#ArewaMeToo: Rape, pedophilia, child marriage, sexual harassment and sexual violence

On Saturday, February 16, 2019, Arewa – a collective name for Northern Nigeria – had a moment on Twitter Nigeria with a #MeToo to discuss sexual harassment, sexual violence and violent crimes against Northern women.

This comes after the advent of #MeToo, #TimesUp, Berger to Ajah, and Twitter #MeToo through 2017 and 2018.

Until Saturday, February 16, 2019, Northern women had never taken a stance on their abuse with a unified voice to protest these cultural wrongdoings.

The result of this stance was the very viral #ArewaMeToo. In a world where victims of sexual violence get shamed when they speak up against their abuse with an institutionalized aversion against these victims.

Then, there is the very prevalent issues of cultural gender inequality across all African society, which are still more entrenched and patently practiced in the north.

While the tide is slowly turning with education and information on cultural wrongs for needed evolution, wrongs are still being committed in a society where culture and religion informs nearly everything.

With a template set by the @Mayowade-led Twitter #MeToo campaign in 2018, #ArewaMeToo became a niche viral conversation that attacked everything from rape, to sexual harassment, to other forms of sexual harassment to child marriage and pedophilia. Victims spoke up and they were supported across the social media platform.

A vocal case was led by a lady named Mariam, who accused a certain Mahmud Mamman Lagos of sexual impropriety against her when she was 13 and Mahmud was in his mid-20s.

In another case, another account @ArewaMeToo, supposedly a man narrated how he was abused by other men which made him question his sexuality for a while.

There were other accusations across the hashtag;

A lot of accusations of alleged rape were also made against a certain A.S Aruwa, a digital marketer who runs the account, @MusadiqZ. Reports also claim that he was a Special Adviser to the Finance Minister and he has since been relieved of his duties in that capacity.