30 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020
Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020 — 31 Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com Victor Olaiya: Trajectory of Nigeria’s birth and decline AWIDELY held African belief is that there are three stages in life: when you are born, adulthood and old age which presages eternal departure. These are also symbolised by dawn, afternoon and sunset. Likewise, the life of Victor Abimbola Olaiya, the music genius can be broken into three equal segments, neatly characterized into three 30-year periods. He was born into colonial Nigeria in 1930 and witnessed the agitations for independence and a prosperous future. Thirty years later, the new country, Nigeria was midwifed. Olaiya was commissioned to perform at the official State Banquet to mark October 1, 1960 Independence Day. In the next thirty years, he saw a troubled country seized by soldiers, fight a needless and degenerative Civil War in which some two million perished, and the country firmly under military jackboots. In another three decades, as his sun set, he also witnessed the sun of his beloved country setting thanks to a sick and parasitic political class which plays politics with everything. Olaiya handled the trumpet the way only a genius could, and 90 played Highlife music which rocked the 1950s into the early 1970s and laid the foundation for subsequent music genres like Juju. The founder and creator of Afro Beat, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, cut his teeth under him. Olaiya was a music machine producing one hit after another. One of them is ‘Ilu Le’, a narrative of the economic difficulties to which the citizens of the new country were being subjected. The simple, emotive and highly danceable song was rendered in two stanzas in Shakespearian couplet form. The first was about the general hardship which all suffered. The second stanza focused on what he analysed as the coping strategies of women. He sang in Yoruba that a gaily dressed woman would visit a man and tell him she’d looked everywhere for him, wondering if nobody ever told him. For Olaiya, this was a mere smokescreen for the lady to seek financial bailout. This highly melodious song with simple and unforgettable lyrics, speaks to the heart of the populace. It was an early indication of Olaiya being a social conscience of the people. Also embedded in the song is his lifelong preoccupation with women themes. Another hit “Omo pupa” is a dedication to fair skinned ladies. In wooing the lady he tells her: “When I get to London, I will send you money for ticket.” Obviously a fake promise. In “Mofe muyan” he sang: “Please tell the lady not to leave. I have said we came to catch fun. Lady, please don’t leave. I am child-like…” The “Mr. Judge” song is rendered as a court drama in which he is helpless about the beautiful women, especially those that frequent the Itafaji and Tejuosho markets. He sang in English: “I say Mr. Judge show me the way. Before you talk, I plead not guilty…All the girls from Campus Square…E.T. Mensah blow your horn. Dr. Victor Olaiya blow your horn.” Monuments are unlikely to be named after him, but Dr. Victor Abimbola Olaiya who departed on February 12, 2020 will never be forgotten “Tina Mate” is a song wrapped like a conflict in a question and answer form. He asks, in any given situation who do you choose: mother or wife, wife or girlfriend? In “Iyawo Maronu” the husband tries to comfort the wife and counsels her not to become belligerent or adversarial just because they are undergoing financial challenges. He cautions her not to become unfaithful as nobody can predict the future. In “Gbemisola” he uses a female vocalist who praises the husband and pledges her love, singing: “If I have riches today, you gave them to me.” Olaiya loved and respected women but in general, he tended to see them in his music more as lubricants of society rather than engines that move society. “Iye Jemila” is an hilarious song in Ijebu languge in which he called out an imaginary couple, the parents of his heart throb, Jemila who after collecting some money from him refused to give him her hand in marriage. He makes an allusion to the Ijebus alleged tendency to counterfeit money. He cautioned them: “Human beings are water. They flow across the world. If we don’t meet at the source, we’ll meet upstream.” In “Afrika” which he rendered in English, he lamented that the continent is burning and dying. Singing: “Afrika, so so fight, fight, fight. Afrika so so war, war,war. Afrika so so fire, fire fire. Afrika so so die, die, die.” He gave examples of the then war theatres like Congo, Sudan and Chad. But in giving examples of the wars in Angola, Mozambique, Soweto (South Africa) Namibia and Zimbabwe, he failed to indicate that they were liberation wars; necessary wars against colonialism, racism and apartheid. Olaiya sang many philosophical songs employing the trumpet and many languages, especially Nigerian and Ghanaian. He was a well organised person who believed deeply in collectivity. I was shocked in the late 1980s when I got a message from him seeking an appointment to visit me in the Vanguard Newspapers where I was Labour Editor. I replied that he is a father of my generation and that he should rather, grant me the honour of visiting him. During our meeting at his hotel, I discovered he had been reading my debate against the Performing Musicians Employers' Association of Nigeria, PMEAN, being run by non-employers who had tried to drop the word “Employers” from the organisation’s name and changed the acronym to PMAN. He wanted me to help build another musicians body, the Nigeria Union of Musicians, NUM, which is “a forum for bands (and) musicians who play an instrument or sing.” He was the President of the NUM and wanted me, in addition, to assist in getting the Radio, Television and Theatre Workers Union, RATTAWU, to affiliate the NUM. Olaiya believed in labour and solidarity and marched at the May Day. During my visits, he gave me copies of his records which he autographed. Nigeria underwent long spells of military misrule with brutal dictators holding the country in a vile stranglehold. The most brutal and kleptocratic was General Sani Abacha who wanted to transform into an ‘elected’ President. For this, he deployed huge sums from the looted national treasury. In that season of infamy, Abacha gave PMEAN a billion naira contract to get all the notable musicians to perform at a march to endorse his be-goggled makeover. The leading musicians fell over themselves to get to Abuja and perform for evil. Tried as the organisers could dangling huge sums of money, two musicians pointedly rejected the money and refused to join in the chorus of infamy: young Femi Kuti and Olaiya. Monuments are unlikely to be named after him, but Dr. Victor Abimbola Olaiya who departed on February 12, 2020 will never be forgotten. The radicalisation of political conflict AT the heart of the concept of democracy is the sanctity of the idea that my opponent's view is a strong part of the democratic conversation. That whether or not I agree with you, you have the right to your position and to articulate it to the electorate, and yes, that position can include a vicious denunciation of my opponent. That is the basis of free speech and political debate. Ideally, it should be conducted with respect, but decorum is not the test of validity. Over the last few years in Nigeria, we have gone from at least paying lip service to this idea to a position where it is more and more accepted that stamping on, detaining and even killing those who disagree with us is an acceptable weapon in the political armory. Those who use it do so because they feel a level of impunity; it seems that the refrain: 'and what can they do’ has taken hold, something that can only exist when the answer is 'nothing’. The more it is ignored, the more daring and empowered the culprits become. Situations like this emerge because of the example set by the highest authorities in the land. While I commend the decision taken by government before Christmas to release Sowore and Dasuki from detention, I caution very clearly that such a move does not undo the wrong or change the course of others. There are many others who remain in questionable custody and the impunity that exists at the top only emboldens others throughout the system. This type of impunity is almost always justified by what I call the creed of the wicked. The idea that the end justifies the means; that we must take this action now, this hard thing that must be done, because in the long run, Nigeria will be better. We are the ones willing to do so despite the risk to ourselves. But this argument amounts to the idea that you simply must 'trust me’ with power that was never intended to be granted, let alone abused in this The traditional power balance that means executive authority is tempered by the legislature and the judiciary has to remain sacrosanct way, lifts fundamental tenets of the idea of benevolent dictatorship. But at least with most benevolent dictators, there is a clear roadmap and vision for where they are taking us. If the Nigerian government has that roadmap today, then they are not telling us what it is! Perhaps that is the problem that they face. If they could verbalise those objectives they might get more support. In the absence of them, the transgressions become the story and the focus. T h e r e does not seem to be a recognition, or understanding, that simply claiming to be morally right, without working hard to gain the support of your constituency is not enough. Maybe what we have is the simple arrogance that comes with the belief that 'now I am in power, I do not have to explain myself to you’. I do not believe this is solely the problem of the Federal Government in Nigeria; it has filtered down into the states and it is spreading to local governments, to traditional institutions, to religious organisations, to businesses. This slide of moral suasion over the rule of law is one that is very slippery and it is something that we have to watch closely. The traditional power balance that means executive authority is tempered by the legislature and the judiciary has to remain sacrosanct. The more court orders are disobeyed, the faster the slide is. The life and death fight for power, winner takes all, loser loses all cult like political parties dedicated only to win power and crush opposition is damaging. There is no programme difference between political parties; although even if there were, radicalisation is possible, but a lot more difficult. People have right to push back against radicalisation: to ask the political parties what they stand for and how much of what they stand is meaningful. But I want to be clear that this is not solely the fault of the executive. It cannot happen if the other institutions are strong. It would not be possible for judicial orders to be ignored; if there wasn’t at least some semblance of belief across the system in Nigeria that the Judiciary itself has been compromised. The judges and lawyers that have allowed such a situation to develop must be held equally accountable. It is their responsibility to ensure that the judicial arm is beyond suspicion, but they have failed at that task. All is not lost. But time is running out and the journey to the 2023 elections is going to be a rocky one. How the process evolves and develops will be the true strength of our democracy. Will that vibrant opposition that I spoke of at the start be allowed to flourish? Or will we continue down the path to silencing dissent, and so significantly degrade the democratic freedoms that we aspire to have closely? C M Y
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