How ‘amala’ stirred Davido, NDLEA controversy

The Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) has said that it did not approve the video of hip hop musician, Davido tagged ‘Fans Mi’ featuring American rapper, Meek Mill before it was released for public viewing.

The Acting Head, Corporate Affairs of the agency, Mike Ekunno, stated this on inquiries made by Punch following the decision of the National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to investigate if the controversial video was censored before its release.

However, Davido’s manager, Kamal Ajiboye, in another interview defended the singer and the content of the video, noting, that “People have been talking about the matter on social media. Maybe they need to take time to watch the video again and see for themselves what it is all about. I don’t know why anybody would want to make up a story about Davido getting involved with hard drugs,” he said.

Also, responding to the decision of the NDLEA to investigate the video and, possibly, invite the singer for questioning, Ajiboye said his client had not received any invitation for questioning from the NDLEA.

But he noted that what the NDLEA had mistaken for drugs was actually yam flour. “The yam flour was well projected in the video. It was finally prepared as a meal of pounded yam to be eaten with vegetable soup in one of the scenes in the same video,” he said.

Read also: Davido in NDLEA trouble over ‘Fans Mi’ video

Ajiboye argued that, contrary to what many may think, the ‘Fans mi’ video was aimed at promoting the production and sale of yam flour in Nigeria.

Noting that the agency’s reaction to the video and that of members of the public ran contrary to the message of the video, he continued, “The story is basically to dissuade people from trafficking in hard drugs. The purpose of the video is to let the audience know that since some people are making money from hard drugs, they can also make a lot of money by selling yam flour.”

Davido’s manager accused those who have lampooned the video of deliberately interpreting its message in a negative way. By kicking against it, he said, the NDLEA and other critics had shown that they did not wait to watch the video till the end before concluding that it was promoting hard drugs.

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