Like Obasanjo, Like Buhari: Remembering
Fela’s wishLike Obasanjo, Like Buhari: Remembering
Fela’s wish
on april 17, 2015 at 9:09 pm in politics
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By Oghene Omonisa
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 .

Fela:

He spoke words of wisdom

Fela you are the true baba and we will NEVER forget you