Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has criticised the recent ban on the protest song ‘Tell Your Papa’ by Nigerian rapper cum activist Eedris Abdulkareem.
LEADERSHIP recalls that Abdulkareem, known for his similar protest song ‘Jaga Jaga’, which was critical of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, recently released a new single titled ‘Tell Your Papa’, a song directed at President Bola Tinubu’s son Seyi over the state of the nation.
In the song, the singer asked Seyi Tinubu to tell his father about worsening economy and hardship in the country.
However, days later, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) banned the song on Nigerian airwaves.
But, in a statement released from New York University, Abu Dhabi, on Sunday, Prof. Soyinka criticised the ban, calling it a return to a culture of censorship and a threat to the right to free expression.
He noted that the action reflected previous attempts to suppress artistic and socio-political commentary in Nigeria, calling for the reversal of the ban on the protest song.
Soyinka faulted the NBC for banning the song from being aired on radio and television stations due to what it described as its “objectionable nature.”
“Courtesy of an artist operating in a different genre – the cartoon – who sent me his recent graphic comment on the event, I learnt recently of a return to the culture of censorship with the banning of the product of a music artist, Eedris Abdulkareem.
“My position is that such a progressive move by the government and its agencies does not go far enough. It is not only the allegedly offensive record that should be banned – the musician himself should be proscribed. Next, PMAN, or whatever musical association of which Abdulkareem is member, should also go under the hammer. Nor should we ignore the cartoonist, Ebun Aleshinloye, who not only etched out his trenchant response to the ban but disseminated it all the way to Abu Dhabi. Let’s simply go the whole hog!
“I have yet to listen to the record, but the principle is inflexibly etched on any democratic template. It cannot be flouted. That, surely is basic. This is why I feel that we should look on the bright side of any picture and thus recommend the Aleshinloye’ cartoon – and others in allied vein – as an easy to apprehend, easy to digest summation of the wisdom of attempting to stifle unpalatable works of art or socio-political commentary, The ban is a boost to the artist’s nest egg, thanks to free governmental promotion. Mr. Abdulkareem must be currently warbling his merry way all the way to the bank. I envy him.
“We have been through this before, over and over again, ad nauseum. We know where it all ends. It is boring, time-wasting, diversionary but most essential of all, subversive of all seizure of the fundamental right of free expression. It also creates a permissive atmosphere of trickle-down power where governors have been known to pursue social critics across state borders, kidnap and imprison them for long spells, using the judicial machinery of never-ending trials.
“Oh, bear in mind also theocratic “authorities” that continue to arrogate to themselves the right to arrest and imprison artists and thinkers for their expression of opinion and vision of human existence. The fundamental right of free expression, as already touched upon, is not a closet affair, it is never hidden but echoes as loudly on international fora as in the most obscure hamlet.
“Any government that is tolerant only of yes-men and women, which accommodate only praise-singers and dancers to the official beat, has already commenced a downhill slide into the abyss. Whatever regulating body is responsible for this petulant irrationality should be compelled to reverse its misstep,” the Nobel laureate stated.
Soyinka also cited the recent mob action in Edo State where no fewer than 19 lives were lost.
He recounted how young student, Deborah Samuel, was also killed in a similar fashion in Sokoto Statw in 2022, regretting that her “identified killers” were freed without any consequence.
“It is a sadly opportune moment, but also an enraged one, to join in conveying my commiseration to the families of the latest victims of the lynch mob mentality that is fast overtaking the nation. Edo today, which state next? Nineteen youths in one fell swoop?
“Let this latest dent in the national armour not pass as the yet soul searing orgy that ended the life of the young student, Deborah Samuel. Recall that identified killers were set free to gloat, and paste their photos on the social media as having lit the consuming pyre – this in full daylight glare, in the presence of both citizen voyeurs and security forces. The horror is not in numbers but in the act itself.
“As long as the culture of impunity is given the sheerest strain of legitimacy in any given cause, such gruesome assaults on our common humanity will continue to prevail, and a reversion to brutish existence become a nation’s stamp of identity.
“The culprits are in plain sight and so are witnesses. There can be no excuses. My heart goes out to friends, colleagues and families of victims and traumatized survivors of this senseless slaughter. Our thirst for justice must remain unslaked,” Soyinka stated.
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