Songwriters and singers who produce or perform music in Hausa films include Nazifi Asnanic,[5][6] Naziru M Ahmad,[7] Ali Jita,[8][9] and Fati Nijar.
[10][11] Umar M Sharif ,[12] In 2003, with the rise of the Izala and the coming to power of Ibrahim Shekarau, the then ultra-religious government of Kano initiated an iconoclastic campaign against Kannywood.
In 2007, the Hiyana Affair: when the sex tape of a popular actress became public led to a severe backlash from the then Islamist government of Kano State under Ibrahim Shekarau.
Shekarau went on to appoint a Director General for the censorship board, Abubakar Rabo Abdulkareem with the support of the Izala Society and other Islamist organisations, Kannywood and the equally popular Hausa romantic novel industry were severely censored, actors, actresses and writers were jailed by the state government and books and other media materials were burnt by the Governor himself.
[14] The opposition Kwankwasiyya Movement stated that the arrests were politically motivated because the accused persons were considered as sympathizers of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last general election.