As governments and activists across the world respond to the increase in gender-based violence during the COVID19 pandemic, Nigeria's response raises questions about how well (lack of) data influences advocacy and policy.

Nothing has highlighted the need for centralised gender-based violence data collection and analysis as the inability of the state and civil society to present trends and say definitively: the numbers are up, how and why.

Nigeria cannot make similar claims due to the absence of a base to rely on, similar to the annual violence against women and girls report published by the United Kingdom's Crime Prosecution Services.

Data is missing but we do know this: women's rights activists report that domestic violence is increasing.

An opportunity to reset

Even during times of relative normality, gender-based violence is a pandemic in Nigeria.