鈥� if they work at least one hour per week. This includes wage workers, entrepreneurs,  and unpaid family workers. 

What this means is that, statistically, you鈥檙e more likely to open a provision store than find formal employment with a business administration degree. This might sound depressing, but financial independence is not dependent on a white-collar job. In fact, small enterprises make up 96% of all businesses and. 

Unfortunately, not everybody can be the next Dangote; 50% of small businesses fail in their first year. Without the right knowledge, it is very easy for your empire to crash and burn. To understand why small businesses fail, we spoke to three business owners who shared mistakes they made when they started out.

鈥淎n Aesthetic Business Will Not Make You as Much Money as a 鈥楧irty鈥� Business鈥� 鈥� Nanbyen, Thrift Vendor

Why did you decide to start a business?

I started selling thrifted bags in 2018 while I was still in university. My parents weren鈥檛 well-to-do, and the money they gave me for my upkeep was nowhere near enough. I needed money badly, and the only way I could think of to get money was to start a business. 

I was interning as a microbiologist at a hospital at the time, and I would bring two or three bags every other week to sell to the nurses.  I wanted to help women feel and look good without breaking the bank. To me, a new Gucci bag and a secondhand Gucci bag are on the same level; one is just more expensive than the other. 

I went from two bags to six and started to sell to women beyond the hospital. I was basically hawking the bags. I took them everywhere and would market them to anyone willing to give me a listening ear. To learn more about the business, I would spend the day at my supplier鈥檚 shop, volunteering as an unpaid salesgirl and learning how he ran his business. Building such a good relationship with my supplier played a big part in the growth of my business. 

I learnt how to use social media early and started posting the bags online, in addition to selling them by word of mouth. At this point, I think 90% of my customers come from social media. 

About three years into the business, I鈥檇 saved enough from door-to-door sales to get a small store with a rug and a few bags in the corner. It might sound clich茅, but consistency really is key. 

What challenges did you face when you started your business? 

Because I had so little capital, I was very careful with how I managed my business money. One of the problems I had was learning how to separate my business money from my personal upkeep allowance. I believe that a business is expected to feed the owner, pay her house rent and the rent for her store. If a business cannot make the yearly rent for a store in six months, the owner has no business opening a store. 

I鈥檓 a very big believer in social media, and in my opinion, almost any business (especially food and fashion) can be started out of a Facebook account. 

Many small businesses suffer from premature expansion, which often does more harm than good. In my experience, unless the business owners have wares that can no longer be stored at home, or the business has grown so much that its current workspace is too small, there鈥檚 no need to take a business off social media and into a physical space. 

Another mistake I see young women make is looking for aesthetic businesses. What people don鈥檛 realise is that the 鈥榙irty, stressful businesses鈥� 鈥� like selling goats, palm oil or doing laundry 鈥�  will make you more money.  You鈥檇 be surprised at how much people are willing to pay you to do the things they don鈥檛 want to do for themselves. That money can easily be yours if you鈥檙e willing to do away with shame and find a niche instead of selling something that twenty-five other women in your area already sell. 

Thrifting designer bags has brought me closer to influential women both inside and outside Nigeria that I wouldn鈥檛 have dreamed of meeting a few years ago. This 鈥榙irty business鈥� has brought women with armed escorts to my small store in Jos to buy bags. 

I have also learned that it is hard to be intentional about growing my business while still feeding myself from it. The only way to get my business to grow at the rate I want is to resist the urge to solve all of my personal problems. As much as I love wigs, I only own one. My friends gossip that I wear one wig everywhere, but when they need transport or capital for a new business, they come to me for loans. 

鈥淵ou Must Be Prepared for Disappointment鈥� 鈥� Ngozi, Restaurant Owner

Why did you decide to start a business?

If someone had told me a few years ago that I鈥檇 own a restaurant, I would have laughed at them. 

I grew up in a restaurant, and saw firsthand just how stressful it is to run a food business. As I grew older, my mum (the restaurant’s owner) started delegating most of the work to me. Back then, I was always angry because I was working out of a sense of duty for no pay. 

By the time I left university, I was convinced nothing on earth could make me start a food business. As a fresh graduate, I desperately wanted to work, but I married early. My marriage and children would not allow me to spend long hours at the office. 

I needed something flexible, so I decided to start a gold business. I would travel to Dubai, get gold at a cheap rate, then come back to sell it for profit. It didn鈥檛 work out because I married a military man, and we were moving from state to state every two years. Because of this, I didn鈥檛 stay long enough in any place to build a strong customer base. 

When the gold business failed, I decided to open a gym in Lagos, but we had to move soon after it opened. I left the business in the care of a relative, but when I returned, I found it mismanaged and rundown. 

I鈥檇 been idle for some time when I heard that  Knorr was hosting its first-ever cooking competition. I decided to participate and, at the end of the competition, I was ranked among the top ten. That accomplishment made me realise that if my food was good enough to win a cooking contest, why then could I not sell it? 

What challenges did you face when you started your business? 

I opened an Instagram page and started a food delivery business in Lagos. I was genuinely happy to be employed again, and to my surprise, I actually enjoyed the work. 

As soon as the business took off, my husband was transferred to Abuja. At first, I didn鈥檛 want to move, but in the end, I chose my family over the business. As hard as the decision was, I felt like I could always start another business. The same could not be said about my family.   

Unfortunately, things started going downhill from there. Running a food delivery service in Abuja was hellish. Abuja was much bigger than Lagos; the dispatch riders were unreliable and unwilling to do business with a vendor without a physical location. At one point, I started doing the deliveries myself in my car. 

I didn鈥檛 include the cost of fueling my car when calculating profits because I felt like it would make the food expensive. To make things worse, my niche is Igbo delicacies, so I didn鈥檛 really have a menu. I made whatever my clients wanted to buy on a by-order basis. Even at its cheapest, traditional Igbo delicacies are more expensive than the average plate of jollof. 

For the first few months, I was running at a massive loss. As a small business owner, the wisest thing you can do when you have limited resources is to resist the urge to overstretch yourself. If I could start over, I would have created a standard menu and limited my business to a few locations. I also found it difficult to delegate tasks, and I would insist on doing everything myself, from market runs to the actual cooking. Because of this, I was always exhausted. 

My husband retired, and I opened physical locations twice, but both spaces were demolished. I came very close to quitting because I was so demoralised. 

To keep my business afloat, I added catering and food packs to my portfolio, and I started attending food festivals in my spare time. I think what saved my business was investing in building a strong brand image.

At the food festivals, I would serve food on wooden plates and instruct my servers to wear traditional attire. We would tell moonlight tales to the children of customers or teach them how to play traditional Igbo playground games. 

The heart of my business was my love for my culture. I wanted to share the authentic Igbo experience with everyone. It鈥檚 not enough to suddenly wake up and decide to start a random business for the hell of it. You must put enough thought into what problem you want to solve or what niche you want to fill by starting that business.  Having a clear brand idea and a vision will keep you from giving up when the journey gets hard. You must be prepared to be disappointed when you鈥檙e starting a new business. It can take months or even years to build a strong customer base. 

91大神鈥檚 HERtitude is back this April 2026.. Get your tickets here:听

鈥淢ass Patronage Does Not Make a Successful Business鈥� 鈥� Rodiya, Spice Seller

Why did you decide to start a business?

My mum is a trader who sells a few spices, amongst many other things. While I was in secondary school, I used to take some of her products to school and sell them to my classmates. 

During that period, I discovered that I had liver problems and was told by my doctors to stop eating MSG (popularly known as Maggi). My mum could only use crayfish and locust beans to season her food, and I hated it because I couldn鈥檛 stand bland food.  I struggled to eat until she started to cook with natural spices.

When I got to university, I realised that there were quite a few people like me who could not eat food with MSG. I wanted to help people like me and people who just want to eat healthier. 

The fact that I could also make money from it didn鈥檛 hurt. My father didn’t support me at first with the mentality that the only expenses he was responsible for were the ones directly related to my education. 

I really wanted to be financially independent and to be able to afford the things I wanted. 

What challenges did you face when you started your business? 

This is a very niche business, and most spice sellers don鈥檛 work out of homes with fancy packaging; they sell in plain containers in the middle of the main market. A lot of spice sellers are very secretive about their trade, and there are very few sellers willing to show you the ropes of the business. 

I wanted my business to be a lot more personalised than just selling ginger or garlic in bulk, so I had to rely on a lot of research, trial and error and the few people who were willing to share breadcrumbs of information. Even with all this information, I still made quite a few mistakes. The first few batches of all-spice mix that I made were very bitter. 

I wanted to make my products affordable without compromising on quality. Instead of working out a middle ground, I started pricing my products with the belief that if I sold at really low prices, people would buy more.  

It worked. I was making decent sales, but I was losing money because I was selling for far less than I spent on production. After almost running the business to the ground, I had to take a break to rearrange my business strategy. I learned the hard way that making many sales did not mean my business was thriving. A steady customer base is more beneficial than a lot of one-time customers. 

Also, nobody told me how hard and how important branding is for a business. I鈥檝e had people come up to me asking for herbs to help with fibroids or erectile dysfunction because they are somehow convinced that I鈥檓 the Gen Z version of 鈥�Aisha 补濒补驳产辞鈥� (herb and concoction seller). I only learnt how to leverage social media later in my business. Every small business owner should learn how to use social media for branding early on, rather than later. 

In Nigeria, walking up to the front desk of any hospital to ask for an abortion is the equivalent of asking the hospital to give you a human head.  You may find yourself in police custody for daring to make such a request. If by some miracle, you manage to get the abortion procedure done, all it would take to put you behind bars is concrete evidence of what you have done in the hands of a vindictive person. There are even worse consequences for medical professionals who face the risk of 14 years in prison if they are found guilty of carrying out abortions. This is because elective abortions are illegal in Nigeria. They are only legally permitted to save the life of the mother. 

However, studies have shown that criminalising abortions has done very little to stop them from happening. A conducted in 2012 showed that there were 33 abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 49.  Approximately 1.25 million abortions occur annually in Nigeria, and 57% of the women in the survey admitted that they used unspecified medications or traditional methods to terminate their pregnancies. Desperate women have found , such as inserting sharp objects like bicycle spokes and clothes hangers into their uterus, inserting herbal preparations or objects like twigs or chicken bones into the vagina, and, in certain instances,  jumping from high places to cause trauma to the abdomen. 

According to the , an abortion is unsafe when it is carried out by a person lacking the necessary skills or in an environment that does not conform to minimal medical standards, or both. Unsafe abortions do not occur without consequences. They cause like sepsis, punctures in the uterus, damage to internal organs and heavy, uncontrollable bleeding (haemorrhaging) that could lead to death.  There are as many as 6000 -related deaths in Nigeria annually, the majority of which are preventable.  No one knows the true estimate of how many abortions happen in Nigeria yearly.

Despite knowing these risks, many women, like 22-year-old Zara*, still opt to have them anyway. In her case, having tried and failed to get a surgical abortion, she decided to get popular medical abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) off the . 

Why did you decide to get an abortion?

I’m not someone who wants to have kids, and I’ve never liked the idea of being pregnant. To make things worse, I was 22, still living with my parents and had just quit a toxic job. Physically, emotionally and financially, I was in no position to raise a child.  

I already knew I wasn’t going to carry that baby to term. It was just a matter of finding a good method to get rid of it. 

What method did you decide on?

After doing a Google search, I found an abundance of information on abortion. A lot of the articles I found were written in good faith, advising pregnant women on things to avoid, but information is dangerous in the wrong person鈥檚 hands. 

There were articles suggesting that if I consumed a large amount of cinnamon and thyme, I could induce an abortion, and others indicated that things like zobo and certain herbs could cause abortion. The only reasonable options I found were Dilation and Curettage (surgical abortion) and the abortion pills. If there are any others, I don鈥檛 think they are available in this country. 

At some point, I thought about inducing a miscarriage myself by hurting my stomach, but I knew that would be an idiotic decision. The idea of using a hanger left my mind five seconds after I thought of it because I really hate pain.  

Aside from the fact that I had no idea where I was going to find a qualified doctor to do a surgical abortion for me, I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of a stranger (that no one can hold accountable) putting tools inside me.  For some reason, pain medicine doesn鈥檛 work on me, and anaesthesia has a 50/50 chance of failing. Taking that kind of risk when I could die on the table, and no one would know, was a scary idea. 

Plus, I couldn’t afford to leave the house for it. What excuse would I have given my family?

Where did you get the pills?

I know this sounds somehow but my partner has someone I can only describe as a 鈥榙rug dealer friend鈥�. The person got me Mifepristone (1 tablet) and Misoprostol (2 tablets). His friend also advised me to get some antibiotics and antacids. He talked about Flagyl, too, but I told him my body doesn’t take it well.

The irony is that with a prescription, those three pills are less than 3,000 naira, but my partner paid 30k to get them from that person. 

How were you sure that they were the right ones?

I had no idea. I made a life and death decision with those pills. You can鈥檛 understand if you鈥檝e never been in my position. At that moment, anything (including the fact that I could be potentially committing suicide) was better than carrying and giving birth to a baby. I did try to do my own research, though, and most of the information I found tallied with what the guy and the drug instructions said.

To be safe, I had gotten a scan before to make sure the fetus was in the right place, and then after the bleeding had stopped properly to make sure everything had been cleared out.

The first pill had to be taken a day before, and the other two pills were to be taken 24 hours later. They took about six hours to work.

What was the process like?

I鈥檝e never experienced that much pain in my two decades on earth.  

Within those six hours, it felt like I wasn’t going to see the next day. 

I had intense stomach cramps and was writhing in pain or slumped over the toilet vomiting for most of it. I was also very weak and bleeding very heavily. My pads were getting completely soaked every three hours. 

Ah

I had to clean up immediately if I missed the toilet bowl, because it would be hard to explain if someone came in. If it felt like I was starting to get too loud, I would muffle my screams into the pillow 

 I now see why they advise people to have other people watch them. I live with my parents, so having my friend or partner around for so long would have raised suspicions. All I could do was keep them updated by the hour. 

My younger sister was the only family member I had informed. During the hardest part, she forgot and was watching TikToks in her room upstairs. It was such a lonely and very traumatic experience.

By the time I had fallen asleep at the 6th hour and woken up, the worst of it had passed. I still can’t believe I wanted to do it at night so that no one would know, but I watched too much Nollywood growing up. The way they portrayed nighttime abortions was very scary. I鈥檓 so glad I did it in the afternoon.  I was adamant about terminating it, but part of me knew I didn’t really want to die.

What happened after that?

I bled for more than a week after. The bleeding stopped for about four days, and started again right after. I was always anxious, and I relied heavily on Google. Even at that, I didn鈥檛 know how much bleeding was expected and how much should have sent me to the hospital. 

Every time I think about that period, I feel sad for the girl I was at that moment. She shouldn鈥檛 have gone through all that with so little support.

How did medical professionals react when you came for your post-abortion scan?

I hated all the hospital visits I had to make.  From the day I took the pregnancy test to the day I went for a post-abortion scan. During the first two hospitals, the doctors kept giving me unsolicited congratulations. My life was falling apart, and they were saying things like 鈥榃ould you like a boy or a girl first?鈥�, 鈥榊our husband must be so happy, 鈥� 鈥業 know the economy is hard, but God will provide. 鈥� 

I brought up how the Nigerian medical system and society aren’t well equipped to be a mother or give birth in, and was told that I could just go to Germany to have the baby, then come back. 

The ones I asked for removal options either side-stepped the question or gave me a disapproving look. 

The only medical professional who was sympathetic to me was the person I went to after the abortion. He noticed an abnormal growth in my uterus and asked for my medical history, so I lied that it was an ectopic pregnancy. I didn’t think the lie through, so he quickly caught me, but he didn’t judge me for it.

Did you have any complications from the procedure? 

Aside from the polyp in my uterus, I鈥檓 lucky to have gotten away without further complications. It’s like an abnormal growth, that’s the best way I can put it.

The doctor said it鈥檚 a non-cancerous growth and was most likely a result of all the shedding from the pill. He also said I can do another scan in a month if I’m still worried, but who has that kind of money? 

How much did the entire procedure cost?

You鈥檇 be surprised at how much I spent on a barely safe abortion. I鈥檓 just lucky that I had a sensible partner and savings from the job I quit. 

 Aside from the 30k my partner spent on the pills, I spent about 40k on the scans, 10k on the blood-based pregnancy tests. I had miscellaneous costs of about 18k 鈥� transport, at-home pregnancy tests, antibiotics, and about three packs of sanitary pads. In total, I spent about 100k. 

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What emotions did you feel through the process?

All of this happened less than six months ago. I can鈥檛 say I鈥檓 over it or that I鈥檒l be anytime soon. From when I found out I was pregnant to the day I took the pills, I felt anxiety and fear. 

After the process, I felt relieved. It felt like my life was relatively in my hands again. But I was still anxious because I had to monitor myself for any sudden complications. I’m not even sure I can look all the medical professionals I visited in the eye again. If your will isn’t strong enough, you’d start feeling extremely self-conscious.

The doctors didn’t directly shame me, but the fact that they kept making comments suggesting that I was abnormal for not wanting the pregnancy and that I didn鈥檛 have a choice but to keep it kept me on edge. 

After I got rid of it, I felt a little bad because I had subconsciously named the foetus Ringo. But when I look at the grand scheme of things, I know it was the better option. I’m not willing to be a mother, I couldn’t afford a kid, and I’d feel selfish for bringing a child into a world that feels like it’s on fire every other day. It’s weird how logical I was about everything when I felt I was running mad, but part of me hopes that Ringo is much happier wherever it is and doesn’t hold a grudge against me.

Were you aware that you could have gotten post-abortion care afterwards? 

I was aware, but I was scared. I know that abortion is illegal in Nigeria, so I didn’t want to open my mouth to the wrong person. Imagine going through all this just to be thrown in a dirty jail?

I considered a popular post-abortion clinic in Lagos, but fear wouldn’t let me. I didn’t want to hear 鈥榡ust have the baby鈥� again, or hear a price I know I simply couldn’t afford. 

For the next few weeks, I just focused on taking my antibiotics, staying hydrated, eating any fruit I could get my hands on, and just doing things I’d do if I were recovering from a very bad illness.

How did the experience change you? 

I discussed with my partner recently about how my body doesn’t feel safe anymore, and how I’d like us to avoid anything that might make that situation repeat. A part of me was scared knowing how Nigerian men can be, but he was really receptive.

For me, I can now say I have a strong conviction that I want to remain childfree, since I’ve experienced pregnancy now. I wouldn鈥檛 tell just anybody what happened, but now I have a stronger will to tune people out when they start pressuring me about children. 

My man, on the other hand, tells people that we lost a baby once if he’s present whenever they try to pressure me about childbirth. He does it to embarrass them into silence, and it works most of the time. 

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Have you been able to engage in intimacy since then? 

 Omo, no o. It’s like my anxiety around intimacy heightened after the whole thing. All the contraceptives we’ve tried before now have resulted in bad side effects. 

I get a rash whenever my partner uses condoms, birth control pills give me very bad nausea, and I鈥檓 scared of getting an IUD because I鈥檓 prone to UTIs.  Emergency contraception is the only thing that doesn鈥檛 affect me, but I know it鈥檚 not meant to be taken often. I鈥檓 looking into injections and patches, but everything has the potential for side effects that scare me. 

 We鈥檝e avoided penetration since then, and we鈥檝e been exploring other kinds until something permanent can be done about it. Hand holding is an example of intimacy, isn’t it? 

What do you wish more people knew about abortion? 

Not all unwanted pregnancies are a result of recklessness. You can’t say I wasn’t informed or that I didn’t try my best with what was available. It just happened.

And it would be unreasonable to say abstinence is the answer, because these things don’t happen in a vacuum. Women like sex as much as men do. It鈥檚 unfair that we have to bear a lifelong consequence because we want intimacy. 

Anyone in my situation deserves understanding and support, not extra judgment. That’s the smallest humane thing you can do. 

Also, please don鈥檛 date your enemy. I can鈥檛 imagine how much harder this would have been with someone who didn鈥檛 have my best interests at heart. 

This story is an honest look at what many young women in Nigeria quietly navigate because of limited access to reproductive health care and reliable contraception. If you鈥檙e sexually active, please prioritise safe sex and always use protection.

If you ever find yourself unsure, afraid, or in need of guidance, speak to a trusted medical professional or visit a certified reproductive health clinic for accurate information and safe options.
You can also reach out to organisations that provide confidential support and sexual health resources:

• Offers contraception counselling, sexual health services, and post-abortion care.
  
• Provide youth-friendly reproductive health services in various states.
  
• Confidential post-abortion care and support.
  
  

Your health matters, your future matters, and whatever decision you make about your body should be informed, safe, and free from shame.

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According to the WHO, reproductive health is one of the top ten health concerns for women worldwide, but many Nigerians practice symptom-driven care when it comes to their health. However, in many cases of uterine cancers, STIs, and even HIV, symptoms only begin to show when the illness has reached a serious or life-threatening stage.

Early detection can save a woman鈥檚 life, and it can never be too early to start prioritising your health. In this article, Dr Zeenaht Abdullahi, an obstetrician/gynaecologist, shares four medical screenings every woman in her early 20s ought to do.

1. HPV Screening Tests

 There are over (human papillomavirus), but most are harmless and go away on their own without you ever knowing you had them. Some cause genital warts, but others are called high-risk and can lead to anal, vaginal and even throat cancers. HPV poses the greatest risk to women because high-risk HPV can progress to cervical cancer if it鈥檚 not treated. Cervical cancer is almost always caused by high-risk HPV. 

The problem is that, unlike most STIs that spread through the contact of bodily fluids, HPV spreads mainly through skin-to-skin sexual contact. This means using condoms during sex reduces the risk of HPV, but they do not fully block it. What this means is that in some cases, having safe sex may not protect you from HPV.

The good news is that the HPV vaccine protects you against the most dangerous and common types. It is also capable of eliminating cervical cancer completely. While it works best if you take it before you become sexually active, it still helps if you take it after.  The vaccine is at all government facilities in Nigeria. If you test positive for high-risk HPV, early detection and follow-up screenings can prevent it from causing cervical cancer. To be safe, you should also repeat the test every 5 years alongside a Pap smear, which checks for abnormal cells in the cervix.

2. Abdomino-pelvic Scans

 Abdomino-pelvic scans are imaging tests that show the organs in the abdomen and pelvis. They can be done with ultrasound, CT scans, or MRIs. The most common type is ultrasound because it鈥檚 quick, painless and inexpensive. You can get an ultrasound for as low as 5,000 naira in any public hospital.

It checks the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, cervix, bladder, kidneys, liver, and sometimes the intestines. Many reproductive health issues do not show obvious symptoms early, and pelvic scans can help detect things like fibroids, ovarian cysts, polycystic ovaries, pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis and even tumours. 

3. Breast Scan

While medical professionals advise that you routinely check your breasts for lumps and abnormalities, changes to your breast tissue may not be obvious by touch alone. Breast scans are imaging tests used to examine the breast tissue for changes that you may have missed. This is important, especially for women who have lost female relatives to unexplained illnesses or have a family history of breast cancer.

It can be done by ultrasound (which is common for younger women or to check a specific lump) or mammography, which is better at detecting very small changes, especially in older women. A breast scan helps with early detection of breast cancer, cysts, blocked milk ducts and other infections.

4. Screening for Hepatitis B, C and HIV. 

Most people believe that Hepatitis and HIV are transmitted only through sex.  This mistake often leads to late diagnosis, especially in women who haven鈥檛 been screened before. Hepatitis and HIV can live in the body for years while slowly affecting your liver or immune system.

These diseases are often wrongly seen as something only promiscuous people need to worry about, but contracting either of these diseases can happen through something as simple as getting a haircut with an unsterilized clipper or a cheating long-term partner. Screening matters even if you feel like you don鈥檛 need it.

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Instead of keeping their savings in a bank and allowing the value to erode with inflation, the women of older generations chose to wear it.  But gold is more than a status symbol for the Alhajas selling lace in Idumota; it鈥檚 one of the oldest and most enduring means of storing wealth. 

Unlike other forms of investment (such as cryptocurrency or stocks), gold鈥檚 value isn鈥檛 tied to any specific currency, and it鈥檚 one of the best options for since it either holds its value or increases with time. Plus, you get to slay and invest at the same time. Diamonds aren鈥檛 really a girl鈥檚 best friend; gold is.

From coins to jewellery, there are different kinds of gold, and as a beginner, it can be easy to make mistakes when buying investment-grade gold. We spoke to Ikotun Abigail, an experienced gold dealer, who shared five critical things you should know before making your first purchase. 

1. There is 鈥楪old鈥�, and there is Gold

We often hear the phrase 鈥�24 karat gold鈥� thrown around in the media, but a lot of people don鈥檛 know what it really means. Gold is one of the softest metals on earth. To make it strong enough to wear, manufacturers add other metals like copper and zinc to it during the refining process. There are different purity levels of gold depending on the amount of other metals mixed into it. 

Gold pieces labelled 24k are made up of 99.9% gold, 22k pieces contain about 92% gold, 18k pieces contain 75% gold or more, 14k pieces contain 58% gold, while 10k pieces have the lowest concentration of gold at 42% or less. The value of gold is determined by how pure it is. Investment-grade gold is around 18k-24k in Nigeria. Anything below 18k is decorative gold.

Abigail mentions that the most common mistake investors make when buying gold is accepting whatever a dealer offers as 鈥榞old鈥� without asking about its purity levels. She mentions that you can find stamps indicating gold鈥檚 purity on the hooks of earrings/chains, or backs of pendants. To be safe, you should always purchase gold from a reliable vendor, and you should ask the seller to test the gold in your presence.

2. You Pay for Craftsmanship When You Buy Gold as Jewellery听

There are three kinds of gold: bullion, coins and jewellery. Bullion refers to pure gold bars, while coins are government-issued coins that typically come in 22k-24k, but since very few people are wealthy enough to have blocks of gold sitting in a safe somewhere, the most accessible form of gold in the market is gold jewellery. 

What most people don’t know is that when selling gold, decorative gems and stones contribute to the total weight vendors measure, but when reselling, buyers remove the gems and only attach value to the weight of the gold itself. While it鈥檚 fine to want your jewellery to be trendy instead of the large pendants that older women wear, it鈥檚 best to buy solid gold pieces without the rhinestones.

Workmanship also influences the prices of gold jewellery. This is why a Cartier bracelet would cost slightly more than a solid gold bracelet from a less-known brand.

3. Gold Doesn鈥檛 Do Well as a Short-Term Investment

Gold is not a 鈥榖uy today, sell tomorrow鈥� kind of investment. There鈥檚 a reason many gold owners hold pieces for as long as ten years or more. Even though gold is easy to liquidate when you need money, reselling within a short time frame can incur a loss. It鈥檚 advisable to only invest funds you plan to hold in savings for at least two years.

In demonstrating that profitable gold can be a long-term investment, Abigail notes that she sold 21 grams of gold for 鈧�840k to a customer in 2022. The same gold was resold in 2024 for 鈧�1.7 million, doubling the original investment. 

4. Wearing Gold Can Be Less Risky Than It Seems

One of the most common concerns people have about buying gold is security. Gold is a physical asset, and it can be scary to wear your savings around your neck. The best way to store gold would be in bullion or coins in a secure location such as a bank, but when gold is in the form of jewellery,  a common hack for keeping it safe is to choose pieces that are hard to misplace, like anklets, bracelets and necklaces.

Buyers also share concerns about making themselves a target for thieves, but the truth is, gold is one of the easiest things to imitate. It鈥檚 hard to tell when a piece of jewellery is real by sight alone. Whether gold looks bright yellow or more pinkish depends on the metal it was mixed with.  Most robbers rely on the wearer鈥檚 location and status, the design of the jewellery (thick chunky pieces attract more attention) and inside information. Most people won鈥檛 know that you鈥檙e wearing gold unless you tell them or you post the transaction receipt on your Snapchat story. In certain instances, it can be easier to keep your gold safe than your mobile phone.

5. You Can Start Investing with as Little as One Gram听

Unlike shares, which only begin to pay you significant enough dividends when you have a lot of them, you don鈥檛 need huge quantities of gold to hold a sizeable investment in it. According to Abigail, you can start investing with as low as 鈧�160k, and a lot of vendors allow for instalments. Each gram of gold maintains its value regardless of how much you own. Whether you choose to continue building a collection or stop at your first piece does not matter. 

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In 2017, Lolade* graduated from university with a degree in political science to become an early childhood teacher. Earlier this year, she quit to become a plantain chips vendor. 

On the side, she鈥檚 a sign language interpreter 鈥� a skill she learnt in addition to an NCE in Social Studies and Special Education 鈥� together, these two side-hustles pay more than she has ever earned in teaching 

She has taught in four standard private elementary schools in the last eight years, and when asked to describe her salary range during that period, she mentioned that it was within 鈧�0-鈧�100k. After the interviewer misinterpreted her answer to mean that she earns about 鈧�100k.  Lolade* clarified that she meant her average income was well below that amount. At the height of her career, she earned a grand total of 鈧�35k monthly. 

In Nigeria, there are alone, and according to a by the National Bureau of Statistics, women make up 60% of this population, making the teaching profession female-dominated. Coincidentally, education is one of the poorest-paying fields in Nigeria, with many private school teachers earning

To many people, teaching is a profession of poverty. Women like 21-year-old Amanda* (who teaches at an online academy) were told while growing up that wanting to be a teacher was to choose poverty wilfully. 

鈥淚鈥檝e wanted to be a teacher as far back as JSS3, but even my teachers were not very supportive of my career choice. They would come to class to lament about not being able to afford good cars and tell us how they would have been able to afford a better standard of living if they had not chosen to work in education.鈥�

While studying for her French degree, Amanda started teaching French to Nigerian children in the diaspora. She would later come to find out that her secondary school class teacher鈥檚 assessment of the profession was not entirely wrong. 

鈥淎t the time I started this job, it felt like a godsend. I was getting the opportunity to make what seemed like a lot of money at the time. The income was also stable, and I would get to do what I loved. The only downside was that I would have to be up for two to three hours a night at very odd hours.鈥�

What seemed like a perfect opportunity soon turned out to be a honeytrap. Aside from the two hours of teaching she put in every night, Amanda* was also expected to create lesson notes, quizzes and lesson guides in her spare time. Her pay of 鈧�1,250 per hour only covers the two hours she spends in the classroom. At the end of each month, she walks away with 鈧�60k for about 80 hours of work. She says if she removes the amount she spends on data and keeping up with the electricity needs of the job, it鈥檚 even less.

She would also later find out that a screen would not protect her from the culture of undervaluation and underappreciation of teachers prevalent in Nigerian society. 

鈥淎t first, I was eager to please, so I would show up in class fifteen minutes early and submit my lesson notes before anyone else. It later came back to bite me in the ass because my boss started to increase my workload without increasing my pay. She would assign special needs students to me, even though I was unqualified to handle them and the difficult students that no one wanted to handle. I drew the line when she asked me (a French major) to teach calculus to the special needs students. I nearly lost my job for politely refusing to do it.鈥� Amanda* says. 

When asked how teachers cope with the poor working conditions, Jane*, who quit after teaching for six months in 2022, says it’s almost impossible to survive on a teacher鈥檚 salary. The teachers at her school then were earning between N25k-鈧�50k. According to her, if a teacher didn鈥檛 live within 5 kilometres of the school, there would be nothing left to take home from her salary after deducting transport costs. 

鈥淓very teacher I knew then had a side hustle. There was a vendor for everything at the school I used to teach at. There was nothing you could not find there, from jewellery to puff-puff. At the end of each month, we contributed part of our salary into a thrift that paid at the end of each term. It was the only way to ensure that we had something to show from our salary.鈥� she tells 91大神.

Professionals in the private sector typically earn more than those in the public sector, but in education,  the difference is barely noticeable. When asked what the root of the problem was, Amanda* says it鈥檚 undervaluation.

鈥淭here will always be a demand for teachers and an excess supply because a lot of people believe anybody can teach. It also doesn鈥檛 help that it鈥檚 a female-dominated field. At my academy, there are twenty-four teachers, but only four of those teachers are male. Teaching is a thankless job, and on a lot of days, it鈥檚 underpaid carework. I believe that if teaching were a more male-dominated space, there would be better consideration for teachers.鈥�

She mentions that part of why teachers receive such low wages is that school-owners prioritise personal expenses and taking care of their families over paying teachers well. She says that the few schools that offer decent pay overwork their teachers.

Out of the six women 91大神 spoke to, only three were still holding teaching jobs and fewer than that number still had passion for it. Ironically, Bisola*, one of the two women who spoke highly about the profession, is not a teacher but a lawyer, currently doing her Master’s in a very lucrative area of law. Unlike most women who get a hard launch into the harsh reality of teaching, Bisola witnessed it firsthand growing up, and this, in turn, informed her career choice.

鈥淢y mum is a retired school principal and an academic author. Till she retired, she never earned up to 鈧�100k. I remember that when I was in uni, she was earning 鈧�30k. I grew up watching her run through one side hustle after another to make ends meet. I don鈥檛 think teachers are underpaid; I know they are. As much passion as I have for education, I chose not to study it on purpose. Money was a very big consideration for me.鈥� 

She says that even though she鈥檚 not teaching at the moment, she sees lecturing in her future. She believes the law provides a platform big enough to accommodate her passion and give her financial freedom as a professional. 

Amanda*, the only other woman with a passion for the profession, says she鈥檒l be leaving Nigeria to go where educators are valued. 

鈥淚f we鈥檙e being honest, teaching is not the field you go into if your goal in life is to be filthy rich. I know that this is what I want to do with my life, but at the same time, I鈥檓 not going to open my eyes and willingly walk into poverty. I know that teachers are treated better than this in other countries. My plan is to get out of this country on a scholarship and land a lecturing job in a country like Belgium, teaching something like film studies while earning a shit ton of money doing what I love.鈥�

According to Amanda* and Bisola*, the worst thing you can do for yourself as a woman in education is to enter the job market with only your first degree. The more value you have, the more value you can demand. 

鈥淢y mum didn鈥檛 find out that she could sell the textbooks she wrote and earn royalties on them until much later in her career. The money she made from the books went a long way in supporting my siblings and me through university. What I鈥檇 advise any woman willing to go into teaching against all odds is to stop looking at traditional teaching as the only way to make a living. There are so many things you can do: start an online academy, create a YouTube channel and monetise your teaching or be like my mum and decide to write a couple of textbooks.鈥�

It is rare to find a teaching job that adequately values educators at this time in Nigeria, and in the absence of systems put in place to correct this problem, they believe that with the right strategy, it is difficult but possible to make a decent living as a teacher working in Nigeria. 

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The upside of land is that the risk is almost always worth the reward if you do it right. The land you buy for 鈧�1,000,000 today can easily be worth ten times that amount in five years. . Unlike most forms of investment, it is relatively stable, resilient to inflation, and has potential for high returns. 

Real estate can be confusing for a first-time buyer, and it is easy to fall victim to scammers if you have no idea what to look for. Buying land in Nigeria can be one of the smartest financial decisions or one of the most expensive mistakes you鈥檒l ever make. We spoke to Barr. Kaosarat Raji, a real estate consultant and property law enthusiast who shared five critical things you should know before you pay that deposit or get excited about a 鈥渉ot deal.鈥澨�

1. If It Looks Too Good to Be True, It Probably Is

Nigeria has 923,768 km虏 of land, but only a small percentage of that is prime, legally secure, and commercially viable real estate. Good land, especially in growing urban areas, has a market value, and that value doesn鈥檛 drop randomly. Before buying, always compare the asking price with similar properties in the same location. If a plot is selling far below the average market rate, consider it a red flag, not a bargain. Cheap land is often cheap for a reason: the seller may not be the rightful owner, the land could be under government acquisition, there may be use restrictions (e.g., agricultural-only land), or the area could be flood-prone or environmentally unsafe. Barr Kaosarat mentioned that she has seen buyers celebrate 鈥渃heap land鈥� only to discover later that they can鈥檛 build, sell, or even access it. Always investigate before you pay.

2. Diversify if You Can 鈥撎� Don鈥檛 Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Creating wealth in real estate isn鈥檛 just about how much you own; it鈥檚 about how wisely you buy. Just because you can buy ten plots of land somewhere doesn鈥檛 mean you should. Like every other investment, real estate performs better with diversification. If you have the financial capacity, spread your investments across residential areas, commercial or business districts, and developing or industrial zones

Markets change, infrastructure plans shift, and some locations grow faster than others. Diversifying reduces risk and increases your long-term chances of appreciation and steady returns. Smart investors think long-term, not just quantity.

3. Always Speak to a Lawyer (From the Start)

One of the most common problems in Nigeria鈥檚 land market is unauthorised sales. It鈥檚 very common for someone to try to sell family land simply because they belong to the family, but not everyone in a family has the legal right to sell land. Buying land from the wrong person can land you in court cases that last for years, multiple ownership disputes, or a total loss of your investment.

Yes, you can do a land search yourself at the Land Registry, but at some point, you will need a lawyer. The smartest move is hiring one from the very beginning. A property lawyer will verify the title, confirm that the land is free from government acquisition, check for existing disputes or restrictions, and . A small legal fee can save you millions and years of stress.

4. Understand the Type of Title on the Land

Not all land titles offer the same level of security. Many buyers hear terms like C of O, Gazette, or Deed of Assignment and assume they鈥檙e all equal, . Each title type comes with its own legal strength, risks, and process for perfection. A C of O (certificate of occupancy) is a government-issued document that says the state recognises you as the lawful holder of that land and gives you the legal right to occupy the land for 99 years. A deed of assignment, on the other hand, is a contract typically prepared by a lawyer showing that ownership was transferred from a seller to a buyer. It must be registered at the Land Registry to be recognised as valid proof of ownership. 

A gazette is an official government publication informing the public that the land has been removed from government acquisition and released to individuals or communities. Understanding what you鈥檙e buying and what it takes to fully secure it is crucial. Never rely on verbal assurances that a land is safe to buy; always demand documentary evidence and have it verified.

5. Location is More Than Just Popularity

. This is why land in places like Ikoyi and Wuse costs more than land in lesser-known places like Epe, but location is more than just popularity or trendiness. Good locations have access roads, proximity to schools, markets, and transport, infrastructure plans, government development plans, drainage systems, and no flood history.

A quiet area today could be the next growth hub, or it could remain stagnant for decades. Research beyond social media hype and estate marketing promises

Next Read: A 91大神 Girl鈥檚 Guide To Dealing With Inflation

So they turn to contraceptives, hoping for peace of mind and a little freedom. Between pills, implants, IUDs and injections, there are plenty of options, and modern methods can be . 

 But for some women, that reassurance comes with unexpected and sometimes frightening side effects. We asked five women to share their worst experiences with contraceptives, what went wrong and how it has shaped the way they think about birth control today.

To make sense of these experiences, we also had a chat with Dr Zeenaht Abdullahi, who shared why reactions differ from woman to woman, what you should know before choosing a contraceptive method, and signs that you should change methods.

鈥淓mergency Contraceptives Gave me an Ovarian Cyst鈥� 鈥� Nkem*, 23

I don鈥檛 have sex very often. To give an estimate, I鈥檇 say I indulge once or twice every three months. Each time I have sex, I take the morning-after pill as a contraceptive. 

Before I had that awful experience, I鈥檇 used it three times and felt fine, but on the fourth use, my body reacted to it. I bled very heavily during my next period, and it lasted longer than usual. I had blood in my stool, nausea, and stomach pains. The bleeding was so scary that I went to the hospital. I can鈥檛 remember all the medical terminology, but the short version is that the pills had thrown my hormones out of balance, which in turn caused an ovarian cyst to grow. At some point, I thought I was going to have to get surgery because ovarian cysts can grow large, and if the cyst didn鈥檛 shrink, they would have needed to cut it off. Thankfully, it shrank in two months. The ironic thing about this experience is that a pill costing under 鈧�5k racked up a bill of close to 鈧�60k on consultations and tests.

I don鈥檛 recall the doctor advising me not to use the post-pill again, but I try to avoid it as much as possible. Unfortunately, I鈥檝e used it several times since then because I needed a contraceptive and didn鈥檛 have other options. I use private hospitals, and contraceptives like IUDs or implants are very expensive. I don鈥檛 have sex often enough to put myself through the stress and expense. The post-pill works fine; I鈥檓 more concerned about pregnancies than cysts. 

鈥淚 Had My Period Three Times in One Month鈥� 鈥� Fawzziyah *19

I used the post-pill the first time I had sex because I was paranoid about getting pregnant, and I鈥檇 seen on the internet that it鈥檚 an effective contraceptive. My partner at the time didn鈥檛 use condoms because they made me uncomfortable. After the first use, I just kept using it like a regular contraceptive each time I had sex. 

At first, I was using it three to four times a month, but after a while of heavy use, my cycle started to go haywire. I was Softcare鈥檚 number one customer last year because I was always on my period. I would have cramps that would leave me unable to move, and even though I have a high pain tolerance, at some point, the pain was so intense that I needed injections to knock me out.

 Because of how bad the bleeding was, I told my partner that we couldn鈥檛 have sex often. We fought a lot because he didn鈥檛 think we were having enough sex in the first place. I eventually caved and went back to taking it frequently.

I barely go to the hospital because I can鈥檛 afford to, so it didn鈥檛 occur to me that I should have gotten medical help for the bleeding. Cost is the same reason I鈥檝e also never explored other contraceptives. When I asked around, I discovered that an IUD costs 鈧�50k at a reputable private hospital.  Where do I want to see that amount of money? Even the post-pill I use has to be paid for by my partner. Contraceptives aren鈥檛 accessible to me at such rates.

鈥淚 went up a bra size鈥� – Glory*, 20

I use the post-pill occasionally when I have sex, and I鈥檝e never had a problem with it.  Then, out of the blue, I had the strangest side effect 鈥� my breasts started to swell. They became very sore and so hypersensitive that I couldn鈥檛 wear bras or tight clothing. For the next few weeks, I couldn鈥檛 sleep on my chest, and I had chest pain that worsened at night. Sleeping in general became very uncomfortable because even sleeping on my side hurt my chest. I had to buy new underwear because I could no longer fit into my old bra cups.

The pain and soreness lasted until my next period, but my breasts never went back to their normal size. It鈥檚 been over a year, and I鈥檝e not used the post-pill since then. I鈥檓 a big advocate for contraceptives, but I鈥檓 scared of using them myself because I鈥檓 a nursing student. I鈥檝e seen people come into the hospital experiencing side effects. I know they aren鈥檛 always so severe, and I鈥檇 just need to find one compatible with my body, but I’m not willing to take the chance.

鈥淚 Started Seeing My Period Six Times a Year鈥� 鈥� Aisha*, 24

I started using birth control in 2021 because a doctor recommended it to balance my hormones. I had gone to the hospital to complain because I experienced incredibly painful menstrual cramps, and I had heavy blood flow. I wasn鈥檛 given a proper diagnosis 鈥� now that I think about it. I did an ultrasound, and the results came back normal, but the doctor concluded that I had a hormonal imbalance. He just told me that it was 鈥榮omething mild but not PCOS鈥� and he prescribed birth control pills. The only side effects he informed me of were headache, dizziness, and fever, which is why I was very shocked when the blood from my next period came in black, dry lumps. I went to a different hospital and was told to stop taking those pills because they had clogged my uterus.听 They took samples from my vagina and put me on medication. It took weeks before I started to feel normal again.听

Since then, my body has not gone back to normal. I keep accumulating different issues. I only have my period once in two months, and my cycles last for three days instead of five. Even though I know better, sometimes I think it happened because I was taking birth control without being sexually active. My reproductive system is a mess. I鈥檓 also worried that it may have affected my fertility. I鈥檝e gone to the doctor several times since then, and they recommended that I do five tests, but I can鈥檛 afford them 鈥� one of the tests costs 鈧�28,000.听

If I ever decide to become sexually active, the contraceptive use has to come from my partner; wearing condoms or getting a vasectomy isn鈥檛 as uncomfortable as this. It鈥檚 non-negotiable. Contraceptives can have crazy side effects, so I wouldn鈥檛 recommend trying them unless you鈥檙e sexually active or you need them for health reasons. If you must use them, don鈥檛 let doctors get away with giving you vague answers. Some things can be avoided if you ask the right questions.

鈥淚 Bled for Six Weeks Straight鈥� 鈥� Selena*, 26

I decided to start taking contraceptives because a friend advised me to. She told me it would help with period cramps and reduce my flow. After doing my research, I chose the injectable contraceptive popularly known as family planning. I didn鈥檛 want the IUD because I had heard it could shift, and I didn鈥檛 want the tablet because I was scared that I could forget to take it consistently. Also, it was very affordable 鈥� as of May 2024, it cost 鈧�2,500

My friend and I went to a nearby pharmacy to get it administered by a nurse.  The nurse assured me that it would be fine and told me that I could experience bloating, weight gain and irregular periods. Those were things I could make peace with, so I proceeded. What the nurse didn鈥檛 tell me was that I would bleed very heavily.

 I didn鈥檛 start to get worried about the heavy bleeding until after the first week. I called the nurse to tell her, and she gave me a drug to take for about 3 days, but immediately, I stopped using it, and the bleeding continued. After making a bunch of fruitless calls, I decided to wait it out, but I kept bleeding heavily for the next six weeks. I was lucky I had just gotten a menstrual cup, hence I鈥檇 have gone bankrupt from all the pads I would have needed to buy. The only explanation that I got from the nurse was that I was 鈥榬eacting鈥� to the injection.

That experience taught me a very big lesson because the friend who recommended it didn’t react to it like that. If you want to take contraceptives, please have a serious talk with an experienced doctor to know what you鈥檙e getting into and to reduce your chances of experiencing bad side effects. You also need to be open to finding the one your body will accept. Your body isn鈥檛 like your friend鈥檚 or your sister鈥檚; you shouldn鈥檛 decide what contraceptives to take based on another woman鈥檚 recommendations.

Doctor鈥檚 Note

According to Dr Zeenaht, unfortunately, the side effects from hormonal contraceptives can be incredibly devastating, and there鈥檚 no universal one-fits-all approach when it comes to contraceptives. Side effects (especially from hormonal contraceptives) vary from person to person. Before deciding which to use, it is important that you discuss with a trusted healthcare provider and take their recommendations seriously. 

For intermediate to long-acting contraceptives, the body typically requires an adjustment period of about 3 months for intermediate to long-acting contraceptives. However, if severe side effects are noticed in the first couple of days/weeks,  it鈥檚 perfectly fine to take it out and try something else.

One thing most people don鈥檛 know about emergency contraceptive pills (like the post-pill) is that you only need to use them once per cycle. Especially if sex happens during the fertile window (3 days before, and 3 days after for those who have a regular cycle). You don鈥檛 have to use the post-pill every time you have sex.

Regarding affordability,  contraceptives are available in most public health facilities, primary healthcare centres, general hospitals, etc. The protocols involved might be time-consuming, but ultimately, it鈥檚 the most cost-effective solution.

Side effects from contraceptives can be quite devastating, but they can be better managed with the right knowledge.

Next Read: 鈥淚 Keep Reminding Myself It鈥檚 Temporary鈥� 鈥� 5 Women on Experiencing Post-Menstrual Depression and How They Cope

Just like bread, the price of almost everything you need to survive has risen sharply in the last two years. In February 2024, Nigeria ranked听 in the world. Inflation has slowed from 31.7% in 2024 to, but , and the price of many essential goods remains impossibly high.

Nigeria鈥檚 economy is very volatile, and finding your feet in this economy can be as difficult as living in Lekki during the rainy season.

To make your life easier, we鈥檝e put together a list of 7 things you can do to manage inflation better.

Your Bank Statement Should Not Be a Jumpscare

听It鈥檚 easy for your bank statement to confuse you at the end of each month. You see a lot of money leaving and entering your account, but you have no idea where it all went. The last time you checked, you had not made any major purchases; you didn鈥檛 buy clothes, a new wig or any gadgets this month, but your transaction history is littered with 鈧�2k debits, and you have no savings.

The problem is that you think it鈥檚 the big bills that are draining your account, but it isn鈥檛. Small spontaneous 鈧�500 expenses build up until you鈥檝e somehow spent 鈧�100k. If you track your expenses, you鈥檒l be surprised at how money you spent on Fanta in a month. 

Know What You Can Actually Live Without

As uncomfortable as it sounds, inflation means you have to compromise. Sometimes, it may mean having to stop eating your favourite brand of imported chocolate biscuits or making homemade zobo instead of spending so much money on Sprite at the office. After tracking your spending, look at the items that take the most money out of your pocket and think of ways to cut those costs.

Take the Market Home With You If You Can

If you only buy things from your neighbourhood supermarket when you need them, you will end up spending more money in the long run. Buying essentials like deodorant, rice or toothpaste in bulk will allow you to take advantage of wholesale discounts. It can sometimes mean you get items at a cheaper rate, and you don鈥檛 have to worry about restocking when prices are high. 

There鈥檚 No Shame in Thrifting

When you鈥檙e in the market, almost everything on the shelf can look necessary, but in this economy, you must differentiate between what you think you need and what you actually need to cut costs. Don鈥檛 buy what you don鈥檛 need.

 Sometimes, buying the same product from a lesser-known brand is cheaper than buying it from a popular brand. Another way to save money while shopping is to buy thrifted items. Good thrift clothes, household items and electronics are just as good as new items, if you know how to buy them. 

Save First, Not Last

In truth, there will always be one thing or another that requires you to spend money. The demand for money is endless, no matter how much you have. If you wait until after spending to save, you鈥檒l never save anything. Rising costs should not be an excuse not to save because when unforeseen circumstances arise, your savings will always come through for you. A general rule of saving is to save 20% of your income before you spend anything, but honestly, just save whatever you can.

Ask for a Raise

Let鈥檚 face it: the best solution to not having money is more money. More money never hurt anyone. If you鈥檙e in a work environment where negotiation is possible, ask for a salary increase. Your employers know that there鈥檚 economic hardship. A closed mouth is really a closed destiny. Ask. 

Start Investing

When there is inflation, the value of your money decreases, and you lose purchasing power. This means that what you could buy with 100k in 2020 would probably cost 300k to buy today. Hoarding your money in a bank account somewhere means its value will continue to decrease.

If you must save, save your money in a stable currency, but your best bet would be to take advantage of the inflation, make investments, and watch your money keep growing.

Next Read: How Financially Savvy Are You?