From his album release, to the “new cats” comment to the Anita debacle, Davido has been the topic of conversations about Nigerian musicians lately. This time he’s in the news for “disrespecting” Islam and muslims, according to some “concerned” netizens.
Here’s a lay-down of what’s going on.
Logos Olori, one of the latest signees of Davido Music Worldwide (DMW) released his debut single, Jaye Lo, under the label on Friday, July 21, 2023. The next day , July 22, Davido shared a teaser of the song’s music video. That was the beginning of the outrage.
The video starts with Logos Olori seated atop a mosque’s rooftop, dressed in white jalabiya and white socks, chanting about how a poor person’s life transformed.
The view shifts from the rooftop to ground level as we see some men also dressed similarly saying prayers, before they burst into a dance. This has received mixed reactions from netizens, particularly from muslim devotees who found the scene offensive.
Bashir Ahmaad, the ex Digital Communications aide of the former president Buhari’s administration commented.
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It has snowballed into a campaign against Davido.
Despite several calls for him to respond, he has been quiet about the situation.
After a series of tweets condemning Davido and calling for the cancellation of his brand, he deleted the post.
Apparently some Twitter users still have the clip.
Another faction, mostly 30BG fans, is unhappy Davido deleted the post.
There’s word that one of the musician’s affiliates known as IsraelDMW apologised on his behalf.
Deleting the video didn’t pacify the agitators. The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has now called on the Department of State Services (DSS) to take Davido in for questioning over the Jaye Lo music video. MURIC’s founder and director, Ishaq Akintola remarked that the video can throw Nigeria into anarchy. MURIC demanded a retraction, threatened legal action and even a “spiritual battle” if the scene isn’t taken out of the video four days from now.
Nigerian Professor Wole Soyinka joined the conversation by disagreeing and urging Davido to not apologise. He defends OBO’s artistic expression rights and admonishes those offended to protest against the artist to do so peacefully instead of resorting to violent means.
Amidst all, Davido’s and Logos Olori have been quiet and focused on only promoting their new singles.
Maybe the video will be shelved or edited, or maybe the artists will throw caution to the wind and let the video rollout like that. We don’t know how this story will end, but we ardently preach peace, love, and security.
