On Sunday, one of the most globally recognised voices in African music took to X and said plainly what many Nigerians have been saying about their celebrities for years: that the artists who have profited most from this country’s culture and support, keeps quiet when the state of the country is in crisis
He wrote “I can’t lie, we entertainers, we dey f**k up, I won’t lie, including me. We need to speak up. It’s too much injustice going on. Our country don go.”
Davido is no small time artist. He is arguably the most commercially successful Nigerian artist of his generation with several political connections and a net worth that reads in dollars. When he says entertainers are not doing enough, he is speaking from a circle that he sits at the center of.
Not long before his post, Skepta, a British-Nigerian rapper also called out President Tinubu on social media over the country’s worsening insecurity and asked for global support for Nigerians facing these challenges.
There is little hope to be had to some and more skepticism for others. Nigerian artists and prominent figures have spoken up before. These ones have also gone quiet when social pressure eases or they succumb to political pressure.
But as Davido mentioned, now is not the time to keep quiet.
A prominent Islamic cleric was assassinated in Kwara. So many children have been abducted in Ogun. Banditry continues to plague the country. The Mokwa flood disaster that killed over 500 people last year has not been forgotten.
The loudest voice in the room just admitted he has been quiet. The more uncomfortable question now is what he, and the industry he leads, intends to do about it.
Source: Pulse
