The spate of religious intolerance across the globe often serves as a threat to the peace and security of lives and properties anywhere in the world.
In Nigeria especially, where a multiplicity of religions coexist, incessant rivalry attacks had once, become the order of the day. Despite purported calm in recent times, some elements pointing towards other forms of religious impatience still thrive, sometimes unnoticed. But the trumpets must be blown to uncover their shades and lay bare the reality else, the silent walk might someday result in an immeasurable level of destruction for the people and their belongings. What becomes of our world then?
In a recent turn of events, popular Afrobeats Star, David Adedeji Adeleke otherwise known as “Davido” faced a magnitude of criticisms after he shared a snippet of the music video for the latest song released by his record labels’ signee, Logos Olori who is originally, Olamilekan Taiwo.
Davido is the founder and Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Davido Music Worldwide (DMW), a music record label founded and domiciled in Nigeria since April, 2016.
The video clip for Logos Olori’s “Jaye Lo” single which lasted for 45seconds featured some men dressed in white “jalabias” and white skull caps which depict praying mallams seen dancing in front of a mosque instead of praying.
This dancing act has since been deemed offensive by some Muslim devotees who are consequently, calling for a public apology from the DMW Boss, Davido and his signee, Logos Olori despite the singers’ deletion of the video forty-eight hours after it was posted.
However, reacting to the development, Nigeria’s prominent Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka in a statement released on Tuesday, urged the Afrobeats star, to ignore calls demanding his apology over the controversial music video he posted on his social media platforms on Friday.
According to the Nobel laureate, although many Muslim devotees have labelled the video offensive and are now calling for a retraction while also threatening the artists with a lawsuit, Davido does not owe Muslims an apology.
He cited the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El Rufai who he said had made offensive comments against Christians in the past but was never asked to tender an apology.
Wole Soyinka in his statement 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.
Relatedly, the issue of religious sensitivity thus comes to bear in the wake of Davido’s ordeal. Hopefully, it is now apparent that unless Nigerians and the entire people of the world learn to appreciate and respect the tenets of other people’s perculiarities, beliefs, values and cultural practices, the issue of religious insensitivities would continue to thrive thereby, leading to increased cases of violence as a result of intolerance for other religions.
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