For musician, Aituaje Iruobe, popularly known as Waje, shedding weight was a personal decision. This was the only option she was left with at a time she no longer liked her outlook. And so, she decided to do something about it. “You know when they stream live on television, you look bigger. I do not know what really happened to me that day, but I did not look nice and people were saying negative things about me on twitter. I really cried, I can never forget that day. It was in October 2013,” she says. The experience, however, forced her to tell her manager about her plan to quit music.
Her manager’s immediate response was that she should only change whatever she did not like about her look.
“I started working out and I was determined. Life is hard, so you have to surround yourself with positive people. A man may not have anything in his pocket, but because of the people around him, he does not care. I do not like to be seen with people who make me feel bad,” she says. Waje dismisses with a wave of the hand claims that she decided to lose weight to please men.
She explains that as you grow older, you should understand that people will always form different opinions about your personality.
“If you do something, either negative or positive, they will come after you. I did that because I saw that I was a brand and I wanted to be able to sell myself more. I wanted to be able to go on magazine covers and look good. I am constantly looking for how to spread my music.
So, I need to reinvent myself. If you do not like something about yourself, change it. It does not matter you take anyone’s opinion. I am not a thin person; I still have my curves,” Waje notes.
As a young girl, all she wanted to do was to be on stage to exhibit her talent. But when she started singing, somebody else told her that she could make money from music.
“The first time I performed in my school, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, people shouted. They gave me N200 or so. The first big pay was at the end of the year party of the then Zain, where I was given N250,000,” she recalls.
If not for music, Waje would have ventured into sale of ‘chinchin.’ Together with a good friend of hers, she actually did that for a while.
