“People Are Trying To Shoot The Messenger,” Says Falz In Reaction To Criticisms On #ThisisNigeria Video

In the wake of the applause and criticism that have met the release of the video of his trending song, “This Is Nigeria,” popular Nigerian rapper, Folarin ‘Falz’ Falana, has expressed his feelings towards the critics, stating how they have missed the point of the video by “shooting the messenger while ignoring the message.”

Falz stated this during an interview Usifo Umozokpea of BBC Africa, while addressing his highly debated ‘This is Nigeria’ video, which touches on many issues including the Nigeria police, corruption and online fraud, also known as ‘yahoo yahoo’.

Folarin ‘Falz’ Falana,

His statement comes at a period of time when the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is requesting that he withdraws the viral video or face legal action.

The group, in a statement by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Tuesday, condemned the song and the video and further issued Falz a seven-day ultimatum to take it down.

”The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) strongly denounces the Shaku Shaku dance video. It is thoughtless, insensitive and highly provocative. It is a hate video. It is Islamophobia nulli secundus. This video has the potential of causing religious crisi of unprecedented dimension. We therefore demand its withdrawal and an apology to Nigerian Muslims within seven days or the authors and their agents will face legal action if they fail to comply,” the Statement had read in part.

But in the interview with BBC Africa, Falz, an actor, singer and comic, said majority of what he has been facing, in terms of backlash is just a matter of people that are trying to shoot the messenger so that they miss the message.

Read part of the interview below: ”The video has been very well received. Even initially when I was releasing it, I didn’t sort of anticipate the magnitude of reaction… I thought there will be some form of reaction and conversation but I didn’t know how largely it will be received.”

”It was important, first of all, I was inspired by the original, This is America by Childish Gambino, I thought it was a very artistic and creative way to tell the American story and I thought it will be amazing to tell the Nigerian story in a similar fashion.”

“It was very important to stir up a heightened level of political and social consciousness out here.”

”Majority of what I have been facing, in terms of backlash is just a matter of people that are trying to shoot the messenger so that they miss the message, but at the end of the day, the message is really clear and everyone knows that the message is the truth.”

Watch full video of the interview below: