In a surprising incursion into music video censorship, the Federal Ministry of Health on Friday criticised the latest video from YBNL CEO and hip-hop star, Olamide Adedeji, popularly known as Olamide Baddo.
In a series of tweets, the Ministry claimed the “Wo” video, a street-hop single, has “dangerous public health content” and is a “violation of Nigeria Tobacco Control Act 2015.”
According to the tweets, “the content & video contains scenes that violate the ban on Tobacco Advertising, Promotion & Sponsorship provision of the act.”
Backlash Over Ministry’s Criticism
Although Olamide is yet to officially react to the criticism of his widely acclaimed ghetto video, his fans have torn the Ministry of Health apart on social media over the criticism which seemed hasty as the video was only released two days prior.
A Twitter user, @Iam_bussie, in response to the Ministry’s tweets wrote: “You are here dragging a music video when your general hospitals barely get the necessary attention.” Another user, @patiencechieme, wrote: “There are a thousand and one things you should be paying attention to, but no, nah music video you dey watch for violation.”
Meanwhile, review of the video by Vigil360 reveals that the 3min 22secs long video has only a less than 2secs depiction of a ghetto youth smoking what appears to be indian hemp. The picture appears at 0:53sec of the video.
The video which is a montage of dance challenges is also currently No.1 on trending videos in the country and has been viewed already by 770,000 persons in just 5 days.
Shot in Olamide’s Badadry ghetto, the video further cements his status as Nigeria’s topmost street ambassador.
