Professor Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate, has advised Nigerian Afrobeat musician Davido to disregard calls for him to apologise for the contentious music video he put on his social media accounts.
Following the release of the latter’s most recent album, “Jaye Lo,” the head of the Davido Music Worldwide label and his signee, Olamilekan Taiwo, alias Logos Olori, created a stir online and received a variety of responses from internet users.
Read Also: Doctors Go On Strike Despite Appeal By Lawmakers
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.
This dancing act has since been deemed offensive by some Muslim devotees.
Despite deleting the video forty-eight hours after it was posted, some Muslims are still demanding a public apology from Davido.
However, Soyinka in a statement released on Tuesday, said Davido did not owe Muslims an apology.
The Literary icon said former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El Rufai had made offensive comments against Christians in the past but was never asked to tender 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.
