And That’s Why She Fits In
Aisha Yesufu, why not?
“Yesterday’s victims were once survivors, today’s victims were yesterday’s survivors, tomorrows victims will be today’s survivors… Being a victim in Nigeria today is not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”
The superficial incongruity between Ms Yesufu’s persona and her social justice mission aside, she has since learnt and mastered the friendly, relatable cadence of social media, especially Twitter — which is usually the place to kick- off mass action. Yesufu’s timeline isn’t an infinite stream of anger — she speaks of other things, too, like the syrupy love affair she has with her studious husband. Sometimes she permits herself to engage in amusing back- and- forth with her followers, or she could talk about her moneymaking investments such as her property, renting for worth N2 million ($ 12,500) in 2007 but, due to the naira’s steady tumble against the dollar, rents today for N2.5 million, a ton of money in naira but, exchanging for only $ 5,000, is just atrocious.
Strange, constant, twitter- savvy, congenial outside her battlegrounds, Yesufu rose to icon status in 2020. Two things have happened to confirm this. The second is her naming this week to the BBC 100 Women list. The broadcaster writes on its site that, to be included, the women either made headlines or influenced important stories over the past 12 months. Aisha is in the company of
Bilkis, the 82- year- old protest leader; Erica Baker, a director of engineering at Github; Jackie Kay, Welsh poet; and others of just as illustrious profile— doctors, actors, models, an astronaut, singers, and politicians.
How about the first thing that happened to seal her legend? It was that picture. You’ve seen the picture. She’s in her hijab. Wind blowing. A crowd behind her. Her fist raised. Some say it’s
Nigeria’s version of Lady Liberty.
The photo was taken on October 10 at the police headquarters in Abuja— early days of the # ENDSARS demonstrations. Protesters who had gone to present their demands to the Inspector General of Police had just been told that the man was away. Aisha was in the back of the group. Everyone vowed they’d wait for the IG, no matter how long it took for him to return to his office.
“That was when I came to the front,” Yesufu said, “and I stood and said to the police: ‘ If you are going to shoot at them, you will have to put a bullet through me first.”
That was the moment. Cameras clicked. History made.
Perhaps, the future will place her as a marker to that history. In the meantime, she has said she would keep pushing for that thing that started her on this journey six years ago — the truth. “Accountability and transparency will always trump anything. And where you have opacity, that’s where you have corruption.”