THIS editorial is a toast to mothers – and aspiring mothers – everywhere as the world marks Mother’s Day 2026 today. Mothers are the extraordinary vessels through which life flows and the quiet moulders of humanity. They embody boundless sacrifice, unconditional love and the rare virtue of selfless giving.
Today, sons and daughters across the world will visit, embrace, or place heartfelt calls to the women through whom they came into this world. With flowers, gifts, or simple words of gratitude, they will say a profound “thank you” to the souls whose devotion makes life, achievement and fulfilment possible.
As is customary on this day, children pause to reflect on the sacrifices their mothers made while nurturing them—moments endured in hunger and illness, and at times in the midst of protests, crises and wars. They remember the sleepless nights and the tender tears of affection shed when childhood pains and sickness brought cries in the dark hours of the night.
Motherhood carries within it a spirit of giving that transcends generations. Mothers hold the thread that connects the past to the future. They become familiar guests in their daughters’ homes, arriving to nurture newborn grandchildren and guide young mothers through the delicate journey of early motherhood.
The nurturing wisdom that once sustained them as infants is never discarded; it is lovingly passed down from generation to generation.
Daughters cherish and celebrate the mentorship of their mothers, the lessons on life, relationships, marriage and the responsibilities of raising children. To them, motherhood is both a library of wisdom and a school of immeasurable value.
Men are not deceived about the roles women play in their lives. In marriage, they encounter the richness of family embodied in one person—wife, mother, sister, aunt and confidante. From their wives and mothers, they draw emotional strength and the feminine balance that complements masculinity and completes the human personality.
Men also recognise that women are often the stabilisers of the home. They teach children the codes of personal conduct and social relationships and nurture bonds between fathers and their children, even in moments when fathers fall short of their responsibilities.
Society itself acknowledges the faith, commitment and resilience of mothers and women. They are classic examples of sacrificial giving, even in politics, where they participate actively in elections but often receive very little in return.
As of late 2025, only 20 women were members of the 469-seat National Assembly—four in the Senate and 16 in the House of Representatives—highlighting Nigeria’s painfully low level of female parliamentary representation.
According to the World Bank Gender Data Portal 2024–2025 report, women occupy only between 3.9 per cent and 4.4 per cent of seats in the NASS. Out of the 46 cabinet positions formed in 2023, only eight were held by women.
Yet despite repeatedly drawing the short end of the stick in the dividends of democracy, women and mothers remain among the most faithful participants in Nigeria’s electoral process.
Motherhood, at its core, is service to humanity. For this reason, maternity leave in both the private and public sectors should be extended from six months to nine months with full pay.
Many countries already recognise this necessity. In Scandinavia, maternity and parental leave policies are generous and humane. In Sweden, parents are entitled to 16 months of leave per child, with up to 80 per cent of their salary paid monthly.
Denmark provides four weeks of leave before childbirth and 14 weeks after, alongside an additional 32 weeks of shared parental leave. Finland grants parents up to 320 working days of leave.
Women are intelligent, industrious, loyal and deeply patriotic citizens. Government policies must therefore tilt the scales more favourably towards mothers and women and enable them to live dignified and secure lives.
Indeed, Nigerian mothers are remarkably dutiful and resilient. Many are farmers who labour under the scorching sun and pouring rain to put food on the family table. Some support their households financially; others are the primary breadwinners.
Many sell their clothes, jewellery and treasured possessions to ensure their children receive an education. Countless others are single mothers who shoulder the responsibilities of parenting alone.
Yet, painfully, even as grateful hearts celebrate these amazons of life today, society remains stained with discrimination, inequality and injustice against them.
The world owes mothers a life grounded in order, justice, fairness and peace. Tragically, many mothers have instead become victims of a fractured world they tirelessly strive to shield their families from.
Too often, women fall victim to rape—an abominable and barbaric crime. Reports indicate that rape cases increased from 29 per cent in 2020 to 65 per cent in 2022. Such acts are bestial. An assault on one woman is an assault on the dignity of all humanity.
The government must strictly enforce the penalties prescribed under Section 358 of the Criminal Code (2004), which stipulates life imprisonment for rape and up to 14 years’ imprisonment for attempted rape.
Nigerian mothers are also dying under the crushing weight of maternal and child mortality. According to the Journal of Global Health Report, a Nigerian woman faces a 1-in-22 lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy, childbirth or shortly after delivery.
Nigeria accounts for between 10 per cent and 30 per cent of global maternal deaths, with estimates ranging from 576 to more than 1,000 deaths per 100,000 live births. These grim statistics should spur government authorities into urgent and decisive action.
When the 2008 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey ranked Ondo State as having the worst maternal and child health indices in South-West Nigeria, then Governor Olusegun Mimiko responded with the Abiye Safe Motherhood Programme, a free healthcare initiative for pregnant women and children under the age of five.
The programme gained international recognition from institutions including the World Bank and the UN. Remarkably, the Abiye Programme reduced maternal mortality by 84.9 per cent by 2016 and made Ondo the only state in Nigeria to meet the Millennium Development Goals target for reducing maternal deaths, surpassing it with a 75 per cent reduction.
Governments across Nigeria should draw inspiration from this initiative as a meaningful gift to Nigerian mothers.
Violence against women remains both pervasive and deeply troubling. At least 401 women reportedly died from sexual and gender-based violence in 2022 alone.
In 2024, the DOHS Foundation Femicide Dashboard recorded 135 femicide incidents resulting in 149 deaths. That same year, about 13.2 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 reported experiencing physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner.
Women and girls also remain frequent targets of terrorists and bandits. For more than a decade, schools for girls have been attacked, resulting in the abduction of hundreds of students, including the 276 girls taken from Government Girls Secondary School Chibok and 110 pupils from Government Girls Science and Technical College Dapchi.
Only last month, at least 176 women and children, including pregnant wives, were reportedly kidnapped in Woro Community in Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara State. Disturbingly, some terrorists now demand virgins as ransom.
The government must act decisively to rescue mothers and women from these nightmares.
Mother’s Day should serve as a moment to confront the abuse of motherhood through the forced marriage of underage girls. Subjecting girls of 12 or 13 years to marriage and motherhood is a violation of their rights and a denial of their childhood. Motherhood is for women, not for minors.
Despite their sacrifices, many widows are denied inheritance rights to their husbands’ property and are subjected to degrading cultural rites and rituals in certain communities.
Even as these chilling realities persist, mothers continue to endure, persevere and give. Therefore, the government must enforce existing laws that protect women while enacting stronger policies to confront the harsh realities they face.
Strong, diligent and resilient, modern mothers endure long hours and demanding professional responsibilities while simultaneously managing domestic duties, often with the same devotion and resilience that defined mothers of earlier generations.
Mother’s Day, therefore, should not be merely an annual celebration. It should be a daily commitment.
Children must extend their gratitude beyond ceremonies by caring for their mothers through regular visits, thoughtful gifts, monthly support and attentive care in their later years.
Today, Nigeria joins the rest of the world in standing in awe of mothers, the guardians of life and the quiet champions of humanity, as we renew our collective resolve to build a better and more compassionate society for them and for all.