The Grammy Award nominee and self-acclaimed African Giant issued a statement on Saturday amid knocks from Nigerian youths who had expressed disappointment over the musician’s silence.
However, Burna Boy stated that the protest is about deeper issues and should not be centred around him.
He wrote, ‘I have taken the past week to gather my thoughts. I usually respond to these matters with my emotions and frustrations. This time I have chosen to ignore the attempts; well-meaning or derogatory to draw me out. This is not and should not be about me. It is about a fundamental problem that affects us all Nigerians, as Africans, and as human beings.’
‘The state of our country, Nigeria, is tricky; it has been from before I was born. My greatest concern in all of this is that SARS will end now as it allegedly has several times in the past (I recall giving calls to end SARS during my USA tour in April 2019 and morph into a different entity down the line with a different form or a different name. In my opinion, abolishing the unit is a definite first step but we cannot afford to stop there.’
Burna Boy, however, applauded the protesters for exercising their right to demonstrate and to hold the government accountable.
He also stated that he had created a fund that would be used in helping protesters that are wrongfully arrested by the police.
‘I have created a sub-fund under my charity- The Reach called (@ProjectProtectng) to help protesters that are wrongfully harmed/arrested by SARS during and after these protests. This is a fund for the people by the people,’ Burna Boy added.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK