KANO, June 19 — Nigerian Afrobeats star Davido has become embroiled in an online spat with a pro-government singer over the kidnapping of schoolchildren last month, adding a celebrity feud to the national security woes.
Gunmen abducted at least 46 pupils and teachers from three schools in southwestern Oyo State on May 15.
The kidnapping — which the army blamed on Boko Haram jihadists — took place in a region considered one of the safest in Nigeria and quickly became a hot-button issue.
It prompted a statewide teachers’ strike and protests in parts of the west African country.
Davido sought to draw global attention to the assault when he performed at the Fifa World Cup Countdown Concert in Los Angeles on June 10 wearing a jacket bearing the names of the abductees.
But Dauda Kahutu, who is popular among supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), especially in northern Nigeria, condemned Davido for the gesture.
Kahutu, who is also known as Rarara, complained that drawing international attention to the kidnapping “may unintentionally complicate rescue efforts”.
“What Davido did was beastly,” he said in Hausa in a three-minute video posted on social media.
In a response — also in Hausa, a language widely spoken in the north — Davido told Rarara: “I would have engaged you in a conversation if you were educated. But you know nothing.”
In another exchange, he accused Rarara of doing a disservice to Nigeria by keeping quiet about the insecurity “troubling the country” and trying to stop others from expressing their concern.
“You should be patriotic. Stop prioritising politics over truth and fear God wherever you are,” Davido wrote.
There is growing public frustration over worsening violence in Africa’s most populous country.
In June 2024, Rarara’s 77-year-old mother was kidnapped from her home in Kahutu village in northwestern Katsina State and held for 20 days before being released after a ransom payment.
Rarara blamed the delay in rescuing his mother on an online call for her release posted by former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, an opposition presidential candidate.
Kidnapping for ransom — especially of schoolchildren — has plagued conflict-hit northern Nigeria for years but the mass abductions in Oyo were unusual for the much calmer state.
Kidnappings raised some US$1.66 million (RM6.83 million) in ransom payments between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy. — AFP
