Beautiful Nubia and the enthronement of musical Performance

Beautiful Nubia thrilling the crowd who left their seats...)

(All pictures were taken by Lolade Adewuyi of lagoscityphotos.blogspot.com-He is one of the finest and dynamic photojournalist I have met).

All roads led to Ile-Ife and Oshogbo, Osun State for the Eniobanke Music Festival, EMUFest, a musical tour with the purpose of bringing alive folklore, performing arts and African consciousness, 28 and 29th of November at the Amphitheatre, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and at the Delightsome Hotels and Resorts, Oshogbo.

It was no doubt a funfare filled with felicity and musical fecundity as it featured acts like Orlando Julius, Jimi Solanke, Beautiful Nubia and Yinka Davies. The day which coincided with the swearing-in ceremony of Rauf Aregbesola, the new Osun State governor, a pedestal Aregbesola got after rigorous legal battles, further magnified the joy in the people hearts, in the state.

For Nigerians, there was no better escape from the strain of modern rigours meanwhile for students of OAU, it was a time to close the chapters briefly and relax
as the examinations stare into their faces.

Although the events started a little late at Ife, the amphitheatre was soon full to the nostalgic feeling of the oldies. Songs like Columbia, Asiko lo laiye Adara, by Orlando Julius and His AfroSanders, one of Nigeria’s highlife icons, with ecstatic dance steps from his female dancers, it was not only a festival it was a musical of the greats, as Orlando thrilled the students with incandescent thrill and expert combination of musical instruments. For almost everyone, they were reliving childhood memories and rekoning with the need for Africans to be united.

Talk of reliving childhood memories, Jimi Solanke, was the champion of children folklore and had remained so since the 1960s when he started his musical experience with the late IK Dairo. With all sense of simplicity and with his usual tale bearing swagger, Solanke brought the crowd into another session of dancing steps, with unforgettable folkore from almost all the ethnic groups in the country.


(Professor Oxford, far from the maddening)

In fact, the audience travelled as far as Jamaica from Story land to Ibadan to Onilegogoro as Solanke danced like a young man in his twenties. Solanke’s funny and sensual innuendos, songs and limericks have not left him either, people were no doubt comfortable with that part of our culture that entertains in sensual codes-so there was no cause for alarm. Solanke also raised socio-political issues with his song titled By the year 2000, as he sang about the eternal postponement of basic amenities and Teacher, a song about the importance of teachers in society.


( Jimi Solanke, King of African Folklore)

Yinka Davies, award winning singer, was the dame of the night as she humbled herself in doing several duets with Orlando Julius, her dance steps where no doubt like a mermaid in her natural habitat. Beautiful Nubia, reknowned performance poet and dredlocked musician, came into the stage with uproar and a standing ovation from the crowd. Songs from his albums, Jagbalanjubu, Irinajo and a host of others were sung by him and Roots Renaissance Band, his band.


(Yinka Davies with her enchanting swagger)

However, this serenity of soul was interrupted by students of the Awolowo Hall, famously called Awo Boys (for their creative eccentricity), who decided to disrupt the programme if Beautiful Nubia did not prostrate for them. This demand made by students of Awolowo Hall was stated as customary for any musical star that performed in the University.

However, Beautiful Nubia refused to prostrate because he felt in the Yoruba hierarchy the elderly do not prostrate for the people of younger ages. For Nubia, “it is only those who do not know their roots that abide by such laws”.
This statement brought the festival to a standstill as there was an exchange of words between other students and students of the hall.

Until the timely intervention of Fredrick Joel,FJ, President of the Students Union and other members of the Union who reminded them of Nubia’s contributions in the past. “You will recall that when the union was proscribed in 2006, it was beautiful Nubia who took it upon himself to do a show for the students to help raise money for the union” FJ pleaded with Awo boys. In response Nubia apologised to the students stating that “we have invested so much to come to this great school to perform some of us have not slept for the past five days-anything I may have said that may have angered you. I am deeply sorry”. After all tensions had seized, another round of celebrations began.


(Orlando Julius, Icon of Hilife)

The dredlocked Afrocentric artiste mounted the stage again, this time totally adorned by the regalia of regard by Ife students. At the end of the show, he was lifted up as a sign of respect. The event at ife came to a close with a song in remembrance of Obafemi Awolowo, one of Nigeria’s indefatigable political icons. Speaking to Yemisi Akingbola, a campus journalist, she stated that “Awo boys were not like this in the past-I am embarrassed, a lot of Alumnus, Press men, were around and they behaved without any sense of caution”.

Yinka Davies also complained profusely to the magazine that some students disrespected her as she was trying to placate them, “OAU used to be a dream school but now, I don’t know what to call it any longer-I am not impressed, and if you journalists don’t write about this, then you will be encouraging such barbaric behaviour”. Aspiring performance artiste like Edaoto and Femi were at the event.


(Beautiful Nubia summoned by the the drums)

A delightsome resort, Oshogbo, a haven for lovers of serenity was the next stop. It was as if all strengths were renewed as the people of Oshogbo and visitors danced all the way to the morning. Edaoto and Yinka Davis had separate duets with Orlando Julius. The artistes also had the opportunity to interact with the musicians as they exuded a high sense of simplicity and commitment to youths. For Nubia , “It is not time for the youths to listen to stupid songs but to steady their minds to the voice of change, let us join our hands together to bring change to this country”.

Ekejuba Innocent, student and performance poet agrees with Nubia, “Africa used to be the citadel of leaning and civilisation, the first University was in Timbuktu, but all that has changed, we are now foot mats and mere markets for foreigners-our leaders are also not helping us. We need to form alliances and change the situation of this country-Africa will change if Nigeria changes”.

A Writer’s Dilemma: For the Life of me!

I have been contacted by Cederwood Productions, a publisher that had taken up Silent Drummings, my first collection of poetry, to co-author a collection of poems with Tokunbo Dada. Tokunbo Dada had published his first book with Cedarwood and with many research books roiling in his head every second. He had published a book on child abuse in Africa and the side effects using the story of Shaka the Zulu as a formidable example and the publisher, then based in Osun State was impressed.
Now, Tokunbo had moved higher with a bigger purpose, he had produced Ufiala, a radio drama on the problems of Nigeria and had gone to co-produce other ones depite the fact that he had been employed as a communication enginner at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN.

As for me, I am just an unrepentant poet and journalist that I had been and that I had retained except that I just bagged the prestigious Megaphone News Agency’s Award for Meritorious Service to the press, with Silent Drummings doing fairly well. Poetry had never successfully fed anyone in Nigeria, so let me not boast too much.

Cedarwood has opened its new headquarters in Ibadan, the traditional publishing hub in Nigeria, that was a deliverance of some sorts, When I got wind of the romantic collection, I was supposed to co-author, I began to wonder, with who?

Tokunbo Dada had grown to be a bosom friend of mine, a more mature and unselfish friend that had this creative fire, one I respected. I had written a couple of monologues in his room using his directions of how a drama should look like, we had joked a lot about women and we had also learnt a lot from our disappointments. He had told the publisher about the idea and it was bought.

The problem was that I had left the idea of writing love poems since 2005 and I had gone from the simple romantic poet to a thorough-going modernist. I had evolved a personal style after reading TS Elliot, Segun Adekoya, Dogga Tollar, Franz Kafka, Ernest Hemingway and Robert Frost.



Love had not been fair to me. Apart from the fact that I had had a rough upbringing as a third child, I also had a backlash of shattered and interrupted relationships. In fact, my recent girlfriend recently called off what seem to be a compassionate union. So I had begun to retrace my steps in writing love poems, stopped listening to love songs, stopped flirting, totally shut down. It was gradually. In fact I had been mulling on destroying the ones I wrote when the going was going-I don’t know whether it’s good or bad-That was when the call from my publisher came.

Another problem was that my job as a journalist seems to only allow you to think of the next story, the ongoing story or the deadlines-there is hardly any time to write two lines of poetry. The only blessing it offers is that it exposes you to the realities and hypocrisies that make up the society, through printable and unprintable discourses.

So I took my old poems out-my fiery and passionate old poems that I had purposefully dumped at the deep ends of my home’s warehouse. A look at them-they were whack, for God’s sake, I had grown up, I had grown out of it. I am now officially in a dilemma. Can I succumb this dilemma? Will I survive?

I think so, the book must go on, for the life of me, my life is poetry!

Achebe, A month and a Writer

I am happy to tell you that I share a birthday month with one of Nigeria’s greatest writers . This does not however mean that my destiny as one of Nigeria’s youngest poets is sealed, it only means that if Achebe can make a mark as a writer, I too can.

Chinua Achebe, one of West Africa’s award winning novelists, turned 80, November 16. Born in Ogidi, Anambra State, Achebe who is known for his novels, Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964), studied at the University College Ibadan, now University of Ibadan. He is a recipient of the Order of the Federal Republic, 1979 and the National Productivity Award, 1999. He was listed for the Commander of the Federal Republic in 2004 but rejected it as a protest against the lack of infrastructures in the country. Achebe is also the author of the novels, A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987), amongst a long list of Short Stories, Children Stories, Poetry Collections and Essays. He is the current winner of the Gish Prize, an award for extraordinary impact in their field.

Nigeria and the Church

I had just gotten from an event.One of the events I particularly have reservations for are a religious events, because you begin to wonder whether you are in a church service on a Saturday. Perhaps, you begin to wonder if you have converted yourself from the sunday pentecostal churches to the Seven Days Adventist or the Jehovah Witness. I had attended some of these events but today's event was different.

It was an Annual Anniversary Lecture of Providence Baptist Church, Dopemu Lagos titled The Church and the Problem of Political Mandate in Nigeria at Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, on Saturday 13th November 2010. It was the fourth lecture series that had positioned and posited the Nigerian Christian Community on their roles in Politics and Democratic governance. Professor Yessufu Obaje of the Nigerian Baptist Seminary, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria and the erstwhile Presidential Adviser on Christian Religious Matters to President Olusegun Obasanjo, (now former President)presented a paper which was originally titled "2011 Election: You and God" was readjusted to the latter topic. President at the occasion were Anointed Men of God from the Baptist Church, Nigerian Convention such as Reverend Bolaji Oduola, Pastor-in-Charge, Providence Baptist Church and his wife, Grace, Rev. Dr Ademola Ishola, General Secretary, Nigerian Baptist Convention, ably represented by Rev.GA Awotunde, General Secretary of Conference, Lagos East Rev. Dr SAA Olaide, Rev J Aremu,Confernce Chairman, Lagos West, Adeniyi Adeniji, Conference Secretary Lagos West.

I and a good friend Abraham Oladipopu of the guardian newspaper were there to cover the event.

Now straight to the words that made the event worth it and better than other religious events. Lest I forget, Obaje is a professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy, the President of Peace on Earth Mission and the former president of the Baptist Convention. He is a completely intellectual, philosophical and spiritual personality. A situation largely missing in the Nigerian Christian Commmunity. Obaje was also the Former Chancellor, Bowen University, Iwo, Ogun State and Former Chaplain, State House, Federal Republic of Nigeria. He has also contested for the post of Niger State Governor which he lost. According to him, he lost because he was not ready to bribe his way into the Niger State house.



Read these words if its difficult to read the above

On the National Assembly

There is a need to sanitise the national assembly. These are one of the national evils. lawmakers are not supposed to lawless but these ones are ready to breach the constitution " after all we are the lawmakers

.

On Politics

Politics is not a dirty game but 90% of Nigerians who say they are politicians are satan-centered politicians

God is a politician, whether we like it or not. Its about God's authority over creation

(note, I used to say this at the University back then and people used to hate me for it, now a priest turned politician is saying it again.

On Politicians

They Steal and Steal until they steal their own souls out of heaven

Let us have a law for people who steal our money (as a nation, in corporate world), all your titles would be dropped and any occasion they go they should introduce them as Thief this, thief that for ten years

On Nigerian Education

honourary degrees are given so that they (the awardees)can give them money.Even those who can hardly spell their names

On the Church

We need to act and pray, else we would have trouble on our hands

The church must come to terms to the reality of its role in politics, else it will lose its relevance. Politics is the mission of the church.

It is now our responsibility to rewrite of our theological history

On Nation building

There are three national cancers that needs to be attended to in Nigeria, Wickedness, Ignorance and Poverty.

On Nigerian People

The phrase, Good people, I respect Honourable Minister, Dora Akinyuli but I cannot accept it. How many Nigerians can spend their children to the village. You are afraid of the good people who are there

The highest level of dehumanisation is for people to control your conscience

Christians are uncommitted spectators in politics

On Free and Fair Elections

Nobody should expect free, just and fair election. Ignorance is pivotal to the problem of Nigerian elections

A Deadly Cargo from Iran

pics courtesy The Punch Newspapers.

But for the vigilance of the police, the State Security Service and the Department of Military Intelligence 13 containers of ammunition would have gone into wrong hands through Apapa Wharf Port in Lagos. The ammunition including 24 crates each of various sizes of rocket launchers, grenades and other small ammunitions which were impounded last week, were allegedly imported from India. It was reported that MV CMA-CGM Everest, a ship which sailed from the Nhava Shava port in India from the 15 0f July and berthed in Nigeria in the early weeks in October.

Security officials claimed that documents about the containers indicated that they were building materials from an unknown shipping agent. But it was discovered that crates of tiles, glass wool and other building materials were used to conceal the ammunitions in the containers. The behaviour of the consignment’s clearing agent was said to have raised suspicion as he tried to bribe officials so that the containers could be moved from the AP Mollier Terminal, the major port terminal to an off-dock terminal. The agent also requested that screening of the goods should take place outside the ports. This therefore made the custom to invite other security officials to help search the containers.

Marilyn Ogar, SSS Assistant Director, Public relations told journalists that “ on opening the first container, security operatives discovered rocket launchers, grenades and other smaller ammunitions”, Wale Adeniyi, spokesman of the Nigeria Customs Service also confirmed the discovery of heavy ammunitions in the containers. In a statement credited to Dikko Abdullahi, Comptroller General of Customs, he assured that the customs were investigating the matter. “Our system is configured to block suspicious importation of this nature” Abdullahi noted. He also informed pressmen that the importer did not complete the necessary papers and that they suspected that his name was also fictitious.

Owuye Azazi, National Secretary Adviser accompanied by police commissioners, senior customs officers and Chris Olakpe, commandant of police bomb squad visited the APM Terminal. Azazi told journalist after inspecting the confiscated artillery that those behind the importation would be arrested speedily. He promised that “ investigations will unravel those behind it and what they intend to do”. On the suspicion that the weapons would be used to disturb the peace of the forthcoming elections, Azazi refused to agree to those suspected intention as he said “ investigation would uncover the intention of those behind the act. We do not want to make hasty conclusions on the matter” Azazi said. President Goodluck Jonathan had lauded the nation’s security agencies for their vigilance which led to the discovery of imported arms.

Gun running through the nation’s porus lax land and sea borders has created serious security threats in the country bringing about an increase in the number of smugglers, kidnappers, armed robbers, and political thugs. In June last year, security men impounded a Russian aircraft with 18 crates of firearms believed to be on its way to Equatorial Guinea. The aircraft landed in Kano City to refuel, when it was impounded.

The heaps of ammunitions dropped by the Niger Delta militants under the amnesty programme caused a stir considering their quantity and level of sophistication. In May 2010, a car bomb explosion occurred along in Yenegoa few metres away from the hotel belonging to the Peremobowei Ebebi, deputy governor of the State. His home was also attacked in July 23 and heavy explosives and guns were used. Although none of his family members were injured a private guard was killed. Nigerian’s were shocked when on the day of the country’s golden independence anniversary, two car bombs exploded near the Eagle Square in Abuja killing no fewer than 15 persons.

Many Nigerians are worried that discoveries and seizures of arm caches do not go beyond mere arrests of the suspects and media blitz. Many of the suspects and their sponsors escape trail and punishment shortly after arrests. Meanwhile, Isreal has claimed ownership of the ammunitions, we hope the Nigerian government applies the global laws on Arms dealing. The nation should also be vigilant about the impounded ammunition falling into the hands of political thugs and religious bigots.