Typical of the entertainment industry, the northern Nigerian Hausa-film industry, Kannywood, comes with its peculiar controversies that constantly trail its artistes.
As the Kannywood artistes navigate through the professional and sociocultural challenges of their operating environment, some female actors have been enmeshed in notable controversies over the years.
Recent among such instances was the controversy that trailed a statement made last week by a popular actress, Nafisa Abdullahi, on birth control. Aside from Abdullahi, Daily Trust looks at four other Kannywood actresses who had been in the middle of controversial issues.
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Nafisa Abdullahi
On 16th April, Abdullahi tweeted, “Stop giving birth to children you know you’re not capable of taking care of.”
The tweet generated a lot of controversy on social media platforms, from some northern Nigerians who interpreted it as being a call against Qur’anic system of education known as “Almajiranci,” while others felt she lacks the moral right to address a social problem for being an actress.
Nafisa insisted that the concern was not about her or other privileged people but about toddlers whose parents send to the streets in the name of Qur’anic education.
Rahma Sadau
Rahama Sadau can be described as the most controversial, news-making actress in Kannywood who has had a series of controversies trailing her career as an actress.
In 2016, she was banned from acting in Kannywood for appearing in a music video in which she was seen cuddling the Nigerian singer, Classiq. She was eventually pardoned and returned to acting.
The Kaduna-born actress who acts in both Kannywood and Nollywood movies, also generated heated controversy on social media over some pictures she had posted on her Instagram and Twitter pages in 2020. The pictures were adjudged as indecent and offensive by many northern Nigerian Muslims to the point that she had to later apologise and remove the pictures.
Sadiya Haruna
Sadiya Haruna is another Kannywood actress who has been controversial on social media for posting nude pictures and videos of herself that many of her fans saw as explicitly indecent.
In February, a Kano Chief Magistrates’ Court sentenced the actress to six months in prison without an option of fine for defaming a colleague, actor Isa A. Isa.
The actress was charged with defaming Isa in a video she had posted on her social media pages.
Fati Slow
Kannywood actress, Fati Usman, better known as Fati Slow has recently been a source of both humour and controversy on social media among northern Nigerians.
In February, she was entangled in a controversy with the popular Hausa singer, Naziru Sarkin Waka, over a TikTok video she had made calling him an adulterer (in reaction to the singer’s claim that some filmmakers demand sex from female actresses before allocating roles for them). She later said she regretted the allegation and sought forgiveness.
Hadiza Gabon
There was outrage on social media when in 2019 the popular Kannywood actress, Hadiza Gabon, was seen physically assaulting another actress, Amina Amal, in an Instagram video.
Gabon claimed that Amal had accused her of being a lesbian which angered her to record a video hitting Amal, forcing her to confess the allegation was false.
The video annoyed many followers of the two actresses, leading to some groups threatening to sue Gabon for physical assault. The two actresses were said to have been reconciled by some stakeholders in the industry.
