July 26, (THEWILL) – Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has defended singer David Adeleke, also known as Davido, over a music video, ‘Jaye lo’, released by his signee, Olalekan Taiwo, also known as Logos Olori.
The singer had uploaded ‘Jaye lo’ on his social media platforms for promotion but it was greeted with criticism by Muslims, who argued that the scene in the video disrespected their religion.
Defending the singer, Soyinka stated why an apology is not needed. He gave instances where prominent personalities made derogatory statements against Christianity and they never apologised.
“The following should not be needed, but we appear to inhabit a nation where memory deficiency has become an accreditation badge of competence in national affairs. I recall my intervention, several years ago, in an attempt to pillory former Governor of Kaduna State, El Rufai, over some comment he had made that was considered derogatory to the followers of Christianity.
“I have forgotten the reference now but I do distinctly recall another of a bank manager, who, at Easter tide, referred to the risen Christ as a metaphor for the risen dough in the bakeries of Oshodi. Something along those lines. Under obvious pressure, he apologised and I rebuked him for the gesture.
“There is nothing to apologise 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 Muslim community.
“No apology is required, None should be offered. Let us stop battening down our heads in the mush of contrived contrition. We know where contrition, apology and restitution remain clamorous in the cause of closure and above all justice. Such apologies have not been forthcoming. In their place, we have the ascendancy of petulant censorship in the dance and music department. Just where it will end.
“It goes beyond mere elation or euphoria and involves surrender of the ego to the mystical and sublime through dance. The secularisation of that medium stretches across religions, and offers the artistes a means of invoking a sense of spiritual community, through a common act of self-surrender.
“As already admitted, I have not seen the clip, but I insist on the right of the artiste to deploy dance in a religious setting as a fundamental given. Such deployment is universal heritage, most especially applicable in the case of Islam where a plot of land, even without the physical structure, can be turned, in the twinkling of an eye, into a sacral space for believers to gather and gather worship in between mundane pursuits.
“Let us learn to read it that way. Those who persist in taking offence to bed and serving it up as breakfast should exercise their right of boycotting Davido’s products. No one quarrels with that right. However, it is not a cause for negative and incitive excitation.
“The greater responsibility is to face squarely the root issues of religion in the nation. That root issue is starkly stated thus: the sectarian appropriation of the power of life and death across a community of believers, other believers, and even non-believers alike, be it for real, imagined, or deliberately contrived offence.
“It was not Davido’s music that lynched Deborah Yakubu and continues to frustrate the cause of justice. Nor has it contributed to the arbitrary detention of religious dissenters. Call them atheists or whatever – such as Mubarak Bala, now languishing in prison for his 38th month. These are the provocations where every citizen should exercise the capacity for revulsion.
“They are the issues deserving of, indeed exercise primary claim on a nation’s capacity for righteous indignation. All else is secondary. Distractive piffle,” he stated.
