BREAKING: Soyinka Defends Davido, Asks Him Not to Apologise to Muslims

Prof. Wole Soyinka has defended David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, over a video the afro-beats star released on his social media handles.

The music did not go down well with the Muslim community in northern Nigeria.

However, Soyinka said Davido did not need to apologise to the Muslims or anyone over the video.

In his reaction, Soyinka, in a statement on Tuesday, July 25, said he had not seen the Davido clip and would greatly appreciate it if someone would make it available so they all could debate, objectively, the merits and demerits of positions taken over this recent product of the musician.

However, Soyinka said certain artistic creativity principles, histories, rights, and responsibilities should not be smothered under emotional manipulation.

Soyinka referred to the notorious case of ISESE in Ilorin, saying there are hundreds of others far too weighty to evoke concerning this mere piffle of religious sentimentality.

Part of the statement read: “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 departments. Just where will it end?”

Soyinka added that most forms of worship – from Hare Krishna to Hinduism and lesser-known religions – sought transcendental experience through dance.

“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 worship in between mundane pursuits,” he said.