Music, Protest And The Nigerian Space ( Article)

“Music is a weapon of the future / music is the weapon of the progressives / music is the weapon of the givers of life” – Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

The past few weeks have been tough and filled with a lot of energy. Tough for me, because at one point, I had to break down and shed a few tears, especially after the Lekki massacre.

However, with the youths and Nigerians in general letting the government know that they are tired of the bullying and trampling, I realized that we did have a voice. You can silence a man for only as long as he wants to be kept quiet, and our time of silence had inevitably run out.

After the massacre on October 20, a black Tuesday for the country, the president in his address subtly threatened other protesters and showed no sympathy for the casualties.

During the protests, we had celebrities including rapper, Runtown and Falz lead it in Lagos. There was Wizkid doing the same in London and Yung6ix in Los Angeles, USA. We had Tiwa Savage, Adekunle Gold, Seyi Shay and of course, the DMW boss, Davido, amongst others speak at different points.

While the protest waged on and people spoke from the depth of their heart and called for an end to police brutality, it was evident that there was a lack of protest song as noted by Jide Taiwo in his newsletter and other key music journalists.

During my undergraduate days, I used to attend a certain writing club. At one meeting, we discussed, the place of the artist in societal change and revolution. While the details of all that happened remain foggy, I remember taking away the notion that not every creative will actively be involved in demanding for a revamping of society.

Read more: 10 Songs Defining The State Of Things In The #EndSARS Protest

So, if an artiste decides to Zanku and Shepeteri while the rest of the world clamors for something better, let him be. Truth be told, not everybody can be Fela and fight tooth and nail for the change of a country (gives Burna Boy a side eye).

Change requires sacrifice and not everyone is wired to do that. When Fela said in the documentary, Music Is The Weapon, “If you are an English man, music can be an instrument of enjoyment and you can sing about love or when you are going to bed next but in my own environment, my society is under development”*, he was not speaking because he enjoyed spiting words. How then is it that at protests, people had to blast Davido’s FEM and Naira Marley’s Japa.

While these songs are not wrong in their own sense, they are a sharp contrast between what is obtainable at the protest ground and what the fight is all about.

Musicians are not immune to the reality that befalls the everyday citizen. Shouldn’t the musician then use his art to speak against the perceived injustice and rot in the system? Perhaps, it is something with our generation and the need to make commercial and sellable music.

Fela remains an enigma and he was ferocious as well as fiery in his music. With lyrics like, “We fear for the thing we no see/We fear for the air around us/We fear to fight for freedom/We fear to fight for liberty/We fear to fight for justice/We fear to fight for happiness/We always get reason to fear…“, you already feel the energy that was Fela.

Then there was Gimme Likkle Sugar and What’s Team from Ras Kimono. Then there was Majek Fashek’s Send Down The Rain.

There have been songs that have looked at Nigeria and underscored the political space. A personal favorite is Asa’s Jailer (2008). During the protests, the few songs that made it to the speakers were Eedris Abdulkareem’s Jaga Jaga, African China’s Mr President and of course, two songs that seemed apt for the occasion, FEM by Davido and Barawo by Ajebo Hustlers. In fact the former seemed like the unofficial anthem of the protest.

In the past few days, I have had to ask myself, does Nigeria lack protest music? The resounding answer is NO! The truth is Nigerians are just unaware about these sort of music, or more succinctly they see no need to include these sort of songs in their playlist.

Have you ever asked yourself why Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti have Grammy nominations, even though there songs are not so popular locally? What? You had no idea they were Grammy nominees? See, what I’m talking about.

With songs like Demo Crazy and Theory of the Goat and Yam blasting at the protests, you have no reason to remind people while they were gathered at the ground. In case you missed the memo in March 2020, Paybac Iboro released a project, Cult and that is good protest music.

Recently, BANTU Crew released its album, Everybody Get Agenda, and sadly, it should have trended if we use the current situation of the country as a backdrop. It didn’t, but that’s protest music. Feel free to check out track 3.

Protest music will always be downtrodden in this part, not because they’re not readily available, but rather because we focus our ears more to commercial and common music, and until that status quo changes, we’ll keep blasting FEM at protest grounds.

However, we must realize that for us, music must be more than just pleasure or meditation. It must be out voice, our weapon to changing things. So, next time you hit the studio dear artistes, you might want to give us something like Tekno’s Rara and speak against the inconsistencies in our political space.

Photo Credit: Twitter

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