Sexism, tribalism and housing
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2021
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Finding a place to live in Nigeria’s big cities. Finding somewhere to live can be stressful wherever you are in the world. But in Lagos, Africa’s fastest growing city, add in sexism, tribalism and stumping up more than a year’s worth of rent in advance. Are these practices making it an impossible place to live and what is being done to try and change the situation? Tamasin Ford speaks to Stephanie Chizoba Odili and Chiamaka Okafor who both, as single women, had problems finding a place to rent. She also speaks to Uchenna Idoko, the Executive Director of the Centre for Gender Economics in Lagos. She says Nigeria's patriarchal structure dictates how marriage is viewed as the single most important social custom, awarding women both respect and status - and that it has to change. And Ugo Okoro is the co-founder of Muster, a housing app that allows people to rent out their rooms in Lagos, Abuja and Kalabah. He says they are working hard to change the narrative by eliminating prejudice, sexism and tribalism so there is no more discrimination.
(Picture credit: Adeyinka Yusuf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Tamerson Ford. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:07.4 | Ever tried finding a place to live in one of Nigeria's big cities? |
| 0:12.5 | The lawyer asked if I was married and I said, no, I'm not married. |
| 0:16.5 | And he asked, what tribe are you? And I said, oh, I'm Igbo. |
| 0:20.5 | And he said, oh, no, they don't want to give the house to someone who is not married. |
| 0:26.2 | And then the owner of the house said he won't be renting the house out to anyone who is Igbo. |
| 0:31.7 | Sexism and tribalism are rife in the rental sector. |
| 0:35.7 | Women already in our society, in Nigeria, |
| 0:39.1 | are going through so much. |
| 0:41.5 | And then this is another added burden. |
| 0:44.9 | In today's Business Daily, |
| 0:46.2 | we take a look at why it's so hard to find a place to live in Nigeria |
| 0:50.4 | and what's being done to change that. |
| 0:56.0 | The first time I started in 2019, it was a hell ride, basically. I didn't enjoy the experience |
| 1:03.8 | at all. 24-year-old Stephanie Chisoba-Odili spent 12 months trying to find somewhere to live in Lagos. |
| 1:12.2 | I once escorted a couple of my friends who were going to get their apartment. |
| 1:17.9 | And I remember the woman saying how she's just comfortable that they're Igbo's. |
| 1:22.6 | So Ibo's is a particular tribe in Nigeria. |
| 1:26.1 | And they were more concerned that, okay, they can trust this person, |
| 1:30.6 | which basically meant if it was some from a different tribe, they probably wouldn't have |
| 1:34.8 | gotten the house. In my own experience, I faced more of sexism. I mean, it was me and my friend |
| 1:40.0 | trying to get the house. So two young women just screamed prostitution or sex work to them as opposed |
... |
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