Tell your papa: Soyinka blasts Tinubu’s government over ban on Eedris Abdulkareem’s song
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has publicly criticized the federal government for banning a politically charged song by veteran rapper Eedris Abdulkareem, describing the move as a return to censorship and an attack on free expression.
The Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), in a memo issued on Wednesday, prohibited the song “Tell Your Papa” from being played on radio and television, citing its “objectionable nature.”
The track, directed at President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s son, Seyi Tinubu, highlights the country’s worsening socioeconomic conditions and has sparked considerable public discourse.
Reacting in a statement titled “Surely, Not Again,” Soyinka condemned the ban, using irony to spotlight what he called the government’s overreach.
“Courtesy of an artist operating in a different genre – the cartoon – who sent me his recent graphic comment on the event, I learnt recently of a return to the culture of censorship with the banning of the product of a music artist, Eedris Abdulkareem.
“My position is that such a progressive move by the government and its agencies does not go far enough. It is not only the allegedly offensive record that should be banned – the musician himself should be proscribed. Next, PMAN, or whatever musical association of which Abdulkareem is a member, should also go under the hammer. Nor should we ignore the cartoonist, Ebun Aleshinloye, who not only etched out his trenchant response to the ban but disseminated it all the way to Abu Dhabi. Let’s simply go the whole hog!”
Although Soyinka admitted he had not heard the song himself, he stressed that the government’s action was undemocratic and ultimately gave the track more publicity.
“I have yet to listen to the record, but the principle is inflexibly etched on any democratic template. It cannot be flouted. That, surely, is basic. This is why I feel that we should look on the bright side of any picture and thus recommend the Aleshinloye cartoon – and others in allied vein – as an easy-to-apprehend, easy-to-digest summation of the wisdom of attempting to stifle unpalatable works of art or socio-political commentary.
“The ban is a boost to the artist’s nest egg, thanks to free governmental promotion. Mr. Abdulkareem must be currently warbling his merry way all the way to the bank. I envy him,” he added.
Soyinka further noted that Nigeria had previously witnessed similar crackdowns on dissenting voices and criticized the tendency of some state authorities to persecute social critics—sometimes resorting to cross-border arrests and prolonged legal battles.
“We have been through this before, over and over again, ad nauseam. We know where it all ends. It is boring, time-wasting, diversionary, but most essential of all, subversive of all seizure of the fundamental right of free expression.
“It also creates a permissive atmosphere of trickle-down power where governors have been known to pursue social critics across state borders, kidnap and imprison them for long spells, using the judicial machinery of never-ending trials. Oh, bear in mind also theocratic ‘authorities’ that continue to arrogate to themselves the right to arrest and imprison artists and thinkers for their expression of opinion and vision of human existence.
“The fundamental right of free expression, as already touched upon, is not a closet affair; it is never hidden but echoes as loudly on international fora as in the most obscure hamlet.”
He concluded by warning that any government that only tolerates sycophants and praise-singers is already on a dangerous path.
“Any government that is tolerant only of yes-men and women, which accommodates only praise-singers and dancers to the official beat, has already commenced a downhill slide into the abyss.
“Whatever regulating body is responsible for this petulant irrationality should be compelled to reverse its misstep.”
