The International Men’s Day celebration occurs every 19th of November, the second to last month of the year, almost as if to say that men are the second to last thing on everyone’s mind. And maybe it’s true. When the creative team of Nitro 121 researched for insights to pivot its Men’s Day 2022 ideas, we discovered that one in eight men will experience depression and that men account for 75-80% of deaths by suicide. But in a hyper-masculine country like Nigeria, these rates have done nothing to curb toxic masculinity. Men here are still told to “man up”, and wrap up their vulnerabilities like ofada rice in the bright green leaf that is self-denial. But just like the stew in that local dish, our men have issues wey dey pepper dem, and that is why we came up with a social experiment calledThe Non-Judgemental Page.

 The idea was simple: create a safe space complete with a bonfire, drinks and good music so the men can let their hair down. We even gave them pink cups instead of red so they could see there was no danger here. Then, we presented the blank sheets of paper and encouraged them to write down all the things that are trapped in their heads. Things they can’t tell another soul. After filling the paper with their deepest thoughts and anxieties, we directed them to cast it in the fire. We believed, and they agreed that watching that piece of paper burn to ash was the catharsis they needed.