By Vanessa Obioha
Nigerian singer, Didi Sweet Muzik, has joined a host of other well-meaning Nigerians to lend his voice to the plight of less privileged Nigerians who are deeply affected by the raging coronavirus pandemic.
According to the singer born Oladapo Dada, the economic impact of the pandemic on the less privileged cannot be imagined.
Having grown up in Ebute-Metta, one of the Mainland areas in Lagos State, Didi knows first-hand that a good percentage of Nigerians are living below the poverty line without basic amenities despite Nigeria having the biggest economy in Africa.
While acknowledging the federal and state governments’ efforts to recognising the devastating impact COVID-19 is having on the livelihood sources and overall well-being of the citizenry, he stated that they need to go beyond that and deploy more resources, creativity and transparency to ensure that the basic necessities of life is available for everyone and particularly within the reach of low income Nigerians especially.
“The economic assistance that the government announced in response to the pandemic which was supposed to cushion the negative impact of the virus on Nigerians have alternatively exposed major inadequacies in the social protection systems for the country’s poorest and most vulnerable people and I believe that Nigerians deserve better than that,” he says.
In his immediate community, Didi has donated over 1,000 masks along with foodstuff for the poorest as his own way of making sure posterity is preserved even for the less privileged.
“Do we keep quiet, fold our arms and watch our future being wiped away? We can’t afford that,” says Didi as he urges fellow artistes and other well-meaning Nigerians to rise up, lend their voices against the social injustice, and also give back in every way that they can.
Didi is on a path to rekindle the old fire in the African music space. Being influenced by the likes of Fela Kuti, his relentless message of love, hope and fight against social injustice is sure to put him in the hearts and minds of his rapidly growing audience, not only in Nigeria but on a global scale.
