African Music Diva Tiwa Savage has expressed shock after her latest track, Tiwa’s Vibe was banned from being played on local stations because she said “Shayo”, a Nigerian slang for Alcohol.
According to her, the track was banned over her mention of alcohol and for a country where alcohol is legal, (a fact she pointed out in her post), the idea is absurd.
You would recall that the government just officially placed a ban on Shisha smoking in the country in their bid to curb drug consumption and abuse.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Saturday to mark the World No-Tobacco day, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, implored law enforcement agencies to arrest persons who were violating the government’s ban on flavoured tobacco products, and its most popular Nigerian iteration, shisha.
“Let me stress that the ban on tobacco products with characterising flavours is still in place and the ban includes shisha because it has flavour. I, therefore, urge the Consumer Protection Council and the law enforcement agencies to intensify arrest of defaulters.”
To justify this, the Minister referred to a ban on the sale of flavoured tobacco products. Adewole claimed that these products were targeted at the youth and could be as dangerous as cigarettes.
This approach to reducing the consumption of shisha is not a one-off. When it comes to dealing with perceived vices among the youth, the Nigerian government’s first weapon is, more often than not, a ban, complete with threats of arrest and a jail term.
