About HeyNaija
A place for our conversations. A say in what comes next.
HeyNaija is a Nigeria-first public discussion network for Nigerians at home and around the world. Share an idea, ask a question, find your community, and feel a little closer to home.
The idea behind HeyNaija
We already have plenty to say.
Nigerians are already in lively conversation: on X, in WhatsApp groups, on forums, and wherever people gather online. The question behind HeyNaija isn’t whether we need another place to talk. It’s what a place designed around our own communities, interests and everyday experiences could make possible.
A question about starting a career. News from your city. A campus debate. A song you want everyone to hear. These conversations connect us across distance, and the people having them are what make a social network worth returning to.
What if the people who make a social network valuable also had a say in how it is run?
That is the motivation for HeyNaija: a dedicated place for our conversations, with a meaningful path for members to shape the platform itself.
What we’re building around
Nigeria first, with room for the diaspora
Our cities, campuses, work, culture and everyday experiences lead the conversation. Whether you’re in Nigeria or building a life elsewhere, there’s room to stay connected. Start with communities such as Lagos, Abuja, Tech & Careers, Universities and Entertainment.
A meaningful say in the future
The people who bring a network to life should have a stake in how it is run. Community ownership is the destination. Today, the founding team runs HeyNaija; the founding charter describes its commitments, and a draft constitution proposes a route to member-led governance.
Development you can follow
We want to be clear about what works and what is missing. Our public roadmap records both. The code is public under the AGPL licence; the licence page says where it is and what the licence covers.
Choice and accountability
Follow people and join communities to shape your feed. Mute or block accounts, report harm, and appeal an account suspension. Moderators keep a decision log and send outcomes to affected members; that log is restricted to moderators. You can download your own data from Settings.
Designed for real access
HeyNaija is built for the web, with phone layouts and image resizing that take data costs seriously. Making it work well on slower connections is an ongoing responsibility. We track the remaining performance and accessibility work on the roadmap, without claiming results we haven’t measured.
A public square, with personal choices.
You can post short text and photos, reply in a thread, like, repost, quote, and follow people or join communities. Home opens on Discover, which ranks the last few days' posts by rules published on its own page, from replies, quotes, reposts and like counts, who you follow and the communities you joined, and says why each post is there. Latest and Following are chronological: newest entries first, with explanations of why Following entries appear, and Home remembers the tab you chose. Under a post, its author's own replies come first, then everyone else's, newest first, or oldest first if you choose. Basic trending highlights recent active conversations, and trending topics are the hashtags most members are using, by rules published on that page. None of them guesses what you will engage with.
Every post and reply is public, including posts in communities. Your email, bookmarks, notifications, and block and mute choices stay private. Read the privacy policy and community rules before joining in.
A destination, with work still to do
Community ownership has to be real.
Having a say should mean more than being asked for feedback. The draft constitution proposes nonprofit Incorporated Trustees with three founding trustees serving initial three-year terms, two annually elected representatives from readiness, and all three trustee seats open to election at founding-term expiry. Legal membership and voluntary online voting are separate, and essential assets require lawful transfer to the nonprofit. Those steps need consultation, legal review, secure systems and published evidence. They have not happened simply because a draft exists.
Founding stage. HeyNaija is founder-operated. Incorporation as a nonprofit under Incorporated Trustees is proposed, not completed. It is not legally community-owned yet. Governance and voting rules are drafts; no binding community vote or treasury is live.
The governance pages explain what is proposed and where it stands. Governance concerns the running of HeyNaija; it does not direct people’s personal opinions or turn disagreement into a public vote on someone’s account.
People, conversation and clear boundaries.
HeyNaija isn’t government-run or a verified-news authority. Hosting a post does not endorse it. You don’t have to leave every other social app to find something useful here, and nobody should have to agree with a particular opinion to belong. Participation comes with the responsibility to follow the published rules and respect other people.
You don’t need a NIN to use HeyNaija. Optional NIN verification is planned and unavailable for now. It would be separate from ordinary signup and would check identity, not the truth of someone’s posts. Formal voting would need a separate, approved and secure process for checking eligibility.
Start with a conversation.
Read the public feed and explore communities without an account. To post and take part in the beta, you’ll need an invite.
The beta currently asks new members to declare that they are 18 or older. This is a temporary signup restriction, not a permanent adults-only policy or proof of verified adulthood. Sign-in uses an emailed code or, where configured, Google.