“Tell Your Papa” by Eedris is a good satirical protest song that conveys the known bitter truth to totalitarian power. Banning it on the airwaves by the indiscretionary government agency, NBC, doesn’t remove the truth. In fact, it promotes and energises the truth further to hit the heart of conscienceless power.
Censorship of arts is crude dictatorship that can’t be successful. President Tinubu should have known this. Creative radical songs that convey the anger, frustration, hunger mass poverty of the people don’t die because their message is life and continue to live in our minds and haunts the insensitive rulers..
Banning Tell Your Papa is meaningless, stupid .and misuse of power. You can’t abort a pregnancy after the child has been born (quoting MKO Abiola here) Radical music with message is even more than a delivered child because you can kill the child and become a murderer, but you can’t kill music with message of the people by the people to the government..
Revolutionary songs will continue to outlive their tormentors. Fela died but his purposeful masses sensitive songs refused to die with him and eventually made Fela to alive forever with us. This is because his powerful songs like Zombie, Unknown Soldiers, Suffering and Smiling, Suck African People, Vagabond In Power, Sorrow Tears and Blood, No Agreement Today, No Agreement Tomorrow, Just Like That,
Despite the military high command hatred for Fela and his Zombie, album released in 1976, a senior friend of mine who was a soldier then informed me about ten years ago while reviewing Fela’s contributions to humanity, that despite the hostility by their ogas, Zombie almost became a national anthem in many army barracks, sung and danced to by officers and men at mammy markets and officers’ mess particularly on payday week for their maximum enjoyment. “Deola, are we not really Zombie by our professional training and ethics of.” obey the last order without complaints? ” Zombie played in the barracks? . I was pleasantly shocked. That’s the power of redical thought provoking music,. Music has no barrier, it can’t be banned, it can’t be killed, it can’t be canceled from the people’s minds. Even if the singer is killed, detained, or exiled, his music remains alive. “Tell Your Papa Country Hard” will now be an addition to the barricade protest songs , on the streets, in homes, schools, club houses.. Congratulations Eedris.
“Nigeria Jaga jaga” released in 2004 by the same Eedris AbdulKareem was so upsetting to the civilian regime of Obasanjo. The moment government hammered “Nigeria Jaga Jaga” a statement of fact that Nigeria was being misgoverned and Nigerians were suffering, the song became a “national anthem”. That was the time I started taking interest in Eedris music.
But Funnily enough, many of those who danced and sung Nigeria Jaga Jaga, praised Eedis and rightfully condemned Obasanjo for banning the simple song, were the people under whose government “Tell Your Papa, Nigeria is Hard”.is now banned. Duplicitous moralists! Many of them now acquised to the illegal ban while many are keeping dubious loud silence to what they rightfully condemned in 2004. Truly, without ennobling principle, without scruple humans are worse than animal.
Nigeria was jaga jaga in 2004, twenty one years after, in 2025, Nigeria has become jaga jaga, jaga jaga, jaga, jaga, jaga, jaga.. So, “Seyi, Tell Your Papa Country Hard”.
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