Nigerian music star, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has deleted the much controversial music video of his signee, Logos Olori, after facing intense backlash online.
On Saturday, Davido came 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 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.
Notable Nigerian celebrities such as Bashir Ahmad and Ali Nuhu were particularly vocal about this.
Ahmad, an ex-aide of the former president Muhammadu Buhari, in a tweet said: “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 honor or acceptable.”
Kanywood star, Nuhu, in a post via his verified Instagram account, advised the singer to respect other people’s ‘religion, culture and tradition.”
He wrote, “I just came across the controversial video 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 apologise for hurting the entire Muslim ummah.”
Also, Shehu Sani, a former lawmaker, advised the singer to delete the video.
In a tweet on Sunday, Sani wrote: “As an artist or entertainer, if your fans feel offended by a piece or portion of your work, especially as it concerns their culture, faith, or religious beliefs, it will be most honourable for you to delete or edit that portion, apologise to them, and move on. I’m here talking about Davido. This is my own opinion.”
While the musician had been relatively silent on the matter and made no formal apology, two days after coming under fire, Davido finally bowed to pressure and deleted the video.