Singing makes me happy, says Sokoto’s blind songstress

Inno Makauniya Uwar Dan Ayi, is a popular praise-singer in Sokoto. Singing in Hausa, the vocalist from Wamakko local government area of the state says she has been singing for more than 15 years, right from when she was a spinster. “I started singing before I got married,” she said. Her first song, ‘Allah Ya […]

Inno Makauniya Uwar Dan Ayi, is a popular praise-singer in Sokoto. Singing in Hausa, the vocalist from Wamakko local government area of the state says she has been singing for more than 15 years, right from when she was a spinster. “I started singing before I got married,” she said. Her first song, ‘Allah Ya Cece Mu’ is about females and the struggles they go through daily. ”
When she started, she didn’t see it as a business. “I just go to ceremonies, as my friends take me there to entertain,” she said. Inno, who became blind from an undisclosed disease since she was eight, said after marriage she stopped singing and later went into begging as a way to earn a living. She then went back to singing when the present governor of the state who was then deputy governor, was turbaned as Sarkin Yamman Sokoto.
Inno also goes to villages to sing on demand, she says, but quickly added that no matter how much she is given to sing against Governor Wamakko, she wouldn’t. “He’s such a good leader,” she said.
Inno’s musical group began as a trio of females but has grown to 15 today. “I split profits with them evenly,” she says of her colleagues. She also says she’s married off three of her daughters, acquired six motorcycles and three farmlands, all from her proceeds.
Recently, while singing at an occasion where the Sokoto State Governor was present, she appealed to any well-to-do individual to give her a car on behalf of Governor Wamakko. As luck would shine on her, a commissioner pledged to give her a car, which she says has been redeemed. She says she derives satisfaction and fulfillment from singing. “It makes me happy,” she smiled.