Former Nigerian Idol contestant and US based Nigerian performer, Adeniji Jemiriye has faulted “THIS IS NIGERIA”, the currently trending new video by Nigerian rapper Falz.
Jemiriye believes that the continue chanting of “THIS IS NIGERIA, EVERYBODY IS A CRIMINAL” is an insult on the hardworking innocent Nigerians out there.
According to the songstress, if Falz believes that every Nigerian is a criminal, then so is his father, Femi Falana; he’s simply saying his own father who has worked so hard as a lawyer is a criminal.
Below is how Jemiriye shared it on her Facebook page…
“This Is Nigeria, Everybody Is Not a Criminal
This is certainly not the truth that Nigerian youths want to hear now, but the trending song “This Is Nigeria”, by Nigerian rapper, FalzThaBahdGuy, which is a cover of the song “This Is America” by US rapper, Childish Gambino, is a colossal disservice to the millions of innocent Nigerians home and abroad working hard everyday and making this country proud.
Interestingly Falz has always attacked “Yahooboys” for bringing Nigeria’s name to disrepute, but what is the difference between “Yahoo boys” and Falz who just released a song chanting “Every Nigerian Is A Criminal” which is now being reposted on different social media by popular celebrities with millions of followers including American music mogul, Diddy who has more than 10million active followers on instagram?
Is this song not a weapon of mass destruction to our collective image laundry efforts on this country? As at the time of writing this, “This Is Nigeria…Everybody Is A Criminal” has been viewed by over a million people globally on Falz’s YouTube page alone just 5 days after its release; not to talk of the different instagram pages and YouTube pages it has been shared on. Granted, Nigeria, just like every other countries in the world has a prevalence of crimes of all manners, and we all know that the international media has not even helped the Nigerian and African situation, with their focus on the negative aspects, but doing such a song is a massive dent on the already tainted image of this country.
We are in an era when innocent Nigerians are being denied Visas because of the sins of the many others, Nigerians in the diaspora not finding it easy to transact businesses with their foreign counterparts and so many other challenges attached to being called a Nigerian, but rather than play his part in changing the conversation, Falz decided to rubbish all of us just because he wants to make a new hit song; and that is extremely disappointing coming from a supposedly learned person. It’s worse than Idris Abdul Kareem’s “Jaga Jaga” which never even insulted hardworking Nigerians anyway, yet intelligently highlights the challenges in the country. Now, i dont know about the millions of youths currently hailing the rapper for “a job well done”, however, i abeg to excuse myself that i am not a criminal. “I deserve some accolades, because i have paid my dues” in the words of actor Charles Okocha.
We’re here day in day out trying to make the world see Africa in a better light. Look at the incident in Paris on Saturday, the guy from Mali. That’s an African! Look at Nigerians doing us proud both home and abroad. All over the US, Nigerians dominate the universities as lecturers, same as in the health sectors. With my music, i have personally promoted Nigeria’s image widely in the US selling Nigeria and Africa to them, which earned me the spot of the first African artiste to perform the baseball anthem to a stadium full of spectators, proudly rocking my Gele. I have been able to meet many world dignitaries and speak to them more about the beauty of Nigeria and the people and they always show so much interest in learning about this great country. I, including many other Nigerians in the diaspora continually make sacrifices to change negative opinions of foreigners about this country, even as some people change their names, skin color or even jostle to have mixed baby. We have stayed true to this country…And someone is somewhere saying we are all criminals?
However, what i know for sure is that this table that Falz is shaking has his highly revered dad, Femi Falana on it. And I wonder how he feels about his son saying he is a criminal after all his years of hardwork in the legal profession?
The rest of the world may continue to inflict injuries on us, but it will be a great injustice if we continue rub salt on the injuries ourselves.
Even Childish Gambino who owns the original song remixed by Falz never called Americans such derogatory name, while campaigning against the system.
As a popular Yoruba adage says, only a bastard points to his father’s house with a left hand.
I repeat, this is Nigeria everybody is not a criminal.
My name is Jemiriye.
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