Prof. Wole Soyinka, a renowned author and Nobel winner, defends Davido and claims that the contentious music video he posted is not anything for which he should apologize.
Gistreel recalled that the Afrobeats musician had been harassed by Muslims because of the now-deleted video’s alleged disparaging remarks against Islam.
The artist gave in to pressure after receiving a lot of backlash and removed the contentious music video for his signee, Logos Olori.
However, the devout Muslims requested an apology for distributing the viral video as well.
While the musician stayed silent and made no apologies, several young people in the north took to the streets to express their outrage by burning enormous Davido flags on fire.
Following this, professor Wole Soyinka said in a statement published on Tuesday that the artist owes them no apologies and had pointed out that Nasir El Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna, had previously made derogatory statements against Christians without ever being brought to account.
Here is his whole statement:
The following shouldn’t be necessary, but it seems like we live in a country where forgetfulness is now a qualification for competence in matters of state. The previous governor of Kaduna State, El Rufai, was the target of my intervention some years ago in an effort to call him out for making a remark that was deemed offensive to Christians.
I can’t remember the exact quote right now, but I clearly remember another one in which a bank manager used the risen Christ as a metaphor for the rising bread in the Oshodi bakeries around Easter. Possibly anything along those lines. He apologized under clearly put pressure, and I corrected him for the action.
El Rufai’s remarks at the time were not exempt from this statement; there was nothing to apologize for. If Shehu Sani has actually requested an apology from Davido on behalf of the Muslim community, as has been reported, it should come as no surprise that I completely disagree with him.
There is no need for an apology, and none should be made. We know where contrition, apology, and reparation remain clamorous in the cause of closure and, above all, justice, so let’s quit battening our heads in the mush of manufactured remorse. There haven’t been any such apologies. They have been replaced by the ascent of obnoxious censorship in the dance and music fields. Where exactly will it go?
Through dancing, it entails ego surrender to the mystical and transcendent, going beyond simple happiness or bliss. Through a collective act of self-surrender, that medium’s secularization transcends all faiths and gives the artists a way to evoke a feeling of spiritual togetherness.
“As I’ve said, I haven’t watched the video, but I argue that the artist’s freedom to use dance in a religious environment is a basic right. A patch of land may be quickly transformed into a sacred location for believers to congregate and pray while engaging in daily activities, even in the instance of Islam when there is no physical building to accompany such a deployment.
Let’s practice reading it that way. Nobody disputes the right to boycott Davido’s goods, therefore those who continue to take offense to heart and eat it for breakfast can exercise that choice. However, it does not warrant alarm or incisive excitement.
The bigger duty is to address the country’s fundamental religious problems head-on. The core problem is succinctly summarized as follows: the sectarian appropriation of the power of life and death among a community of believers, other believers, and even non-believers, whether for actual, imagined, or purposefully manufactured offense.
Davido’s music did not lynch Deborah Yakubu, and it still thwarts the course of justice now. Furthermore, it hasn’t helped with the arbitrary arrest of religious dissidents, whether they be atheists or otherwise, like Mubarak Bala, who has been imprisoned for 38 months. Each citizen should use their ability to feel repulsed in response to these provocations.
These are the concerns that warrant justifiable outrage on the part of a country, and they really exercise that right in the first place. The rest comes second. unnecessary babble
