Nigerian music star David Adeleke, fondly known as Davido, has come under fire from many Muslims on social media for posting a 45-second trailer clip of his upcoming musical video on Twitter.
The video, which many Muslim commentators described as offensive, showed a group of men dressed for, and ostensibly in, a Muslim prayer session suddenly turned to dancing and singing.
They accused the singer, who has nearly 14 million followers on the microblogging site, of disrespecting Islam by mixing their religious rites and rituals with song and dance.
They also called on him to delete the video and apologize.
The singer has not yet responded to the accusations.
However, the issue has continued to generate heated debates and exchanges among Davido’s followers and some prominent Muslim influencers who have called the singer out.
Notable among them, are Bashir Ahmad and popular Kannywood and Nollywood actor, Ali Nuhu.
Reacting to the video, Ahmad, a Special Assistant to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital Communications tweeted, “There are many reasons why every Muslim finds this content absolutely disrespectful, hurtful and offensive @davido. I assume you all know that we Muslims don’t mix our religion with jokes in any way, especially Salah (prayer), which is sacred and the second of the five pillars of Islam.
“In Salah, Muslims remember our Lord, Allah, express our love and respect for Him and invoke and strive to express our gratitude towards Him. The notion is that the Salah activity brings the individual face-to-face with God. That is what we believe, and that is our faith. Please respect it. No Muslim will find it as an honour or acceptable.”
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The legendary northern actor, Ali Nuhu, in a post via his verified Instagram account, advised the singer to respect other people’s ‘religion, culture and tradition.”
Posting a picture of Davido with a red X sign, Nuhu tweeted, “I just came across the controversial video posted by @davido, as much we want to be creative in our various fields we should learn to respect other people’s religion, culture and tradition. This is totally unacceptable in Islam. You should pull down that video and apologize for hurting the entire Muslim ummah.”
On Friday, Logos Olori, one of Davido’s newly signed acts, unveiled his first single ‘Jaye Lo’ accompanied by a video.
Davido made a tweet to promote the song on his page just after its release.
He wrote, “Allow me to re-introduce @logosolori with his new single ‘Jaye Lo’. Let us Run It Up one time! Let us take over the world! We Litty.”
The tweet was accompanied by a video of the signee sitting on a building that has the semblance of a mosque. Moreso, in the scenes of the video men portrayed as Muslims were seen praying in front of the building. (Daily Trust)
