Before you crucify him, was Davido lying about Nigeria?

Last time, I was talking about Prophet Olabisi Adamu and others who end up gaslighting Nigerians in a bid to dissuade them from leaving Nigeria for better opportunities abroad. According to the prevailing logic, other countries are as bad or even worse than the green fertile land that’s Nigeria. This is easily disprovable, of course. Because on many lists and rankings, Nigeria compares to countries at war. Nigeria ranks 142 out of 167 countries on The Legatum Prosperity Index. Niger ranks 152. Ghana on the other hand ranks 98. Make of that what you will.

Well, this week we’re back (again) on what can pass for another episode of “Chasing Shadows.” This time, Afrobeats musician Davido (David Adeleke) is being ‘dragged’ because of his interview on the Big Homie House podcast. One of the hosts, Kodaq had asked Davido: “My original question was if someone wanted to leave America …and go back home?” Davido interjected: “Leave America and go where? Go back where? It’s not cool back home. My country now, the economy is in shambles. The exchange rate is messed up. A lot of stuff not going well. The economy is not just good anymore. The oil prices are too high. Imagine a country that produces oil. We produce the oil and we paying more money for oil than a country that imports the oil’.” Where is the lie? As at May 2023, a litre of petrol in Nigeria sold for well under 200 Naira but same now sells for over N1200 in some cities (it’s higher the farther you go especially in the (South) East and up North.

Meanwhile, Davido didn’t even get to the insecurity, the kidnappings, or how bandits/terrorists are controlling some local government areas where citizens pay taxes to them. In fact, new groups are springing up. Davido didn’t also mention that the cost of air travel in Nigeria is, well, up in the air. With a private jet, that can’t be a pressing concern. He also didn’t talk bout the high cost of food and basic necessities. The cost of rice is usually the commonest example used. In 2014, before the first All Progressives Congress, APC, government under Gen Mohammadu Buhari, a bag of rice was around N7, 500 naira. By May 2023 after 8 years of Buhari, rice was selling for over N60K. Now, in the second APC government under Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a bag of rice sells for as high as N150k.

Incidentally, Davido, who is wealthy and whose father is said to be a billionaire, isn’t really affected by any of this. Yet, some of those dragging him bear the brunt of the hardship in the land, where they provide their own water, electricity, security, etc. while earning less than a living wage, if they’re lucky to have jobs. These are the “shuffering and shmilling” people late musical genius Fela Anikulapo Kuti sang about in his 1978 album of the same title.

Akashat Ny’mat, a presenter on TVC (purportedly owned by Nigeria’s President Tinubu) was more concerned that Davido was demarketing Nigeria: “When the President takes a plane to a country to look for foreign investors and a prominent figure like Davido says this, he is essentially telling them not to come” (I guess investors don’t watch the news or do any form of research, they just blindly follow ‘the president’ as he ‘takes the plane’ back to his country).

On social media, some were saying ‘Davido shouldn’t wash Nigeria’s dirty linen in public’ (so there’s agreement that Nigeria has dirty linen?), and quoting proverbs about ‘how you shouldn’t point to your father’s house with your left hand’ which obviously didn’t consider southpaws or lefthanded people like former US presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, etc. A dear friend calls them proverbs of poverty and underdevelopment. Just like the one about ‘what an elder sees sitting down, a young person can’t, even if they climb the tallest Iroko tree.’ I know we shouldn’t be too literal, but the advent of drones has since been used to debunk this particular one. Of course, there was the ubiquitous ‘every country has its positive and negative side.’ I have a special dislike for the redundant phrase “no one is perfect” in this case, no country is perfect. Why do we need to say it if we all agree it’s a foregone conclusion? Every country may have its positive and negative side but, on a scale, some have more negative than positive.

I have no issue with Davido or any Afrobeats musician speaking up about the situation in Nigeria. If anything, I have a problem with their reductive take on Afrobeats. As I wrote in another column “Afrobeats, all sound and no fury?” Afrobeats musicians seem focused on just sound. Considering that they claim Fela, the creator of the original Afrobeat as their inspiration, this new crop of musicians prefers to glorify fraudsters, fixate on women’s bums, and casually boast about drugs, etc. Fela on the other hand was an activist and a revolutionary. He didn’t ‘hide his mouth,’ nor did he shy away from naming names in his songs. Yes, there is only one Fela, and I don’t expect anyone to be him. However, our musicians and other creatives can certainly do more. And the US-born Davido is in a better position than millions of Nigerians.