Women not expected to talk where I come from –Di’ja

Singer, Hadiza Blell, popularly known as Di’ja, has said that the reason the voices of women in the north are rarely heard is because they are not encouraged to talk.

Speaking at the National Conference on Shrinking Civil Space held during the week, Di’ja said, “I come from a place where people expect women not to say anything. A lot of times, people see women from the north as not fighting for themselves. They are actually doing so but their voices are not heard because the messages are not being passed through the right media. And that is why I like social media because everybody has a platform. One doesn’t have to beg anybody to give one two minutes on radio or television to be heard. Now, people have access to social media and they can air their views. We just can’t be quiet. Being quiet doesn’t really do anything. 

“For the longest time, I think every Nigerian wants to say something but we ask ourselves— is this country worth dying for? This country doesn’t give one a reason to die for it because we have seen people ahead of us make such sacrifices over and again, yet we don’t feel like anything has changed. But the idea is that we have to keep doing this until something changes.”

The Mavin Records signee also emphasised the need for Nigerian youths to have a change of mindset. “We always do a lot of campaigns but nobody ever does any campaign to change the mindset of Nigerian youths. The youth feel like they don’t have anything, like nobody cares about them. They are turning to different gangs that would wreck havoc in the future. The idea is to reach out to the youth. We are saying it but not necessarily doing it.”