MURIC backs down from suing Falz over ‘This Is Nigeria’ video

The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has backed down on its plans to sue popular

Nigerian rapper Falz over his controversial This is Nigeria video.

The Muslim group had earlier given Falz a 7-day ultimatum to take down the viral

video. However in a new statement released by the group, they are backing down

from the threat and want the case to be handled by the censor’s board.

Read the statement below:

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) last week resolved to sue Folarin Falana (Falz
the Bahd Guy), a Nigerian artist, who produced the video song titled ‘This is Nigeria’
in which a Fulani man was seen beheading somebody. The video also featured hijab-
wearing female choreographers dancing the ‘shaku-shaku’ (a dance associated with
drug). A seven-day ultimatum was given for the withdrawal of the video and an
apology failing which a legal tussle would be launched.
Our office has since been inundated with solidarity visits, while our telephone lines
have been flooded with a deluge of calls from members, friends, well-wishers,
journalists and other concerned Nigerians, majority of whom are of the Islamic faith.
In view of the intervention of these well-meaning Nigerians, counseling from several
quarters and commitments given by us to those who interfaced with us on this
matter, an emergency meeting of MURIC’s Think-Tank was convened on Sunday,
June 10, 2018 to review the situation.
In deference to pleas made by well-meaning Nigerians, in order to keep faith with
our avowed motto (Dialogue, Not Violence) and to further confirm that MURIC is a
listening, mature and responsible organization committed to promoting peace in
Nigeria, the Think-Tank resolved to drag the artist to government agencies saddled
with the responsibility of censoring films and videos. It is not a U-turn but a sudden
change in tactics.

This will have a more enduring impact not only on Falz but the entire entertainment
industry. It will also make the agencies sit up to their responsibilities and inject a
huge dose of discipline in the music and film industries in general.
MURIC expresses deep appreciation to its members nation-wide, particularly Muslim
lawyers who volunteered to take up the case gratis, leaders of Islamic organizations
across the country who offered their solidarity as well as senior civil servants who
shared their rich experiences with us.
Although he stopped short of apologizing, the artist has tried to clear himself in
published interviews made available to us. According to him, he did not intend to
ridicule Muslims. He said his intention was to call attention to the plight of the
Chibok girls although we think he has done that the wrong way.
A scene in the video in which the ‘Chibok girls’ are in pensive mood would have been
more representative of the reality on ground because kidnapped girls cannot be
dancing like people under the influence of drug. They are in captivity and so they
have no cause under the sun for jubilating.

Again, the Fulanis (Muslims) were painted as killers while Benue militias (Christians)
who rustle Fulani cattles and slaughter their wives and children were not featured.
This is grossly unfair. Falz should find a way of balancing his video. The kidnappers
of the South East (also Christians) were spared while the oil saboteurs of the Niger
Delta (Christians too) were ignored.
Falz video is loaded with Islamophobia. That video should be titled ‘This is not
Nigeria’. It is Islam-bashing. Nigeria’s video regulatory agency should therefore ban
the video or ask the artist to edit it properly.
With this latest development and even before the seven-day ultimatum expires,
MURIC is no longer contemplating court action against Falz, neither are we
demanding any apology from him or his management. The likely pecuniary gain in
the event of a court validation of our claims does not interest us. We are no longer
looking at Falz but at a larger picture.
The courts will only be interested in legalities, judiciability and technicalities but the
video board will look beyond all that. Is it professional? Is it balanced? Is it truly
representative of our country? Is it morally justifiable? These are what will interest
the board and they are in tandem with our thinking. We appreciate artists and our
aim is not to punish Falz. He is not a lazy Nigerian youth.

The matter will now go to those government agencies who are supposed to do their
jobs in the first place. Instead of creating media tension and granting cheap
popularity, this matter will now be handled by professionals who know what to do.
Our emphasis is going to be mainly on the portrayal of Fulanis as killers in the video
with the concomitant ugly perception it is likely to create among Nigerians as well
as its bandwagon effect on the image of Muslims in general. This is one area Falz
has not been able to explain away, yet he refused to apologise. That aspect of the
video would have been edited had the censorship agencies done what was expected
of them or if Falz had followed due process.
In the interest of peace, law and order, we are calling on the National Film And Video
Censors Board (NFVCB) to take up the matter from this moment. Although MURIC
will still do a followup with an official petition, we expect the board to have begun its
independent investigations on the matter particularly with the furore generated by the
issue.
In a nutshell, we insist that Falz video “This is Nigeria” is offensive and provocative.
It portrays Fulanis (and Nigerian Muslims) as killers. It is capable of igniting crisis
and precipitating a general breakdown of law and order. The video board must
therefore do the needful.