The proverbial saying that a hungry man cannot be a jovial human being may truly be playing out on the controversial video earlier released by Nigeria’s Afro Pop star, David Adeleke, better known as Davido. The video, which was titled ‘Jaiye Lo,’ and sung by Logos Olori, an artiste under Davido, was artistically showing some people dressed in white ‘jalabiyas’ and caps, praying the way Muslim do before launching into dancing as they recited some Quranic verses and demonstratively prayed as obtained in Islam.
The video which alleged to have disparaged the Muslim faith, have outright been castigated condemned and rejected by many Nigerians mostly from Muslim community. The point was that the video was embarrassing the Muslim faith and should be taken down. As a peace-lover, Davido bowed to public outcry on Sunday and deleted the video from his Twitter page, but, the furore has yet to douse off.
While rumour had it that Davido songs have been banned by Kano and Sokoto State governments over the video (a claim I take as a pinch of salt), some who could be labelled as religious bigots and extremists are already on rampage unleashing physical and verbal attacks on the singer.
What started as move to redeem the alleged bad image of Islam as portrayed in the video, has now turned to public disturbance where banners of the music star were being burnt with life and career threats. What an irony! But trust me, Islam is a purely peaceful religion which dearly embraces and accommodates people from other religious beliefs and background. Nigerians are also loving people with largely a good heart. The current scenario could may be a situation that is beyond our spiritual control. The currently biting economic hardship could be responsible.
In the face of economic turbulence orchestrated by the unprecedented hike in Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol and its antecedent increase in transport fares which has affected virtually all our daily consumption products, only few individuals could really still maintain and display some level of sanity.
The present economic reality which has brought the standard of living among average Nigerians very low, while the cost of living ungraciously high, is unapologetic to the temper of many Nigerians. Hunger can cause people to be volatile.
Although the government is making efforts to bring relief to its citizenry, but there is no doubt that there is much hunger in the country. And these are trying times for any Nigerian. Of course any slightest blunder could be countered with severe provocation, commotion and aggression. A mild joke could be seriously taken offensive at this time. Hence, there is the need for everyone to trend carefully.
While I pray that this dire situation should be over in due time, I urge Nigerians to remain steadfast and tolerant with one another religiously, politically, ethnically and socio-culturally. This is not only because to sustain our co-existence as an indivisible territory, but also to create a formidable ground for national developments.
