In Nigeria’s leisure trade, public outrage will be swift and unforgiving. One controversial assertion, felony allegation or viral video can set off requires boycotts, misplaced endorsements and calls for that an entertainer disappear from public life. But because the outrage fades and the music begins enjoying once more, an even bigger query emerges: Does anybody actually keep cancelled in Nigeria?
Few instances take a look at that query higher than Naira Marley.
After the loss of life of his former signee, Ilerioluwa Aloba, popularly generally known as Mohbad, on September 12, 2023, public anger moved shortly from grief to questions on what the younger singer had skilled earlier than his loss of life. Old movies returned to social media. Previous allegations of harassment and assault resurfaced. Mohbad had left Marlian Music in 2022 following a troubled relationship with the label and had publicly complained about threats and assaults. Then Nigerians started to attract their very own conclusions.
At the centre of the outrage was Azeez Fashola, higher generally known as Naira Marley, founding father of Marlian Music.
Photo supply: Google
What adopted was maybe one of many clearest examples of cancel tradition Nigeria’s leisure trade has seen. Some radio stations stopped enjoying his music. Splash FM in Ibadan positioned his songs on its “Not To Be Broadcast” record. Agidigbo FM additionally banned his music. DJs publicly distanced themselves from him. The backlash unfold past Naira Marley himself: two American promoters cancelled deliberate exhibits involving Marlian Music artiste Zinoleesky as anger towards the label grew.
For an artiste who had as soon as constructed an infinite youth motion across the phrase “Marlians”, the change was outstanding. But three years later, Naira Marley is performing once more. And that raises an uncomfortable query.
Did Nigerians really cancel him?
There is a crucial distinction within the Naira Marley case.
Public suspicion will not be the identical factor as a felony conviction.
Naira Marley and music promoter Sam Larry had been arrested in October 2023 and spent weeks in custody as authorities investigated the circumstances surrounding Mohbad’s loss of life. Both repeatedly denied duty for the singer’s loss of life.
In February 2025, a Lagos Magistrate’s Court accepted authorized recommendation from the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions, which discovered inadequate proof to prosecute Naira Marley, Sam Larry, Primeboy and one other defendant in reference to Mohbad’s loss of life. Proceedings continued towards the auxiliary nurse who handled Mohbad shortly earlier than his loss of life and one different individual.
Mohbad’s father, Joseph Aloba, subsequently challenged the DPP’s choice, however in July 2025, the Lagos State High Court refused to quash the authorized recommendation.
Photo credit score: Google
The controversy didn’t finish there. A separate go well with in search of to compel the police to conduct a contemporary investigation into Mohbad’s loss of life reached the Federal High Court in Abuja. In September 2026, the court docket dismissed the go well with.
None of those solutions ever solutions the query surrounding Mohbad’s loss of life. His loss of life stays considered one of Nigerian leisure’s most painful unresolved tales. But it does set up one thing essential: the general public punishment of Naira Marley occurred earlier than the authorized course of reached these conclusions.
And the punishment was actual.
Did folks cease shopping for tickets? Did radio stations cease enjoying the music? Did manufacturers stroll away? Did promoters cease reserving the artiste? Did collaborators change into afraid to affiliate with the individual?
By these requirements, Naira Marley was actually hit.
But then got here “Pxy Drip” in December 2024.
The track started climbing streaming charts and spreading on TikTookay. By early 2025, it had entered the UK’s Official Afrobeats Chart, the place it peaked at No. 9 and spent seven weeks on the chart.
That created a rare contradiction.
People had been nonetheless insisting that Naira Marley was cancelled, whilst thousands and thousands of streams had been accumulating for his music.
When Ayra Starr posted a video of herself dancing to “Pxy Drip” in February 2025, she was closely criticised for giving visibility to an artiste whom some Nigerians believed ought to stay boycotted. She subsequently eliminated the video. The response confirmed that the cancellation nonetheless carried social energy.
Photo credit score: Google
The track’s success revealed its limits.
Then, in August 2025, Agidigbo FM lifted its almost two-year ban on Naira Marley’s music.
By October 2026, the comeback had change into much more seen. Naira Marley carried out on the tenth Supremacy Concert at Eko Convention Centre in Lagos, on a invoice that included main Nigerian stars.
The man who had change into nearly radioactive in elements of the leisure trade was again on a significant stage.
Perhaps Naira Marley was not uncancelled.
Perhaps Nigerian cancellation merely has an expiry date.
Brymo:
Olawale Ashimi, popularly generally known as Brymo, presents one other model of the story.
During the politically charged interval main as much as Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election, Brymo made feedback about Igbo those that sparked widespread condemnation. The backlash was fast.
More than 20,000 folks reportedly signed a petition asking the All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, to cease him from successful its Songwriter of the Year class. Brymo later apologised to folks offended by his feedback whereas trying to elucidate the context during which they had been made.
The controversy didn’t finish his means to make music, however it modified his public picture.
Cancellation doesn’t at all times imply that an entertainer disappears. Sometimes what disappears is the goodwill across the entertainer. A musician can nonetheless launch an album whereas changing into much less engaging to manufacturers, mainstream platforms and audiences outdoors a loyal fan base.
Photo credit score: Google
Portable:
Then there may be Portable, who is nearly inconceivable to cancel.
Since “Zazoo Zehh” turned him into a celeb, Habeeb Okikiola has amassed controversies nearly as shortly as songs.
In 2022, The Headies disqualified him from its Best Street Artiste and Rookie of the Year classes after controversial statements, together with threats directed at fellow nominees, and issues surrounding police investigations. That was a tangible skilled consequence. It didn’t cancel Portable.
He continued releasing music, performing and dominating social media. Arrests, disputes and public confrontations adopted, but every controversy appeared to generate one other cycle of consideration.
Portable demonstrates one of many greatest issues with cancel tradition within the consideration financial system: the identical publicity meant to punish a celeb can maintain the superstar commercially related.
For entertainers whose manufacturers are constructed round respectability, scandal will be devastating.
For these whose manufacturers already rely upon unpredictability, riot or controversy, outrage can change into content material.
You can’t simply destroy a repute for being controversial by creating one other controversy.
Photo credit score: Google.
Burna Boy:
Burna Boy presents one other drawback.
He has confronted repeated backlash over his remedy of followers.
At his January 2023 Lagos live performance, followers waited for hours earlier than he appeared. His remarks when he ultimately got here on stage generated additional anger, and movies and complaints flooded social media.
There have been different controversies, together with the 2022 Club Cubana capturing incident involving law enforcement officials connected to him. Police ordered the officers concerned to be arrested and investigated.
Yet Burna Boy’s worldwide profession continued.
This exposes one other actuality of Nigerian cancel tradition: star energy issues.
An entertainer with worldwide demand, a big catalogue, a fiercely loyal fan base and appreciable business worth is far more durable to take away from the ecosystem than an rising artiste.
People could condemn a celebrity on Monday and stream his new album on Friday.
Photo credit score: Google
Funke Akindele:
In April 2020, Funke Akindele grew to become the topic of fierce criticism after internet hosting a birthday gathering for her then-husband throughout Lagos’ COVID-19 lockdown. This was not merely a Twitter controversy. Akindele and her husband had been prosecuted and convicted for violating restrictions.
The incident may have significantly broken her profession.
It didn’t.
Akindele returned to filmmaking and ultimately grew to become an excellent larger box-office drive. Films together with Omo Ghetto: The Saga, Battle on Buka Street, A Tribe Called Judah, and Everybody Loves Jenifa broke main business information. By 2025, Everybody Loves Jenifa had grossed greater than N1.8 billion.
Her story reveals one other issue that determines whether or not cancellation lasts: what occurs after the scandal.
Audiences can forgive. They can neglect. Sometimes they merely transfer on.
And a robust sufficient physique of labor can change the dialog.
Photo credit score: Wikipedia
So, does cancel tradition work in Nigeria?
Yes — however not fairly in the best way the phrase suggests.
Nigerian audiences can impose penalties.
They can cease radio airplay. They can strain occasion organisers. They could make manufacturers uncomfortable. They can drive collaborators to distance themselves. They can flip an admired superstar into somebody whose identify turns into tough to publicly affiliate with.
Naira Marley skilled that.
But cancellation turns into a lot weaker when it tries to change into a everlasting exile.
Nigeria’s leisure trade has no single gatekeeper. An artiste rejected by radio can attain listeners by way of TikTookay, YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music. Someone attacked on X can nonetheless have thousands and thousands of followers elsewhere. A promoter could refuse to guide an artiste whereas one other sees a sold-out present ready to occur.
And Nigerian audiences themselves are hardly ever one united bloc.
There are fan armies, ethnic loyalties, political divisions, generational variations and generally easy nostalgia.
Most importantly, consideration is foreign money.
The public could also be livid with an entertainer and nonetheless click on on each video about that entertainer. Those clicks maintain the superstar seen.
This is why “cancel culture” stands out as the mistaken description for what really occurs in Nigeria.
What exists is nearer to withdrawal of goodwill.
And goodwill can return.
The Naira Marley query stays.
Naira Marley’s case is especially tough as a result of Mohbad’s loss of life was not an bizarre superstar scandal.
A younger man died. The movies and allegations that emerged afterwards pressured the leisure trade to confront uncomfortable questions on record-label energy, artiste welfare, intimidation and what younger musicians could endure behind the glamour of fame.
Those questions shouldn’t disappear just because a court docket discovered inadequate proof to prosecute Naira Marley in reference to Mohbad’s loss of life. Neither ought to an allegation routinely change into proof as a result of it tendencies on-line.
That is the stress on the coronary heart of cancel tradition.
It can provide bizarre folks energy towards celebrities and establishments that after managed the dialog. It can expose behaviour which may in any other case stay hidden. It can drive industries to concentrate.
But it will possibly additionally ship punishment earlier than proof has been examined.
Naira Marley’s profession captures either side.
He misplaced monumental public goodwill after Mohbad died. His music was banned by stations. His label grew to become poisonous to sections of the general public. Association with him may set off backlash.
Yet “Pxy Drip” streamed.
The radio bans started to fall.
And the levels opened once more.
So maybe Nigeria has answered the query.
Cancel tradition works right here.
It simply doesn’t at all times final.
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