It is needless to say that at this very moment, it is a fact that the Nigerian music industry has grown in leaps and bounds.
If ever there was any doubt that Nigerian musicians were now the toasts of the world, the recent Grammy Award win by Burna Boy put paid to that.
However, as the industry seems to be growing daily, there is an ugly aspect that is giving a lot of people cause for concern. Many music videos by Nigerian artistes have been described as ‘soft porn’ by many because of the display of near nudity in them.
Music videos such as ‘Bounce’ (Rema), ‘Agege’ (Tekno), ‘Looking Nyash’ (Flavour) and ‘Idi Oremi’ (Naira Marley) are filled with scantily dressed ladies who leave nothing to the imagination. Also, quite a number of songs brazenly promote drug abuse and Internet fraud. Examples are ‘Cash App’ (Bella Shmurda) and ‘Coming’ (Naira Marley). Though some of these videos have been banned by the National Broadcasting Commission, they can be viewed on cable TV and on the Internet.
Over the cause of the past few months, several Saturday Beats readers had sent in messages, complaining about the use of vulgar lyrics and raunchy music videos by Nigerian artistes. A particular reader, Ademoye Kazeem, stated that the situation had got so bad that he banned his children from watching certain stations and channels. He said, “The kind of lyrics in many Nigerian songs is not good at all. They are full of vulgar messages, even as they encourage listeners to engage in social vices such as drunkenness, prostitution and smoking. It has got to a point that I use the parental control feature on the cable TV at home. I also banned everyone in my house, both children and adults, from watching certain channels. I don’t want them to be polluted by those horrible images.”
An educationist, Biodun Shonubi, told Saturday Beats that lewd lyrics and videos had a negative impact on children. In an interview with our correspondent, he said, “What is happening is not good at all. Children listen to those lyrics and watch the videos and see all manner of things.
“Now, many children repeat those vulgar words without even knowing the meaning. In the school where I work, we constantly correct these kids, telling them that if they don’t know the meaning of a word, they should not use it. Unfortunately, the media is not also helping issues. Those videos are practically shown on every station one tunes to. Even if those raunchy videos are to be played, they should be shown at night when children would most likely have gone to bed. But, regardless of what time it is, those videos are shown to members of the public, including impressionable minds. It is also sad that society celebrates musicians who propagate such vices. Many children see these musicians as role models and want to copy everything they do.”
Shonubi also berated musicians who felt their songs would not be popular if they did not use vulgar lyrics. He said, “Not all musicians have to sing that way. Someone like Teni D’Entertainer mostly makes songs with ‘clean’ lyrics and videos, yet she is doing well in her career.”
Another teacher, Victoria Kolaosho, described the preponderance of lewd lyrics and videos as a ‘cancer that was eating the soul of society’. She said, “I am an elementary school teacher and this issue is a big concern for me. Early this year, I was shocked to see a nine-year-old female student giving a ‘lap dance’ to a classmate. I initially thought it was something she had seen her parents doing, but the little girl in question stated that she was only practising what she saw in a music video. I had to call her parents immediately and report the incident to them. They then promised to be more careful and intentional about the things their children listen to and watch.”
A youth coach, Tade Borokini, also noted that the near x-rated content of many music videos had a correlation with the increase in drug abuse in society. He said, “I don’t mean to sound like an alarmist but the country is practically sitting on a keg of gunpowder. As a youth coach, I am taking care of more than 10 teenagers who are in the grips of hard drugs. Many of them are in rehabilitation centres, trying to break their addiction to drugs.
“There are many youths out there who are basically walking corpses because of the harmful substances they put in their system. Sadly, entertainers are not helping manners. These days, you would rarely find music videos where they are not drinking, smoking and taking drugs. This is in addition to the near-nakedness that is always on full display in such videos. Many people don’t seem to realise this but the youths, who are the future and glory of this nation, are being damaged psychologically.”
Borokini also stated that parents had to rise up to the occasion and monitor their children more closely. “Right now, the onus is on parents to take proper care of their homes. The family is the primary unit of society and it is said that ‘charity begins at home’. Parents should take active interest in the kind of content their children have access to. Children learn more from what they see, rather than what they hear. Thankfully, most TV programmes are age-categorised. As a parent, one must make sure that one’s children don’t watch or listen to content that is not appropriate for their age,” he said.
In a similar vein, a psychologist and a former Vice President of the National Association of Clinical Psychologists, Afolabi Aroyewun, stated that lewd lyrics, images and videos had negative impacts on the minds of children. He said, “Even children that are still growing and cannot talk can be affected by such videos. At that stage, they are observing everything going on around them and forming an idea of what is good and bad. If what they see is nudity everywhere— on TVs and even billboards when they go out— they would have a warped idea of human beings and human nature.