Professor Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate, has urged Nigerian Afrobeat musician Davido to disregard calls for him to apologize for the contentious music video he put on his social media accounts.
Following the release of the latter’s new album, “Jaye Lo,” The PUNCH stated that the head of the Davido Music Worldwide label and his signee, Olamilekan Taiwo, alias Logos Olori, made a commotion online.
Davido shared a 45-second snippet of the new song on Instagram on Friday, and the image has since drawn criticism. Numerous Muslim supporters have deemed the film insulting and are now demanding a retraction while threatening to sue the creators.
In the contentious image, some guys were depicted as praying mallams who were instead dancing in front of a mosque. Some Muslim adherents have since found this dancing move to be objectionable.
Some Muslims are still calling for Davido to provide a formal apology, despite the fact that the video was removed 48 hours after it was posted.
Soyinka, however, claimed that Davido did not owe Muslims an apology in a statement made public on Tuesday.
The literary icon claimed that Nasir El Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna State, made insulting remarks towards Christians in the past but was never requested to offer an apology.
He said, “There was nothing to apologize about, and that applied equally to El Rufai’s comments at the time. It should come as no surprise that I equally absolutely disagree with Shehu Sani if indeed, as reported, he has demanded an apology from Davido on behalf of the Moslem community.”
“It wasn’t Davido’s music that lynched Deborah Yakubu, a second-year Christian college student who was killed by a mob of Muslim students in Sokoto last year over alleged blasphemy,” he added.
