Authors-choice: Hope & Revival

By Chinwuba Iyizoba

Davido gets it right with his mom, but wrong with women.

When Davido’s January 27, London concert sold out at the 02 Arena, with a crowd of more than 20000 people, the music maestro was so overjoyed that he credited the triumph to the help of his late mother.

Celebrating with guests, the next day, the 26 yrs old broke down in tears, and continued thanking his late mom comparing her to an angel, posting on Instagram:

“Only angels can make such Dreams come true … Thank you mom for watching over your baby.”

His mom, Veronica Adeleke, died when he was 10. A woman of rare beauty and a music lover, she had owned a record label in the 90s which she named after Davido, who must have inherited her love for music, and a sign of a strong bond between mother and son that even death is unable to break.

Much like Catholic’s understanding of devotion to Mother Mary, he believes that she is very much alive in heaven, helping him each step of the way.

In his mind, love for his mom pushes him to give his best.

Interestingly, this devotion to his mom, rather than offend anyone is in fact making him appear more humane, warm and attractive to his fans especially women, yet his relationship with other women leaves much to be desired having fathered two daughters from two different women while in a public relationship with a third.

Considering that he has over 2 million followers on Facebook and many more on Instagram, many of them young people, one can see that his loose lifestyle is having a bad influence on public morals.

As a role model, he is teaching his young fans to behave like cows, next, he will teach them to be content to go the way of goats. He is sending the wrong message to young people to act like miserable beasts who don’t know how to control their passions.

Davido whose music career took off with his 2011 hit single “Dami Duro” and gained him a huge student fan base should remember that his mom, apart from her love for music, was a teacher, a university lecturer, who loved academics and taught her students well, and desired that her students do well in their studies.

Without a doubt, she would desire that his music and songs helped his young fans achieve academic excellence, by being a little less salacious, and more focused on themes that encourage learning, extolling the virtues of hard work and family.

Thus it is meet and proper for him to recognize his mom’s help, but it’s even better for him to emulate her love for family, and marriage and try to emulate it.

Moreover, he enjoyed and continues to enjoy the dignity and prestige of being born into a family. His mom met his father Adedeji Adeleke in the ’80s; they fell in love, got married, and had four children. If his parents had not properly married, perhaps he would not be who he is today.

Why then would he deny his own children that same dignity? It is unfortunate, unfair, and rather irresponsible.

One could argue that wealth and popularity have gotten into his head, but his father was a very rich man, and popular, yet there isn’t evidence that his money or fame influenced him to lead a reprobate life, having, and children with other women apart from his mother.

Without a doubt, his parent’s good example of lifelong love, marriage, and a great family atmosphere has contributed in no small measure to his own success; his children have a right to expect the same from him, and would be a dereliction of duty if he fails to do so. In fact, one could even say that he is setting his daughters up for failure since studies show that children from stable homes do way better than ones from broken homes.

His mother, like all mothers, knows a great deal about love. Through marriage, God opened a fruitful channel for her love to share in the power of God on the free and responsible transmission of life, rather than the wickedly undermining God’s plan because of selfish human pleasures.

I am sure, Davido’s mom watching over him so motherly, and wanting the best for him, would wish him to stop sowing his wild oats around, settle down, get married, and treat his wife and children with more respect. She would wish to tell him that running around and fathering children shamelessly with different women isn’t a very good way to pay her back for all the toil and hard work in bringing him and his 3 siblings up and that he must stop taking advantage of women if he truly loves her.