Helm, and the Megaphone of the Nigerian Musician: Can Our Crooners Defeat The Very Impasse That Held Fela This Time Around?

If power to install persons in government was handed over to the youth of Nigeria, and the criteria of being professionally or experientially trained as a public administrator was knocked off the table, over two-thirds of Nigerians are likely to select a Nigerian musician.

A youth reading this very statement above has just skimmed through it, assented to its verity, and has even begun imagining the steps to bring it about. A Nigerian born before 1975 has, au contraire, done a double-take. For the verity of the statement to become reality to him or her, they would need to reimagine what being a musician truly is in their minds. The profession, “musician” has to go through a perception rebranding for them to accept that the bearers of that title have, even if in slight modicums, the wherewithal, coordination, articulation, presentation, respectability, godliness, conscientiousness, and consistently conscious message to qualify for office (since the reality is that they are not professionally or experientially trained public administrators).

A musician to the pre-80s Nigerian has always been the razz, uncouth, overtly-sexual, mouthy, braggard who is pressured to back up and maintain the appearance of the opulence, influence and affluence he (and she in more recent times) portrays in their music by engaging in illicit, dastardly, and rule-breaking activities: 419 for the 80s and 90s, “yahoo” for the 2000s. They only had Fela Anikulapo-Kuti speak in interest of the state of affairs of the nation, and even then, Fela, with all his influence, was seen as “unsightly for an office”. He would fight for the people and lead the people to revolution, but he would not lead after that. It is doubtful that Fela himself desired an office. Afrobeat was his double-edged tool to rally the bleeding hearts of Nigerians, and that truly was all there was to it. The reliance for the implementation of the tenets of Fela’s message, and its sustainable development were still left to the caucuses of power who have ruled Nigeria since independence in 1960 up till this day.

And then, #EndSARS happens, and the word on the mouths of everyone in the country and diaspora, young and old, is, “the youth has finally woken up”.

The #EndSARS protests – the 2020 protests about 10 days old now – has been leaderless, organic, and decentralized, mobilizing Nigerian youth (and a few supportive older generation) in and around Nigeria, and tapping into the pain from their personal stories (or stories of persons close to them) of the brutalities, extortion, killings, wrongful detentions, and wanton abuse of powers to the maximum of the rogue – now rebranded to SWAT: Special Weapons and Tactics Unit – organization, SARS. The youths have marched, provided legal support, medical support, logistical support, created wallets purposed to the protests, distributed facilities, food, and medicare, tweeted and trended the #EndSARS hashtag, drawing support from international icons all over the globe, and are going strong in doing all they can, what they can, in ensuring that true and actionable change (the true goal of the entire protests) is, for the first time, seen in Nigeria; and not just seen, but seen through as well. Over 70 protesters have been wrongfully detained and 10 shot dead whilst the protest has been going on, only fuelling the anger, and ensuring that Nigeria – a nation that has been thoroughly divided along religious, ethnic and tribal lines in all its history – and Nigerians band together in this leaderless, yet thoroughly-organized, movement and push for real change. The hope is that it starts from Police Brutality, and then stretches to Bad Governance, Unequivocal Distribution of Resources, and other cancerous ills that has stunted Nigeria so far. Another hope – this one held more by the rest of Africa – is that Nigeria succeeds in this, and show Africa that it is possible to break free; tell the world that Nigerians are not asleep, and therefore, Africa is not asleep. It was Nelson Mandela that said, “The world will not respect Africa until Nigeria earns that respect. The black people of the world need Nigeria to be great as a source of pride and confidence.”

That is #EndSARS in a nutshell. That is also the beginnings of another Fela-like push, if care is not taken: create the change, and leave sustainability in the hands of the reigning caucuses: the impasse where social change meets existing complicated political machines. And even more in line with the Fela-push of the 70s and 80s is the glaring reality that, save a few, the driving forces for the persistence of #EndSARS have been musicians. Their messianic glide to the fore has been two-fold: self-instigated, and nominated by vox populi.

Wizkid – Ayo Balogun – came into a London protest that went riotous for the first few hours, and immediately, decorum arrived; he took the helm and a megaphone and preached, and the crowd echoed. Before then, he had been preaching on twitter, being one of the first to push the 2020’s version of the #EndSARS hashtag to the fore. His public word exchange with the Special Adviser to media for the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, Lauretta Onochie, on calling the president an “old man” was the centerpiece of the ramp up in conversation.

Davido – David Adeleke – flew in to Abuja on the fifth day of protests, and immediately, the Nigerian police who had been excessively brutal in their cordon-off of Abuja protesters turned docile, paving the way for him, and reportedly, appealing to him not to march to the Force Headquarters, which is exactly what he ended up doing. There are suspicions that the move was a PR attempt by the police. Whether this is true or not, the fact remains that his entry to the Force HQ was pivotal to the fasttracking of the release of protesters who were detained, and eventual disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS. Unwittingly – perhaps, even by orchestration, maybe – the police at this point had started viewing him as the legitimate spokesperson for the movement. They began to treat him this way too. The rest of Nigeria chanted in response, “#EndSARS has no leader”, and then we approach the Fela-like impasse once more.

Burna Boy – Damili Ogulu – was silent the first couple of days, and he got serious flak for it. Phrases like, “TWICE AS SLEEP” and “African Mouse” were thrown around social media, in mockery of the album titles of his last two albums. Burna was severely trash-talked because of his silence largely because of two things: one, he is, among the crop of popular Nigerian musicians, the one who is known for being consistent with producing conscious music (doped rarely by the party tune and the sex-, money-, ruggedness-influenced Afrobeats lyrics of Nigerian music today). He has been the voice of activism in his music, and so, people expected that he would immediately jump in and “show working”. The second reason is the fact that he has long branded himself as the “Fela-incarnate” of today’s generation, and very uncharacteristic of his forebearer, his silence was perceived as a grave insult. He did eventually speak up with an announcement-style post on what the #EndSARS movement means for him, Nigeria, Nigerians, and the socially-consious, and then after wading through the “na this thing we you dey type since four days now” comments, he immediately shot through his erstwhile obscurity around the protest, riding on the swift wave of whatever is that mysterious phenomenon makes the opening paragraph of this article true, and became a prominent voice in the #EndSARS protest. All was forgiven, and from London, while tending to his mother’s recovery (his reported reason for his earlier silence), he mobilized the installation of giant digital billboards in Lagos, all carrying the same message: #EndSARS.

Falz – Folarin Falana – is another consistent prominent Nigerian musician more focused on conscious music than party tunes. His 2018 cover of Childish Gambino’s socially-conscious “Black Lives Matter” song, “This is Nigeria” stands out as a key element in the merging of the ideals of the fight to emphasize the relevance of black lives all over the world and the ideals of the fight to emphasize the importance for revolutionary change in leadership and systems in the predominantly-black Africa. For #EndSARS, right from Day One, Falz has been in the forefront of the fight, giving his voice to protesters, and airing the demands of the Nigerian youth; the demands pushed by the tag, #5for5.

Don Jazzy (Michael Collins Jr.), being one of the greatest and most-loved social media influencers has been mighty instrumental in internationalizing the cry of Nigerians through spreading the word, and organizing coalitions of health professionals, legal professionals, and logistics professionals to aid the protests. Small Doctor (Adekunle Temitope), with his mighty street following, was able to hold the fort and drive crowds in their masses. When the music manager for Oxlade (Ikuforiji Olaitan), Ojah Bee (Ademola Ojabodu) was kidnapped by the Nigerian Police during the active protests on 12th October, 2020 in Surulere (one of the most violent locations of the protest), Oxlade’s voice rose up, and the host of the Nigerian public, online and offline, echoed his cries too, rallying behind him.

The story is the same for a host of Nigerian music celebrities – Adekunle Gold, shouting from Houston, Texas, Phyno (Chibuzor Azubuike) screaming from Awka and Awkuzu in Anambra State, Olamide, M.I Abaga, Darey, Tiwa Savage, and the list goes on and on. The aftermath of #EndSARS poses a reality where this organic fandom for these musical artists may metamorphose into political capital and political following for them. Creatives in other industries are speaking as well, but markedly, none as much as creatives in the music industry, and not for lack of trying, no. It is the simple fact that, Nigerian music, as though guided by some Deus Ex Machina, has gone through the ages, increasing in the very things that the older generation saw as its wants; its have-nots – wherewithal, coordination, articulation, presentation, respectability, godliness, conscientiousness, and consistently conscious messages – but not in the ways that generation had desired. Today’s Nigerian music coordinates because it panders, in its messaging, to the most coordinated trend within the Nigerian youth population – clubbing, parties, and near-hedonistic escapism. Today’s Nigerian music approaches respectability from the eye of the leaders of tomorrow – the youth – and does this by again, pandering, in its messages to the most respectable trends within the Nigerian youth population – affluence, cars, houses, money to spend, opulence. Even godliness is being approached from a youth-driven standpoint: “give thanks to God, pay homage and obeisance to God as the source of your wealth; but then go about life without much care for puritanism, clothing-correctness, and speech-mannerisms”. Of course, these are not reflective of every single Nigerian youth, but cumulatively, it is what you get. And it is what you get, because it is what the systems that has thrown the average Nigerian youth into frantic survival mode requires for any iota of sanity to exist: escapism, rebellion, and mafioso-mentality. Nigerian party music treads the line of the law, will encourage bending it once in a while, and for the few who borrow it as inspiration to break the law, will preach against law-breaking. It is the perfect kettle of fish to create unity in the collective mind of the Nigerian youth. Deus Ex Machina. The many who produce conscious music quickly find that refusal to swim in this kettle is a sure path to obscurity and zero monetary returns, and so they must bend once in a while (ask Brymo, Bez, M.I Abaga, Lady Donli, Ajebutter 22, Odunsi the Engine, Wurld, et cetera); Because, frantic survivalism will pay the bills; because those are the crumbs the insidious Nigerian political and governmental machines leave to the populace. Fela used this tactics too, even more aggressively than some of today’s artistes. But like him, and like today’s, and like the realities of the next steps for the #EndSARS protests for sustainability, we arrive at that irksome impasse once more.

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At a point, after Davido had secured the release of protesters in Abuja, and spoken and informed the Nigerian police of the demands of Nigerians, he, clearly looking nervous in a video released on popular Instagram blogging page, Instablog9ja, repeats to the Police PRO, Frank Mba, that he did not protest, after Mba had accused him of being one of the masterminds of the protest the previous day. According to him, he was only there because “they are his fans”. This denial obviously sparked an online outrage. This incident happened the very next day after his heroics. Nobody knows what had transpired behind closed doors between Day 1 and Day 2. From all indications, the political machinery had struck at some point, and some stark realities had created the quiver in his voice.
At a point, after the disbanding of SARS, and instituting of SWAT, the police demanded spokespersons from the Nigerian populace, and a few popular Nigerians on twitter began making lists. The persons included on that list – Bring Back Our Girls’ activist, Aisha Yesufu, Media strategist, Rinu Oduala, Business Development Professional, Fayikemi Abudu, and a few others – one by one, refused to be on it, because “the revolution has no leader”. Aside the desire to maintain the decentralized push, and ward off distracting counter-protests, these individuals who were nominated and refused to accept the nomination know one thing: the political machinery is furious, very far reaching, unrepentant, and too much for one person to shoulder against. No matter how incorruptible one may be, even if the corruption does not penetrate, carefully orchestrated grey and black propaganda against you is sure to turn the hearts of the people that were once with you against you. It is a game of predator to emotional prey:

Keep the populace emotional by subjugating them, through poverty and powerlessness, to frantic survivalist instincts, and even when their music gets them to weaponize the emotion of anger against you, parry that emotion and turn it on them. They self-destruct; you stay on top.

This is the impasse. This is where Fela stopped. This is where the hope of Nigerians is…that it would truly be defeated. Maybe protests are the way. Maybe it will be seen through. Popular journalist and frank social commentator, David Hundeyin said recently in a tweet, that the current protests is an “ongoing masterclass in why decentralized people-led movements always end up snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and eating themselves.”, saying, that the initial wave of achievement has worked off, and now the lack of leadership makes it impossible to bring the protest to a logical conclusion.

The questions remain: “is concluding now truly premature?” “how do we conclude?” “who leads the conclusion?”

“Our musicians?”

“The host of our new Fela?”