NBC Bans Songs by Olamide, Davido, 9ice

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has banned five songs by major Nigerian musicians – Olamide, Davido and 9ice – having considered them offensive for broadcast.

The banned songs are Olamide’s “Wo” and “Wavy Level“, Davido’s “Fall” and “If (Remix)”, and 9ice’s “Living Things”.

The corporation released the list yesterday, saying it banned the five songs from being aired across the Nigerian airwaves, reported online news medium, Premium Times.

The Federal Ministry of Health had in a tweet on Friday, said the video to Olamide’s “Wo” violated the Tobacco Control Act.

The 28-year-old rapper, who is signed to his own record label, YBNL, had returned to Ladi Lak in Bariga where he was raised to shoot the video of his latest single.

“This is our position: the video contravenes the Act. Innocently or otherwise, Tobacco promotion advertising sponsorship is banned in all forms,” the NBC said.

It could not immediately be ascertained why the songs of the two other musicians were banned.

In June this year, the federal government, through the Ministry of Health, had launched a campaign to ban smoking in public places, including bus parks, shopping malls and health care centres.

The Health Ministry, in a communiqué, said according to Section 9 of the Nigeria Tobacco Control Act, once convicted, offenders are liable to a fine of at least N50,000 and/or six months imprisonment.

Tweeting the information via its official Twitter handle, the ministry claimed that the video, which features ghetto scenes in which youths are seen smoking, encouraged second-hand smoking.

This is not the first time that an Olamide song will be banned by the regulatory agency.

In 2016, just a few months after the ban of one of his songs, “Shakiti Bobo,” NBC also banned “Don’t Stop”, a track from Olamide’s fifth studio album, Eyan Mayweather, for its vulgar lyrics.

Defending the decision at the time, the NBC said the song was banned from being played on the airwaves for its “obscenity, being indecent, vulgar language, lewd and profane expressions.

Rapper Falz had also in June, criticized Nigerian musicians who glamourise fraud with their lyrics, a criticism fans took to be directed at 9ice for “Living Things”.

The actor and rapper stated that the recent trend of hailing internet fraudsters in music was not helping future generations, as young people were beginning to see this as a normal way of life.

He recalled the personal experience of the challenges faced by Nigerians in other countries as a result of cybercrime.