Renowned Nigerian writer and Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has called for the immediate reversal of the ban placed on Eedris Abdulkareem’s latest song, describing the move as a threat to artistic freedom and freedom of expression in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) recently prohibited radio and TV stations from airing Abdulkareem’s new release, Tell Your Papa, which takes a critical stance on the country’s economic woes and directly addresses President Bola Tinubu’s son, Seyi.
The track follows in the footsteps of Abdulkareem’s earlier hit Jaga Jaga, which had taken aim at former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The NBC cited the “objectionable nature” of the song as grounds for its ban, triggering backlash from many Nigerians.
Reacting to the development in a statement issued from New York University, Abu Dhabi, Professor Soyinka condemned the decision as a dangerous return to censorship and political suppression.
“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,” he stated.
Soyinka, with characteristic irony, went further: “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!”
Even though he admitted to not having heard the song yet, Soyinka stood firmly on principle.
“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.”
He praised the cartoonist Aleshinloye for his satirical response, describing such art 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,” Soyinka quipped.
Expressing frustration at Nigeria’s repeated cycle of censorship and suppression, he said: “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.”
He also warned that such government behavior encourages abuse of power across various levels of authority.
“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.”
Addressing broader dangers to free expression in Nigeria, he continued: “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.”
Soyinka concluded with a warning: “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 playwright also reacted to recent mob killings in Edo State, where 19 people reportedly lost their lives, comparing the horror to the killing of student Deborah Samuel in Sokoto in 2022.
“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?”
Soyinka condemned the impunity surrounding such incidents.
“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.”
He urged Nigerians not to remain silent: “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.”
