Afro-beat King, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was well known to have criticised societal ills as well as every government in his time. He did this through his hilarious but acidic lyrics.
Instrumentalist, musician, multi-talented composer, pioneer of the Afro-beat genre, human rights activist and political maverick, Fela played a significant role in Nigeria’s development process with his revolutionary music. He did so not really because he found it pleasurable, but because he considered his music as a vehicle to keep these governments on their toes. In the process, he garnered ardent admirers and followers although he also drew enmity from government which he criticised.
Two Nigerian leaders who really got it hot from the Ebami Eda (the Strange One) himself are Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. Ironically, these two former leaders eventually found their way back to power, the recent being Gen. Buhari, who beat the sitting president in the March 28, 2015 presidential election.
Obasanjo, Fela and Buhari
Clashes with ex-leaders
Fela’s differences with Obasanjo started with the 1977 release of the album, Zombie, a scathing critique on Nigerian soldiers, in which he used the zombie metaphor to describe the ways of the Nigerian military, which was everything but rational. Zombie, as Fela sang, was like a robot; he would kill if asked to kill and would even take his own life if asked to ‘go and die’.
The album became very popular that the Obasanjo government was so embarrassed that it allegedly ordered an attack on Kalakuta Republic, the area housing Fela’s music operations, destroying instruments and other equipment. Fela was beaten black and blue and his aged mother allegedly thrown out from a window, which was believed to have led to her death.
This action drew widespread condemnation and attracted public sympathy to Fela. He eventually led his followers to deliver a mock coffin of his mother at Dodan Barracks, the then seat of government in Lagos. But they were chased away by armed soldiers, preventing them access to the compound. Obasanjo’s response was to set up an inquiry to ascertain those responsible for the attack.
The eventual verdict was that it was carried out by ‘unknown soldier’. Fela would then release two albums on the attack: Coffin for Head of State and Unknown Soldier, criticising Obasanjo’s actions. This offended the government more especially his description of Obasanjo and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua at Dodan Barracks when he took the mother’s mock coffin there. “Obasanjo dey there with big fat stomach, Yar’Adua dey there with neck like Ostrich,” Fela sang. What with more lyrics like:
Look Obasanjo!
Before anything at all, him go dey shout:
‘Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, Almighty Lord!’
‘Oh Lord, oh God!’
And them do bad bad bad bad bad bad things
Through Jesus Christ our Lord
(Amen, Amen, Amen!)
By the grace of Almighty Lord
(Amen, Amen, Amen!)
I say, look Yar’Adua!
I say, look Yar’Adua!
Before anything at all, him go dey shout:
‘Habba Allah, habba Allah, habba Allah!’
‘Habba Allah, habba Allah!’
And them do, yes yes
And them do bad bad bad bad bad bad things
Through Mohammed our Lord
Amen, Amen, Amen!
By the grace of Almighty Allah
Amen, Amen, Amen! (from Coffin for Head of State)
And:
Them start magic
Them seize my house wey them don burn
Them seize my land
Them drive all the people wey live in area
Two thousand citizens
Them make them all homeless now
Them start magic
Them start magic
Them bring flame, them bring hat
Them conjure, them bring rabbit
Them bring egg, them bring smoke
Them dey scream, them dey fall
Them conjure, spirit catch them
Them dey fall, them dey scream
Them dey shout
Them dey, them dey say
Unknown soldier!
Na him do am
Which kind injustice is this?
Wetin concern government inside?
If na unknown soldier
I said, wetin concern government inside?
If na unknown soldier
We get unknown police
We get unknown soldier
We get unknown civilian
All is equal to unknown government (from Unknown Soldier).
Even after Obasanjo had left office, Fela also released a few more albums critical of him; the most popular being ITT (International Thief Thief) and Army arrangement, which condemned Obasanjo’s actions in office.
Although Fela never actually sang any song criticising the then new government of Gen. Buhari before his arrest in 1984, it was believed that the currency-trafficking charge brought against him was trumped-up and politically-motivated as Gen. Buhari was the federal commissioner (minister) for petroleum during Obasanjo’s government when N2.8 billion ‘oil money’ was reportedly missing, which Fela sang about in Army Arrangement:
Two-point-eight-billion naira
Oil money is missing
Two-point-eight-billion naira
Oil money is missing
Them set up inquiry
Them say money no loss o
Them dabaru everybody
Supervisor Obasanjo
Them say make him no talk o
‘Money no lost’, them shout again
Inquiry come close o
E no finish, e no finish… (From Army Arrangement).
Gen. Buhari’s government eventually charged Fela for currency-trafficking offenses, found him guilty and sentenced him to five years imprisonment. He only regained his freedom when Buhari’s successor, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida granted him pardon two years later. In an interview with Newswatch magazine after his release, Fela revealed that the judge who sentenced him, visited him in prison after Buhari’s overthrow, and informed Fela that the evidence against him was not enough to have found him guilty, and revealed to Fela that he was only obeying ‘order from above’ to ensure he was convicted. The judge then sought Fela’s forgiveness.
It was not readily known if Fela forgave Gen. Buhari as Beasts of No Nation, his 1990 release was his best opportunity to take his pound of flesh off the general. Bringing the full force of his talents to play, the Afro-beat legend made powerful metaphorical references to Buhari’s government. For sending him to jail, he referred to both Buhari and late Brig. Tunde Idiagbon, Buhari’s deputy, as ‘craze man’ and ‘animal in human skin’. A line also made reference to how the judge came to apologise: ‘dem judge dey beg ee-o’ (they gave guilty verdict and still sought forgiveness).
But the most titillating metaphor in that track, which roused his fans to ultimate adoration, and which also guided many Nigerians to properly juxtapose the Buhari government against human reality, was Fela’s comparison between the life he knew before his imprisonment (outside world) and the life inside prison (inside world); and that some human actions in the outside world were irrational, making the inside world seemingly preferable:
The time weh I dey for prison, I call am ‘inside world’
The time weh I dey outside prison, I call am ‘outside world’
Na craze world, na him be outside world.
Then he went ahead to list some of the ‘craze’ things that happen in the ‘outside world’ and those who inhabit it
No be outside-de police-i dey
No be outside-de soldier-ha dey
No be outside-de court dem dey
No be outside-de magistrate dey
No be outside-de judge dem dey
Na craze world be dat ….
No be outside-dem find me guilty
No be outside-dem jail me five years
——————I no do nothing
No be outside judge dey beg o …. (From Beasts of No Nation).
Going against Fela’s wish
Fela had already passed on when Chief Obasanjo was elected president in 1999. If the Afro-beat maestro were to be alive then, he certainly would have hauled missiles at Obasanjo through his music. In a concert before the 1999 election, Seun, one of Fela’s sons, who has made a name for himself musically, revealed that one of his late father’s strongest wishes was that Obasanjo should not return to rule Nigeria again. But against Fela’s wish, the Nigerian people elected Obasanjo that year and re-elected him in 2013, making him lead Nigeria for eight whole years in his second coming as head of the Nigerian state.
And when Gen. Buhari’s final and successful attempt at the presidency was gathering momentum, Femi Kuti, Fela’s first son re-echoed this wish in an interview with CNN Christiane Amanpour, before the election, that his late father informed him of how the judge who sentenced him came to beg him in prison for forgiveness, implying that there was no legal basis for Buhari’s government to have jailed his father, though it was not certain that it was Buhari who ordered the judge to jail him. Talks of this nature did not count much as they were drowned by politicking.
Like Obasanjo, the Nigerian people went against this wish to elect Gen. Buhari. What did these imply for Fela’s ardent and numerous admirers? Did Nigerians who almost adored the Strange One forget the Afro-beat maestro? Human rights abuses during the military era were made issues during the election campaigns, but no one remembered the particular case of Fela. Nigerians were poised for change and Buhari himself brilliantly said, ‘I cannot change the past but we can reshape the future.’
Nigerians have given General Muhammadu Buhari chance to lead them. And they are sure that the Buhari of the military era has transformed into a democrat who will not tolerate any animal in human skin.
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