JE'NWI TEMI (Don"t Gag Me) Short Tribute To Baba Fela by Dotun Isola
JE'NWI TEMI (Don"t Gag Me)
These are words from a very sad heart. We should be at a stage where we look back and thank Baba Fela for opening our eyes to the realities of life.
Dedicated to True Activism (Fela Anikulapo Kuti)
Je'Nwi Temi (Don’t Gag Me)
:Dotun Isola ©2019
BABA FELA
FELA, born 15th October 1938 as Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, is a man (permit me to use man before transitioning to ICON) I so much cherish for his views on matters that concerned every African and the vocal way he expressed such views through his music.
The Pioneer of AFROBEAT MUSIC genre. He pioneered and popularized the genre of music, a style incorporating elements of African music, Jazz, soul and funk. An Afro Centrist to the core. He changed his name to “Kuti” removing the hyphenated surname “Ransome” because he regarded it as a slave name. A king should not bear a Slave name, you know.
Fela was born and bred in affluence and had relatives among the high and mighty in the Nigerian society. His parents were notable people who played major roles in negotiating Nigeria's Independence. His brother, Dr Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, was a one time Minister of Health and his cousin was the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka. Regardless of his affluence, Fela chose to pitch his tent with the masses. Choosing to fight for them, opening their eyes to the realities of life, analyzing, commenting and giving criticism on social and political matters as well as delivering the analyses in sweet melodious music .
Baba Fela was a staunch advocate of Pan-Africanism, Socialism and Human rights. A figure that stood with the core ideals of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.
He was a Social Commentator and a critic of bad governance.
He had a political column on The Daily Times and The punch published under the title “CHIEF PRIEST SAY” all through the 1970s and the 1980s.
He spoke when others were silent and stood when others were seated.
His fervor for good leadership birthed his political party MOP “Movement Of the People” but was later denied candidature.
Baba Fela was an Activist to the common man. He personified Activism.
You cannot define ACTIVISM without FELA
-I think I have to come again since a new wave of pseudo-activism has spoilt the word-
You cannot define TRUE ACTIVISM without FELA.
He was arrested on over 200 different occasions, the longest of which he stayed 20 months in jail under the Government of General Muhammadu Buhari. He was jailed on a charge of currency smuggling. Amnesty International and other human rights group execrated and denounced the claims and tagged it as politically motivated. Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience.
I must say I have never loved Buhari and a little part might be for arresting and sentencing Baba Fela to 10 years imprisonment in 1984. Although I wasn’t born in that era but then a few of, if at all you would not agree to all of, history gets rubbed on the generation that comes after it. Till date, I have grown to love history, search deeply and analyze in my best possible way so as to guide my long journey to criticism. I still very much love Beast Of No Nation (1989), the song that Baba Fela sang to harshly criticize and Insult General Buhari. It saddens me to see him rule us again.
All Baba Fela said still happens. I can only wonder how he would feel seeing that we had recycled leaders over the years after his death in 1997. I am sad but not as sad as when I go deep in thought. It is foreseeable that all Baba Fela said will still happen in years to come.
These are the questions deep thought raises:
Where did we as Africans lose it?
Why do we “Shuffer and Shmile”?
Why are we still “Zombies”?
Why are we still “Original Sufferheads”?
Why are we still being ruled by “International Thief Thief”?
Why do we still have “Sorrow, Tears and Blood”?
These are the things Fela stood against.
These are the things still very much affecting us.
We are now in an era I describe in the sentence “Do not steal because the government hates competition”. What an Irony!
I was very much pained when a couple of Baba Fela's songs were played at Professor Pius Adesanmi's Candle night in Ibadan. I cried, it wasn’t a literal cry. I cried on my way home. The depth of the pain was pushed further the moment Baba Fela’s songs came on because the lyrics explained the present and the future. That was the moment it dawned on me that the people trying to make AFRICA better are dying (untimely I must say).
I feel we have digressed from the path Baba Fela paved. We should be breaking speed limits on the road of activism that Baba Fela paved. Sadly, the road is shut. It should have been a sane case if we stood still but No, we digressed. We left true Activism for chop-I-chop and pseudo-activism.
We are all left with hope. Hope; the poor man's survival tool. But does hope really lead to the destination?
Time will tell and I am not a fan of leaving time to tell. Obviously, Baba Fela is not a fan either. I still look forward to seeing days where time would be controlled, bridled and harnessed. Baba Fela’s lyrics reiterates harnessing time, we can never have a lot of it.
This is the time to fight bad leadership,
This is the time to stand,
This is the time to fight corruption,
This is the time to liberate Africa.
This is what Baba Fela says:
"If it is not fit to live in, then our job is to make it fit."
"My people are scared of the air around them, they always have an excuse not to fight for freedom."
"With my music, I create change...I am using my music as a weapon."
"I want peace. Happiness. Not only for myself. For everybody."
"A radical is he who has no sense...fights without reason...I have a reason. I am authentic. Yes, that's what I am."
“To think how many Africans suffer in oblivion. That makes me sad… Despite my sadness, I create joyful rhythms… I am an artist…
I want people to be happy and I can do it by playing happy music. And through happy music I tell them about the sadness of others… So really I am using my music as a weapon.”
"Music is supposed to have an effect. If you're playing music and people don't feel something, you're not doing shit. That's what African music is about. When you hear something, you must move. I want to move people to dance, but also to think. Music wants to dictate a better life, against a bad life. When you're listening to something that depicts having a better life, and you're not having a better life, it must have an effect on you."
"They say a fool at 40 is a fool forever. I won't say that to my brother. Change if you're a fool at 20/30. Don't wait until you're 40."
It is vivid that the time is now, NOW OR NEVER!!!
The level of Corruption and bad governance in Africa (and Nigeria most especially) has really deepened.
Citizens feel we and our leaders have gotten smarter but I stand to disagree.
As an astute reader and observer of the current political scenes, I will argue to any length that the level of intelligence within the leadership sphere has deteriorated.
The impossibilities of yesterday have not graduated to the accomplishments of today.
The Nigerian Economy, Education, Human Development Index, Currency and Passport value has become comparatively worse. Security has become a major challenge over time and the agencies in place are either unfit or hampered by corruption.
Humanity is literally dead.
In every sane society, the hardest of the job to liberation, freedom and governance have been done in the past and the present is left to play the role of either sustenance or development.
The course of man at every era is to leverage on the struggles and values of the past to pave way for a better future.
In metaphorical terms, the past is the needle and the present is the thread.
The job has been simplified by our past icons.
The present stakeholders (leaders, activists, elites and masses) ought to stick firmly to the good course that “some” of our past icons stood for. Sadly, the reverse is the case in Nigeria.
How did corruption become so bad to the level that individuals involved get good appraisal?
Where are the wailers that voice out with their voices and pens?
Where is the Fela to sing against bad Governance?
Where is the Chinua to write against bad Governance?
Why is it only the bad characters of leaders of the past that became transient?
Is hunger no longer a good cook anymore?
Are we no longer hungry for good economy, education, food security etc.
Have we forgotten that having a better life as a nation is not as hard as our leaders make it seem?
I thought the Compatriots are to arise to these things or are they asleep?
The very best way to address this is to start vigorous campaigns to bring about political or social change. This policy or action is called Activism.
Baba Fela did it with music while Professor Chinua Achebe did it with writing.
His words, though sometimes insulting, was nothing short of the truth. It is a very rare approach in this generation and it intensifies my admiration.
He attacked every leader even some that were his colleagues or school mates years back. He was vast and exposed.
Every song by Fela had deep meaning. It made you think deeply. It was not just the regular hear-and-dance music. It was the hear- think-think-deeply-and-dance type of music.
It was AFRO BEATS. A few I would mention that touched me are
Why Black Man Dey Suffer (1971)
Live! (1971)
Open & Close (1971)
Shakara (1972)
Roforofo Fight (1972)
Afrodisiac (1973)
Gentleman (1973)
Confusion (1975)
Expensive Shit (1975)
He Miss Road (1975)
Zombie (1976)
Stalemate (1977)
No Agreement (1977)
Sorrow Tears and Blood (1977)
Shuffering and Shmiling (1978)
Black President (1981)
Original Sufferhead (1981)
Unknown Soldier (1981)
Army Arrangement (1985)
Beasts of No Nation (1989)
Confusion Break Bones (1990)
Fela was distinct in his approach and in an interview on CGTN Africa, he spoke of a comparison between English love songs and his own music.
He said:
"Yes, if you are in England the music can be an instrument of enjoyment. You can sing about love, you can sing about whom you are going to bed with next. But in my own environment, my society is underdeveloped because of an alien system on our people. So there is no music enjoyment. There is nothing like love. There is something like struggle for people's existence."
Fela said all that a wise man would say. I cannot keep reiterating. One has to pick up a track and vibe along.
Indeed there is struggle for our existence and the struggle continues.
He was (and still) an icon to generations and an Activist by his words, pen and action.
One cannot but put his name at the forefront of activism. All his books speaks volumes of happenings in the Nigerian society.
He addressed Africa's post colonial disposition as the result of a people who have lost the habit of ruling themselves.
He was fair, rational and constructive in criticism.
*This is 2019, Fifty nine years of Post colonial era and independence.*
He was a bold critic.
He went as far as rejecting two national honors conferred on him. The first in 2004 by President Obasanjo and the later in 2011 by President Jonathan.
In the letter Achebe sent to President Obasanjo,
he wrote:
“I write this letter with a very heavy heart. For some time now I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom.
I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the Presidency.
Forty three years ago, at the first anniversary of Nigeria's independence I was given the first Nigerian National Trophy for Literature. In 1979, I received two further honors – the Nigerian National Order of Merit and the Order of the Federal Republic – and in 1999 the first National Creativity Award.
I accepted all these honors fully aware that Nigeria was not perfect; but I had a strong belief that we would outgrow our shortcomings under leaders committed to uniting our diverse peoples.
Nigeria's condition today under your watch is, however, too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest by declining to accept the high honor awarded me in the 2004 Honors List.”
In 2011, the renowned literary icon rejected the same award saying:
“The reasons for rejecting the offer when it was first made have not been addressed let alone solved.
It is inappropriate to offer it again to me.
I must therefore regretfully decline the offer again.”
In his book THERE WAS A COUNTRY, he said
“I had very little at my disposal to protest with so the strongest statement I could make was to turn down the honor of Commander of the Federal Republic, which I was awarded”
How sad can it be for a child not to develop for 7 years -keep pondering on that as a father to the child- ?
How sad can it be for a country (having had 3 presidents from 2004-2011) not to address let alone solve the problems facing its existence -pondering on that as a citizen, an accomplice and a maleficiary - ?
The same sadness that prompted Baba Fela's music as well as Professor Chinua Achebe's literary criticism runs deep in me.
I have fought with a couple of colleagues and friends on sociopolitical matters most of which ended on a note of me being tagged partisan.
My issue mostly is why people find an excuse to defend or perhaps love people that infringe on their human rights and basic amenities.
This leaves me to the question:
Do they understand the meaning of the word “BASIC”?
I have grown to understand basic beyond literal meaning as an essential that should determine survival (you should not live without them).
My approach to Je’Nwi Temi is to voice out my anger in writing to call for ACTIVISM in the ways of Baba Fela and Chinua Achebe.
I write to steer our approach to activism in whatever way we can; in music like Fela Anikulapo Kuti or in any other legal way to our best capacity. A couple of examples are Writing, Protesting, forming Social groups, Organizing rallies, street marches and hunger strikes.
Permit me to iterate like we have always done that Protest is a legal way to fight for our rights.
According to Wikipedia, “The right to protest is a human right arising out of a number of recognized human rights.
While no human rights instrument or national constitution grants the absolute right to protest, such a right to protest may be a manifestation of the right to freedom of assembly, the right to freedom of association, and the right to freedom of speech.”
Nigerians have the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.
Chapter C23 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Promulgation) Act Laws of the Federal of Nigeria 2004 Section 40 provides ‘Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other person, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other association for the protection of his interests;
Provided that the provisions of this section shall not derogate from the powers conferred by this constitution on the Independent National Electoral Commission with respect to political -parties
to which that commission does not accord recognition.’
The rule of law and right to protest are a legitimate right. However, a protest leading to riot is an illegality punishable under the law.
The present situation in Nigeria (and Africa) requires a great deal of Orientation and efforts towards promoting or advocating for economic, social and political reforms. A cue can be seen in the lives of the two Icons; Fela and Achebe, which is worthy of emulation.
The future of a country is implicitly the future of its citizens. In other words, the future of Nigeria is your future. The effects are either enjoyed (if positive) or suffered (if negative) collectively. It is important that we imbibe the culture of True Activism. We should be on the quest to vigorously agitate for an excellent sociopolitical system. The system needs a total overhaul and paying lip service is as bad as not talking at all. We ought to have long tongues and long hands.
We have to act as much as we speak.
It is our rights as citizens.
Its our right to decide and question how we are been governed.
All we need is True Activism.
All we need is the True Activism of Baba Fela.
A fraction of the ICON's Activism is enough.
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice [of any sort], but there must never be a time when we fail to protest”.
– Elie Wiesel
“I hold death in my pouch, I cannot die (Anikulapo)”
~ Fela Kuti ( 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997)
©Dotun Isola 2019
@dotunisola
Fela Anikulapo Kuti
 | ||
| Short Tribute To Baba Fela by Dotun Isola |
Dedicated to True Activism (Fela Anikulapo Kuti)
Je'Nwi Temi (Don’t Gag Me)
:Dotun Isola ©2019
BABA FELA
 | |
| Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti a.k.a FELA |
The Pioneer of AFROBEAT MUSIC genre. He pioneered and popularized the genre of music, a style incorporating elements of African music, Jazz, soul and funk. An Afro Centrist to the core. He changed his name to “Kuti” removing the hyphenated surname “Ransome” because he regarded it as a slave name. A king should not bear a Slave name, you know.
Fela was born and bred in affluence and had relatives among the high and mighty in the Nigerian society. His parents were notable people who played major roles in negotiating Nigeria's Independence. His brother, Dr Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, was a one time Minister of Health and his cousin was the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka. Regardless of his affluence, Fela chose to pitch his tent with the masses. Choosing to fight for them, opening their eyes to the realities of life, analyzing, commenting and giving criticism on social and political matters as well as delivering the analyses in sweet melodious music .
Baba Fela was a staunch advocate of Pan-Africanism, Socialism and Human rights. A figure that stood with the core ideals of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.
He was a Social Commentator and a critic of bad governance.
He had a political column on The Daily Times and The punch published under the title “CHIEF PRIEST SAY” all through the 1970s and the 1980s.
He spoke when others were silent and stood when others were seated.
His fervor for good leadership birthed his political party MOP “Movement Of the People” but was later denied candidature.
Baba Fela was an Activist to the common man. He personified Activism.
You cannot define ACTIVISM without FELA
-I think I have to come again since a new wave of pseudo-activism has spoilt the word-
You cannot define TRUE ACTIVISM without FELA.
He was arrested on over 200 different occasions, the longest of which he stayed 20 months in jail under the Government of General Muhammadu Buhari. He was jailed on a charge of currency smuggling. Amnesty International and other human rights group execrated and denounced the claims and tagged it as politically motivated. Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience.
I must say I have never loved Buhari and a little part might be for arresting and sentencing Baba Fela to 10 years imprisonment in 1984. Although I wasn’t born in that era but then a few of, if at all you would not agree to all of, history gets rubbed on the generation that comes after it. Till date, I have grown to love history, search deeply and analyze in my best possible way so as to guide my long journey to criticism. I still very much love Beast Of No Nation (1989), the song that Baba Fela sang to harshly criticize and Insult General Buhari. It saddens me to see him rule us again.
All Baba Fela said still happens. I can only wonder how he would feel seeing that we had recycled leaders over the years after his death in 1997. I am sad but not as sad as when I go deep in thought. It is foreseeable that all Baba Fela said will still happen in years to come.
These are the questions deep thought raises:
Where did we as Africans lose it?
Why do we “Shuffer and Shmile”?
Why are we still “Zombies”?
Why are we still “Original Sufferheads”?
Why are we still being ruled by “International Thief Thief”?
Why do we still have “Sorrow, Tears and Blood”?
These are the things Fela stood against.
These are the things still very much affecting us.
We are now in an era I describe in the sentence “Do not steal because the government hates competition”. What an Irony!
I was very much pained when a couple of Baba Fela's songs were played at Professor Pius Adesanmi's Candle night in Ibadan. I cried, it wasn’t a literal cry. I cried on my way home. The depth of the pain was pushed further the moment Baba Fela’s songs came on because the lyrics explained the present and the future. That was the moment it dawned on me that the people trying to make AFRICA better are dying (untimely I must say).
I feel we have digressed from the path Baba Fela paved. We should be breaking speed limits on the road of activism that Baba Fela paved. Sadly, the road is shut. It should have been a sane case if we stood still but No, we digressed. We left true Activism for chop-I-chop and pseudo-activism.
We are all left with hope. Hope; the poor man's survival tool. But does hope really lead to the destination?
Time will tell and I am not a fan of leaving time to tell. Obviously, Baba Fela is not a fan either. I still look forward to seeing days where time would be controlled, bridled and harnessed. Baba Fela’s lyrics reiterates harnessing time, we can never have a lot of it.
This is the time to fight bad leadership,
This is the time to stand,
This is the time to fight corruption,
This is the time to liberate Africa.
This is what Baba Fela says:
"If it is not fit to live in, then our job is to make it fit."
"My people are scared of the air around them, they always have an excuse not to fight for freedom."
"With my music, I create change...I am using my music as a weapon."
"I want peace. Happiness. Not only for myself. For everybody."
"A radical is he who has no sense...fights without reason...I have a reason. I am authentic. Yes, that's what I am."
“To think how many Africans suffer in oblivion. That makes me sad… Despite my sadness, I create joyful rhythms… I am an artist…
I want people to be happy and I can do it by playing happy music. And through happy music I tell them about the sadness of others… So really I am using my music as a weapon.”
"Music is supposed to have an effect. If you're playing music and people don't feel something, you're not doing shit. That's what African music is about. When you hear something, you must move. I want to move people to dance, but also to think. Music wants to dictate a better life, against a bad life. When you're listening to something that depicts having a better life, and you're not having a better life, it must have an effect on you."
"They say a fool at 40 is a fool forever. I won't say that to my brother. Change if you're a fool at 20/30. Don't wait until you're 40."
It is vivid that the time is now, NOW OR NEVER!!!
YESTERDAY’S IMPOSIBILITY
There is a saying that goes “Today’s accomplishments were yesterday’s impossibilities”. Are we solving the impossibilities of yesterday?
The level of Corruption and bad governance in Africa (and Nigeria most especially) has really deepened.
Citizens feel we and our leaders have gotten smarter but I stand to disagree.
As an astute reader and observer of the current political scenes, I will argue to any length that the level of intelligence within the leadership sphere has deteriorated.
The impossibilities of yesterday have not graduated to the accomplishments of today.
The Nigerian Economy, Education, Human Development Index, Currency and Passport value has become comparatively worse. Security has become a major challenge over time and the agencies in place are either unfit or hampered by corruption.
Humanity is literally dead.
In every sane society, the hardest of the job to liberation, freedom and governance have been done in the past and the present is left to play the role of either sustenance or development.
The course of man at every era is to leverage on the struggles and values of the past to pave way for a better future.
In metaphorical terms, the past is the needle and the present is the thread.
The job has been simplified by our past icons.
The present stakeholders (leaders, activists, elites and masses) ought to stick firmly to the good course that “some” of our past icons stood for. Sadly, the reverse is the case in Nigeria.
How did corruption become so bad to the level that individuals involved get good appraisal?
Where are the wailers that voice out with their voices and pens?
Where is the Fela to sing against bad Governance?
Where is the Chinua to write against bad Governance?
Why is it only the bad characters of leaders of the past that became transient?
Is hunger no longer a good cook anymore?
Are we no longer hungry for good economy, education, food security etc.
Have we forgotten that having a better life as a nation is not as hard as our leaders make it seem?
I thought the Compatriots are to arise to these things or are they asleep?
The very best way to address this is to start vigorous campaigns to bring about political or social change. This policy or action is called Activism.
ACTIVISM
Activism today has been mixed with ingenuity and fraud. To take a shot at activism, I will take on two Icons. Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Professor Chinua Achebe.
Baba Fela did it with music while Professor Chinua Achebe did it with writing.
 |
| Baba Fela performing with a broken arm |
FELA and ACTIVISM
Activism in the way Fela did is exemplary. He stood against all of what he tagged as “yama yama” (rubbish). He sang the heart of the people. I will not deny the fact that some people criticized Fela for it but most of them were the military or relatives of people who romanced the Government and the resources of the people of Nigeria. Nevertheless, Fela did not hesitate to speak or sing the truth. He had a dogged approach to activism. His persistence was grim.
His words, though sometimes insulting, was nothing short of the truth. It is a very rare approach in this generation and it intensifies my admiration.
He attacked every leader even some that were his colleagues or school mates years back. He was vast and exposed.
Every song by Fela had deep meaning. It made you think deeply. It was not just the regular hear-and-dance music. It was the hear- think-think-deeply-and-dance type of music.
It was AFRO BEATS. A few I would mention that touched me are
Why Black Man Dey Suffer (1971)
Live! (1971)
Open & Close (1971)
Shakara (1972)
Roforofo Fight (1972)
Afrodisiac (1973)
Gentleman (1973)
Confusion (1975)
Expensive Shit (1975)
He Miss Road (1975)
Zombie (1976)
Stalemate (1977)
No Agreement (1977)
Sorrow Tears and Blood (1977)
Shuffering and Shmiling (1978)
Black President (1981)
Original Sufferhead (1981)
Unknown Soldier (1981)
Army Arrangement (1985)
Beasts of No Nation (1989)
Confusion Break Bones (1990)
Fela was distinct in his approach and in an interview on CGTN Africa, he spoke of a comparison between English love songs and his own music.
He said:
"Yes, if you are in England the music can be an instrument of enjoyment. You can sing about love, you can sing about whom you are going to bed with next. But in my own environment, my society is underdeveloped because of an alien system on our people. So there is no music enjoyment. There is nothing like love. There is something like struggle for people's existence."
Fela said all that a wise man would say. I cannot keep reiterating. One has to pick up a track and vibe along.
Indeed there is struggle for our existence and the struggle continues.
CHINUA ACHEBE and ACTIVISM
Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian novelist, professor and a critic. A critic I hold in high esteem. He was a Protest writer with restraint that once described himself as “a Protestant Ethic”.
He was (and still) an icon to generations and an Activist by his words, pen and action.
One cannot but put his name at the forefront of activism. All his books speaks volumes of happenings in the Nigerian society.
He addressed Africa's post colonial disposition as the result of a people who have lost the habit of ruling themselves.
He was fair, rational and constructive in criticism.
*This is 2019, Fifty nine years of Post colonial era and independence.*
He was a bold critic.
He went as far as rejecting two national honors conferred on him. The first in 2004 by President Obasanjo and the later in 2011 by President Jonathan.
In the letter Achebe sent to President Obasanjo,
he wrote:
“I write this letter with a very heavy heart. For some time now I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom.
I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the Presidency.
Forty three years ago, at the first anniversary of Nigeria's independence I was given the first Nigerian National Trophy for Literature. In 1979, I received two further honors – the Nigerian National Order of Merit and the Order of the Federal Republic – and in 1999 the first National Creativity Award.
I accepted all these honors fully aware that Nigeria was not perfect; but I had a strong belief that we would outgrow our shortcomings under leaders committed to uniting our diverse peoples.
Nigeria's condition today under your watch is, however, too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest by declining to accept the high honor awarded me in the 2004 Honors List.”
In 2011, the renowned literary icon rejected the same award saying:
“The reasons for rejecting the offer when it was first made have not been addressed let alone solved.
It is inappropriate to offer it again to me.
I must therefore regretfully decline the offer again.”
In his book THERE WAS A COUNTRY, he said
“I had very little at my disposal to protest with so the strongest statement I could make was to turn down the honor of Commander of the Federal Republic, which I was awarded”
How sad can it be for a child not to develop for 7 years -keep pondering on that as a father to the child- ?
How sad can it be for a country (having had 3 presidents from 2004-2011) not to address let alone solve the problems facing its existence -pondering on that as a citizen, an accomplice and a maleficiary - ?
The same sadness that prompted Baba Fela's music as well as Professor Chinua Achebe's literary criticism runs deep in me.
I have fought with a couple of colleagues and friends on sociopolitical matters most of which ended on a note of me being tagged partisan.
My issue mostly is why people find an excuse to defend or perhaps love people that infringe on their human rights and basic amenities.
This leaves me to the question:
Do they understand the meaning of the word “BASIC”?
I have grown to understand basic beyond literal meaning as an essential that should determine survival (you should not live without them).
My approach to Je’Nwi Temi is to voice out my anger in writing to call for ACTIVISM in the ways of Baba Fela and Chinua Achebe.
I write to steer our approach to activism in whatever way we can; in music like Fela Anikulapo Kuti or in any other legal way to our best capacity. A couple of examples are Writing, Protesting, forming Social groups, Organizing rallies, street marches and hunger strikes.
Permit me to iterate like we have always done that Protest is a legal way to fight for our rights.
According to Wikipedia, “The right to protest is a human right arising out of a number of recognized human rights.
While no human rights instrument or national constitution grants the absolute right to protest, such a right to protest may be a manifestation of the right to freedom of assembly, the right to freedom of association, and the right to freedom of speech.”
Nigerians have the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.
Chapter C23 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Promulgation) Act Laws of the Federal of Nigeria 2004 Section 40 provides ‘Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other person, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other association for the protection of his interests;
Provided that the provisions of this section shall not derogate from the powers conferred by this constitution on the Independent National Electoral Commission with respect to political -parties
to which that commission does not accord recognition.’
The rule of law and right to protest are a legitimate right. However, a protest leading to riot is an illegality punishable under the law.
The present situation in Nigeria (and Africa) requires a great deal of Orientation and efforts towards promoting or advocating for economic, social and political reforms. A cue can be seen in the lives of the two Icons; Fela and Achebe, which is worthy of emulation.
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| ICONS: Fela Kuti and Chinua Achebe |
CONCLUSION
The future of a country is implicitly the future of its citizens. In other words, the future of Nigeria is your future. The effects are either enjoyed (if positive) or suffered (if negative) collectively. It is important that we imbibe the culture of True Activism. We should be on the quest to vigorously agitate for an excellent sociopolitical system. The system needs a total overhaul and paying lip service is as bad as not talking at all. We ought to have long tongues and long hands.
We have to act as much as we speak.
It is our rights as citizens.
Its our right to decide and question how we are been governed.
All we need is True Activism.
All we need is the True Activism of Baba Fela.
A fraction of the ICON's Activism is enough.
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice [of any sort], but there must never be a time when we fail to protest”.
– Elie Wiesel
“I hold death in my pouch, I cannot die (Anikulapo)”
~ Fela Kuti ( 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997)
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| Fela Kuti injured after the military government under Obasanjo/TY Danjuma instructed that Kalakuta, his residence be destroyed because of his continuous criticism of the Nigerian military government. |
©Dotun Isola 2019
@dotunisola
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