Falz: I expected controversy over hijab-wearing girls in my video

Folarin ‘Falz’ Falana says he expected the backlash he received after releasing the controversial ‘This is Nigeria’ video.

Taking a cue from American musician Childish Gambino, the Nigerian artiste/actor addressed a number of topical Nigerian issues in the video, one of which is the Chibok and Dapchi schoolgirls’ abduction.

Following the release of the song, the singer was criticised for featuring hijab-wearing girls dancing ‘shaku shaku’.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) had threatened to take legal action against the entertainer but later backtracked, urging the government agencies responsible for censoring films and videos to act on the matter.

Reacting to the brouhaha during an interview on SoundCity FM, Falz said: “I expected the reaction, I expected discussion, I expected controversial discussion.”

When asked what he hoped to achieve with the video, he said: “It’s pretty obvious that the girls in the Hijab are very symbolic with the Chibok girls that were taken away.

“Over 200 of them, at the end of the day, after the government’s extremely sluggish response, half of them were brought back.”

The rapper recently said he made the song to remind Nigerians of the issues bedeviling the country.

He said: “I feel like we need to stay at a heightened level of social consciousness and political awareness out here because everyone is seemingly distracted by entertainment… that we sort of forget we’re facing a lot of struggles as a country.

“At the end of the day, money is very important. People need to make money, even I need to make money. But I feel like at every interval we need to stop and think. We need to pause and look around. Are we becoming too insensitive?”