On Saturday, July 22, Davido’s artiste, Logos Olori, dropped a new music video to much hype and publicity. The song titled ‘Jaye Ola,’ was quite hippy, with the visuals, crisp and clean. As usual, the Davido Music Worldwide (DMW) Boss, David Adeleke, hyped the video by sharing a snippet of it on social media. What was supposed to be an expectant adoration by fans soon turned into a serious backlash from those of the Islam faith.
If you are wondering why the content of that video caused so much heat from Muslims, let me give an idea: In the intro, Logos Olori positioned at the top of a mosque with a megaphone in hand. The camera followed some Muslim faithfuls praying on their Salah mats. Once done praying, the men proceeded to dance on the same mats to the sweet tunes of the song. That’s as much as the snippet allowed anyway.
The crux of the matter is this: According to research, the Islam faith does not permit any form of dancing and funfair as was depicted in the video. Also, it is a sacrilege to dance or do anything other than prayers on the said mat. Add to that the artiste mounting on the top of the mosque and all these made for fine points to bash the singer and Davido as well and call for the immediate pull-down of that music video.
Well, Nigeria, in its typical religious manner, took the duel to a whole new level. It soon became a Christian V Muslim thing or a North V The Other Regions thing. Davido had backers aplenty with many calling for him to stay adamant and resist the pressure of pulling down the video. The Islam brothers kept up the pressure and insisted that the video which, in their opinion, violates everything they stand for. Despite not responding to the backlash, Davido, at long last, pulled down the music video.
Ordinarily, the Muslims made fine arguments regarding their grievances and it sounds quite logical, but the truth is, the present realities in Nigeria has caused many non Muslims to turn a blind eye to their case. Why? Their counter argument borders on hypocrisy and inconsistency. The political landscape has changed people’s reasoning and brought a “since you turned a blind eye to the wrongs of the politicians, we will also turn a blind eye to the devaluation of your Islam” narrative.
Another sticking point is past events that happened in the North. The first was the Preacher that was stoned to death in the North, followed by the infamous Deborah story—a University student who was burnt to death for criticising her Muslim brothers. Remember how the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, condemned the killing of Deborah but subsequently had to pull down his tweet and comment after massive backlash from the Islam folk? All that has come to the fore now.
As Martin Luther King once put it: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere.” This, on its own, is self explanatory. When injustice happens to someone else and you play dumb to it, do not expect people to sympathise with you. What goes around comes around. People see a lot of negatives that Islam never kicked against and feel like it is now a case of “chickens coming home to roost,” as Malcolm X famously put it. With all this, it is understandable why non Muslimsrefuse to feel the hurt Muslims feel.
This is, in no way, meant to sound insensitive. I personally make it a tradition to respect other people’s religion, culture and tradition. I do this because I feel every being, race or entity deserves respect. However, I believe that respect must be earned, and if earned, must be reciprocated. You do not rubbish my religion at every turn and expect me to treat yours any differently. This is what every Nigerian must know and do differently if we are ever going to make any headway as a people.
The sooner we learn how to coexist and respect each other’s culture, the better for us all. We must learn boundaries and not cross them, whether for entertainment purposes or any other. In that light, I believe Davido owes the Muslims an apology so peace can reign. This episode has caused so much uproar and both parties should be willing to meet halfway and mend fences. We are one and Nigeria stands above any tribe or citizen.
