“The PDP appears to have added public brawling to its list of accomplishments. The self-proclaimed largest party in Africa has turned into a fight club that employs the police as ushers for its matches...When the interest of the nation is subjugated so that the narrow, parochial interest of a clique in power is served events like we see unfold in Rivers will soon become common place.
As a new breed of imperial rulers run amok and with impunity violate Nigeria’s constitution, the days ahead seem gloomy and uncertain”- Bola Tinubu writing on the events in Rivers State.
FRANKLY, it is not often that I agree with Bola Tinubu, ACN opposition figure and former governor of Lagos state. But he has been spot on this week, in his well-publicised analysis of events unfolding at a dizzying pace in Rivers state.
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Mbu-Amaechi[/caption]As a matter of fact, the title of today’s piece has been borrowed from his analysis. Bola Tinubu has put into perspective the issues at stake in Rivers state and the analysis underscores why patriots must be worried about the events, with portents for democracy in Nigeria. It is good that an opposition figure can relate with these events with so much perspective.
Last week, the video of the infatile, coup-like attempt by a handful of legislators to depose their Speaker as part of the grand agenda to impeach the state governor, went viral on the internet. It was incroyable (as the French say) to witness the level of degeneracy amongst legislators ostensibly sworn to making laws for the good governance of our society.
Granted that hardly any of these chaps won a free and fair election, but to confront the fact that Rivers state has been paying for the creature comfort of thugs, pitiable coup plotters and hired guns, makes a mockery of Nigeria’s political space.
But politics is the game and in the bare-knuckled setting of Nigeria, this is warfare by every means. In truth, the gladiators are far too gone to be bothered by what a shocked nation of onlookers feel about their misconduct. Democracy and its consolidation mean very little in the situation unfolding in Rivers state. A tendency must win and ensure the adversary is completely bloodied!
Let us be clear about the situation; in the beginning it was about the president and his ambition for 2015. And this is despite the strenuous denials to the contrary. The Nigerian Presidency must be one of the most powerful in the world, yet, there is the intrinsic weakness of its present occupant: a real political lightweight without much political antecedent.
This duality jars because it disposes towards extremities in conflicts. Rivers state magnifies this nastiness for so many reasons. It's Madam Patience Jonathan’s home state and within a ‘region’ that President Goodluck Jonathan must claim rightfully his own, in a political bragging game against other groups of the nation’s ruling elite.
Rotimi Amaechi’s sins are therefore almost unforgivable. A weak presidency cannot afford an assertive governor within the presidential neck of the wood: fight with Bayelsa over oil fields; winning NGF election despite presidential objection; and never sufficiently massaging the First Lady’s inordinately domineering ego. This afterall is Patience Jonathan the “Jesus Christ” for some Legislators in Rivers House of Assembly; an unpardonable act of omission by a governor that used to be a Speaker!
As night follows day, things might end up messier, not just in Rivers, as we inch closer to 2015. Uniquely, Nigerian politics ensures that the most strident opposition shares the PDP with President Jonathan. That rankles far more than the tilting at the windmills, by the wilderness-based opposition. The troops must forcefully rally, otherwise the big stick will be wielded to force the recalcitrant into line; there is willingness to sacrifice a few individuals for the overall agenda.
Chess aficionados will recognize a gambit; sacrifice some pawns to achieve an ultimate checkmate. President Goodluck Jonathan’s expired and feuding old men, Bamanga Tukur and Tony Anennih, are expected to wield stick and carrot, while another old man, EK Clark leads the gung-ho division of the Sunny Kukus and Asari Dokubos.
We are in for a long and bitter feud; no prisoners will be taken and none will emerge without being bloodied as we approach 2015. Bola Tinubu is right; I reluctantly admit it: our imperfect democracy is threatening to become a perfect mess!
Victor Olaiya and Tuface: Across musical generations
THE recent collaborative venture between veteran Highlife musician, Victor Olaiya and contemporary artists, Tuface Idibia, has led to an emotional outpouring of analysis. Early this week, the internet group, NIGERIA COLLECTIVE also enthusiastically weighed in, about the bridge between musical generations. Invariably, we went into other aspects of artistic history; I am sharing with readers, one of my contributions to the more restricted forum in today’s column:
“It’s quite interesting that Siddique in Zaria remembers the fierce musical rivalry between Haruna Isola and Kasumu Adio. It was the stuff of legend because Isola had long been the eminence grise of Apala until Adio, which was actually a two-person act of Kasumu AND Adio burst onto the scene! Kasumu was leader; a very good drummer who was said to stammer, and the other was Adio, the vocalist.
So Haruna did a biting song: Akilolo to fe pe Sokoto (the stammerer attempting to pronounce Sokoto); he added: Soko- Soko- so-ko-to, koma ni ripe (he will labour in vain trying!). Rivalry seemed central to the worldview of Yoruba musicians.
There was one between Ebenezer Obey and Sunny Ade; while “Emperor” Pick Peters was such a perfect ‘copier’ of Sunny Ade, that the more distinguished singer, did a song: ‘Ekilo fo omode’, literally warning the upstart, Peters, the hunter’s son, because Pick Peters was said to be from a hunter background. The rivalry extended to Dele Abiodun.
These rivalries helped push sales as supporters lapped up new songs from the feuding artists. They also pushed the frontiers of musical innovation; brought ever more sophisticated instrumentation to our popular music; adapted arrangements from Congolese, Cuban and other influences; they re-arranged folk tunes; reworked classic songs and explored newer themes.
In a broad historical, political and cultural sense, the emergence of a form like Highlife was a phenomenon of the post Second World War period, with its dramatic impact on West African social life. There had emerged the urban space and the urban type, from different ethnic and social origins, who converged in these new towns and cities in search of opportunities.
They were clerks, teachers, urban proletarians, the Michael Imoudu-led railway workers, lumpens, prostitutes, shopkeepers, the indomitable lorry driver and his apprentice, etc. It was a hodge-podge. There was also the journalist and lawyer, providing intellectual leadership for an emergent nationalist movement.
This ensemble needed diversion, entertainment and sin! Away from intimate hometown settings/sureties, the urban space was sufficiently anonymous for each one to take a bit of these colonial, often railway towns, like Zaria, Jos, Enugu, Ibadan and most cosmopolitan of them all, Lagos.
Works of Cyprian Ekwensi
The works of Cyprian Ekwensi, particularly his PEOPLE OF THE CITY, were a very good reflection of the 1950s/60s. Remember that archetypal city girl, JAGUA NANA? It was also the title of a popular highlife tune of those times, by Adeolu Akinsanya ‘Baba Eto’.
The evolution of urban culture couldn’t be divorced from our coming into being as an African and Nigerian people; they defined our lives and helped forge consciousness within those exciting developments. Anti- colonial sentiment emerged; the railways, built to extract raw materials and take colonial manufacture into the hinterland, also facilitated the growth of towns, where Nigerians met and exchanged anti-colonial ideas. These urban settings facilitated various musical influences confluencing to create Highlife.
In the North, we had the Sahara Dance Band in Jos and Bala Miller’s Great Pyramids of Africa. They did songs in Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and even in minority languages like Ogori! Lagos was home to Bobby Benson, Victor Olaiya and Sam Akpabot all of whom Balla Miller told me, performed at the Independence Day Ball in October, 1960.
By the 1970s, new musical trends emerged, reflecting the assuredness of the oil boom years. Badejo Okusanya (Yomi’s father) was the first Nigerian to own a recording studio; the feat was acknowleged by Haruna Isola, in a song.
Tabansi Records and Rogers All-Stars were competing against colonial outfits such as Decca and Philips, to record Nigerian artists like Prince Nico Mbarga, Super Five, Warrior and Ikenga Super Stars; The Funkees and Wings International (with the late Spud Nathans) became some of the new bands emerging from the East soon after the war.
One of the great acts of the seventies was Ofege, a group of students from St. Greg’s Obalende, Lagos. They literally turned the world upside down with songs like Try and Love; Ofege; Whizzy Labo and Mandy. After two albums they disappeared but left an unforgettable impact. Nigerian producers like Odion Iruoje and Laolu Akins also came into their own!
Osibisa was big and had Ghanaians Teddy Osei,
Kofi Ayivor, Mac Tontoh; Wendell Richardson from Guyana and Nigerians like Mike Odumosu and Laughty Lasisi Amao, who was tragically killed in America. Can we recall Kenny St. George? He did a song “listen to the Buddha” that was a big hit after FESTAC 77! He visits my offices regularly in Abuja today, espousing a mix of Islam, Buddhism and environmental awareness.
The Nigerian saxophonist, Peter King went to live in New Zealand. Fela was in some contest with Segun Bucknor for a while, after his (Fela’s) initial tiffs with Rex Lawson. Rex was the master of the nightlife before the Civil War.
He went back East and was returning to Lagos after the hostilities, when he died in an accident. Sunny Ade did a tribute to him; his songs, Love Adure, Oh Koh, and his incredible dexterity with the trumpet can still be enjoyed even today.
IK Dairo was the master who did several songs in Hausa, especially his TUWO DA MIYA which told the story of his musical tour in Northern Nigerian in the 1960s. We are heirs to a rich social and cultural history. And our various cultures have added a nugget here, a punch there, to weave the complex tapestry that we (can all be proud of).
It might interest that Haruna Isola took SABADA from Hausa musical culture to incorporate into Apala; while Kalangu is Hausa just as Gangan is Yoruba. We can go on and on!
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