Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has advised Davido, the Nigerian Afrobeat star, to disregard calls for an apology regarding his controversial music video shared on social media. The music video for ‘Jaye Lo,’ released by Davido Music Worldwide label boss and artist Olamilekan Taiwo (Logos Olori), caused a stir online and received mixed reactions from the public.
In the video, there was a controversial scene featuring men portraying praying mallams dancing in front of a mosque instead of praying, which offended some Muslim devotees. Despite deleting the video within 48 hours of posting it, some Muslims still demanded a public apology from Davido and even threatened legal action against him.
However, in a statement released on Tuesday, Wole Soyinka expressed that Davido does not owe Muslims an apology. He cited an example of former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El Rufai, who had made offensive comments about Christians in the past but was not asked to apologize.
Soyinka emphasized that there was no reason for Davido to apologize, and he disagreed with Shehu Sani, who reportedly demanded an apology from Davido on behalf of the Muslim community. He further pointed out that the issues surrounding the video should not be exaggerated and reminded that it was not Davido’s music that caused an incident of violence against a Christian college student in Sokoto last year. The student, Deborah Yakubu, was tragically lynched by a mob of Muslim students over alleged blasphemy.
