Dis Fela Sef, an Idonije memoir

                              By Bayo Ogunmupe

    The book, Dis Fela Sef is the untold story of the legendary musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti. It is a memoir by his friend and manager, Benson Idonije. The author, now 82 years old, is the most credible chronicler of Fela's sexual escapades and tempestuous career as a musician and man of the world. Idonije was with Fela from the beginning till the end of his career as musician, politician and human rights activist. Fela's great musical creativity endeared him Idonije while Benson's love of music as a producer in Radio Nigeria cemented their relationship.

     Thus, as Fela's confidant Idonije became the power behind Fela's throne. And Fela's respect and trust an elder brother gave Benson access to every facet of Fela's life.  Which is why Dis Fela Sef is so accurate, deep and authoritative. This memoir was published in 2016 by Festac Books and reprinted by Havilah Grand Pearl Limited, Lagos, Nigeria. It has 20 chapters, an epilogue, 284 pages, two pages of bibliography, 13 pages of pictures and the chronology of Fela's life.

    In his introductory: Why this book? Idonije answers that there are still more legends to be known and misunderstandings to be corrected about Fela's tumultuous lifestyle and apostasy. As an Art critic on The Guardian, Nigeria for almost 20 years, and contemporary of Fela barely two years Fela's senior, Idonije has written about Fela more than any journalist in Nigeria. His original intention was to assemble those stories and publish them in book form. But his friends urged and assisted him to write a memoir of his friendship and as manager of the Fela Ransome Kuti Quintet from 1963 till 1970.

    Indeed, as band manager, Idonije was intimately involved and grappled with every activity of Fela's life and commune. Dis Fela Sef isn't a biography, nor is it a musical study, especially because not all of Fela's music is discussed. This is Benson's memorial of Fela, it is a new perspective, the story behind the story. with more legends to be told. Though Fela died on August 2, 1997, we still speak of him in the present tense; he is omnipresent. We use his first name to acknowledge the pervasiveness of his influence.

    Fela's music is the inspirer of modern hip hop in West Africa. Afrobeat bands are being formed around the world drawing from his overwhelming influence. Musicians and fans lapse into his vocal rasp to make a point. Fela has been celebrated on Broadway Theatre in New York, USA. Felabration continues to wax stronger and bigger with activities at every yearly edition even as they celebrate him with excessive veneration. Fela's Kalakuta commune has been recreated and turned to a museum for his immortalization.

    In treating the first ten chapters of this volume, I shall start from the chronology of Fela's life from 1938 to the time of his death in 1997. From his ancestry, his musical odyssey, redefining Highlife music to resurrecting the Koola lobitos culminating in the making of a new Afrobeat genre after his visit to the United States. It goes without saying that Fela's pervasive influence is proof of his ingenuity as a musician and man of letters.

    In the middle of the 19th century, one Egba gentleman named Kuti, Fela's great grand father fell in love with a princess called Efupeyin. The marriage of these lovers produced a son christened Josiah  inn 1855. Both were heathens but Efupeyin, Fela's great grandmother converted to Christianity. At her baptism in 1848 Efupeyin took the name Anne. In his memoirs, Josiah, Fela's grand father wrote: "To her I owe my Christianity today for my father lived and died a heathen." Kuti was a staunch weaver of cloth and musician. He is the one Fela appeared to be his alter ego and reincarnation. Fela's grand father was Josiah Likoye Kuti while his father was Oludotun Ransome  Kuti

    His mother, Frances Olufunlayo Ransome Kuti nee Thomas was in the forefront of women liberation in Nigeria during the colonial era. She championed female rights to vote and founded the Nigerian Women's Union. For these achievements, she earned international fame and recognition. Olufunlayo was a great admirer of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of the republic of Ghana and his pan African ideology. Nkrumah also recognized her for her political activities.

    Mrs Kuti was so courageous that her organization, the Nigerian Women's Union, chased the Alake of Egbaland out of his palace into exile in Osogbo for levying taxes on women. For so doing she became a heroine of Nigerian politics. Through Mrs Kuti Nigerian women achieved universal suffrage by being exempted from paying tax and allowed to vote and be voted for by 1959. She founded the Nigerian Women's Union in 1949. 

    Of Funlayo's children, Dolapo, the eldest, a female chose  the nursing profession. She excelled there, retiring from the Lagos Island Maternity Hospital as a matron in 1974. Next in line was Dr Olikoye Ransome Kuti. He was professor of Paediatrics at the Lagos University Hospital. He was appointed Minister of Health by President Ibrahim Babangida. As minister he transformed our health care delivery system  for which he received acclaim and was made a director of the World Health Organization.

    Fela's younger brother Beko, born in 1940, was also a physician and former secretary general of the Nigerian Medical Association. He was a strong opponent of military rule. Later, he became chairman of the Campaign for Democracy. For his democratic views he was imprisoned during the regimes of Buhari,  Babangida, Ernest Shonekan and Sani Abacha. He had been framed with involvement in a plot to overthrow the military government and was slammed with a 15 year jail term. He was only released in 1998 after a change of government.

    All of the Fela siblings have died. But their pedigree is awesome. Not many Nigerians living or dead have documentary records of their lineage dating back to 1850 like them. Fela studied classical music at Trinity College of Music in London. He married Remilekun Taylor in 1961. He had three children: Yeni, Femi and Sola. He returned to Nigeria with his family in 1963. He gained employment as music producer at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in 1964. he launched his band the Koola Lobitos in 1965. He played at the yearly Havanah Dance Festival organized by the  Sigma Club, University of Ibadan in 1965.

    Fela resigned from NBC to manage the Koola Lobitos full time in 1968. Thereafter, he devoted his life to music. But in February 1976, Kalakuta Republic, his Agege Motor Road commune was burnt down by soldiers. In April of the same year he changed his name from Ransome Kuti to Anikulapo Kuti. He sang it loud and clear that religions not indigenous to Africa should be discarded. He established a shrine and appointed priests in order to worship God in the African way. He married 27 wives and kept them in his commune to rubbish Western culture we are adopting.

    In his last days, considering his type of music you would think Fela was on drugs but no. Later bad companions led him into sex, women and marijuana. He eventually succumbed to HIV/AIDS. While Idonije was a bachelor, his apartment became Fela's slaughter slab. He sometimes had three different women a day. Which is why Idonije book became a best seller. In fact the copy I used in this review is a pirated one: there is no greater testimony to the success of Dis Fela Sef.

    Benson Idonije studied communication engineering at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. He joined Radio Nigeria in 1957 later becoming a presenter of famous programmes. The high pint of his career in broadcasting was his transfer to the training school where for eight years he became principal lecturer  in programme production. After he retired in 1992, he wrote art columns for The Guardian, Nigeria. Now 82 years old, Pa Idonije is still alive and writing.

For the love of country

                            By Bayo Ogunmupe

    The book, For the love of country, subtitled: Predicting Nigeria's Past, Foretelling Her Future, is an engaging work of analysis, critical essay which is educative, inspiring and upbraiding. It spreads the twin message of patriotism and the sermon from the pulpit for the empowerment of youth, the pursuit of accountability from Nigerian leaders and honest and responsible following from the people. The author, Bamidele Ademola Olateju passionately demands equity and justice from Nigerian leaders. She demands these attributes with a sharp analytical prowess and an uncanny ability to predict events in the course of a dissecting Nigerian economic environment.

    For the love of country was published in 2016 by Parresia Publishers Limited, Ikeja, Nigeria. It is in paperback with 208 pages, two parts and 43 chapters. Prior to Nigerian independence, we had a long line of female activists, in particular was Fela's mother Mrs Olufunlayo Ransome Kuti who founded the Nigerian Women's Union. Then, the struggle was for women emancipation, social justice, human and economic rights. What Nigeria has never had before and after independence is a female intellectual politician who combines activism with the struggle as an organic laborite aiming to achieve a better and fairer Nigeria.

    It is that intellectual woman leader seeking to make Nigeria a place where human dignity and justice reign that author Olateju represents. And true to type, she bestrides that figure like a colossus. With her book, she is seeking to free Nigeria from her asphyxiating condition as a preliterate society. Her focus is to right the self inflicted wrongs and errors of a Nigeria seemingly doomed to a fate of unrealized potential.

    "This book is evidence that Bamidele Olateju has emerged to fill the void in Nigeria's public sphere, to free the country from her asphyxiating wrongs: of a country seemingly doomed to a fate of unrealized potential." These collection of essays are not just your regular run of lamentation for Nigeria. They are the musings of an intellectual with a gift for analysis and originality of thought. This volume examines our persistent problems of power outage with an uncommon insight. Also, she offers solutions and the way out of our imbroglio.

    You read Bamidele feeling summoned to participate in a joint task of taking Nigeria out of the doldrums. On reading Olateju you become a member of a pan Nigerian force blessed with the intellect of the most influential female activist of our generation. Social dysfunction is overwhelming in Nigeria. But, as shown by Olateju, we've not all been silenced by the shame. Indeed, the love of country  and fame have lured Bamidele into refusing to distort the truth and our values. Thus, she wrote this testament in her strong believe that it is not enough to learn and think without spreading the gospel of Nigeria's return to true federalism, prosperity and self reliance.

    In part one, Olateju defined her role in the world as a woman. In her own reality, a woman is a human being of the female gender, who has gained full recognition of being a female and the weaknesses ascribed to her from birth. For this inheritance, she accepts her great battle in a world dominated by men. To her, being a woman is to bear the burden of caring for others at your expense and the changes your body bears at every phase of the journey. Being a woman means being strong because you will need all the strength you can muster.

    From a panegyric on womanhood, the author moves to an analysis of religion as a tool of domination, impoverishment and deception. In southern Nigeria the christian message governs everyday living and provides the concept of justice. That is the reason, according to her, why christians must participate in politics. She opines, Nigerian politics has not evolved past bigotry. Instead of framing issues around morals, the Nigerian clergy incites their congregation with the prosperity gospel, claiming they are doing this in the name of Christ.

    By proclaiming the name of Christ, the Nigerian entrepreneur pastors are corrupting the Grace and perverting the Law, making Nigeria an example of how political power corrupts the church as the bearer of the gospel of Christ. In her opinion, the clergy has been led to abandon the body of Christ for the love of money. The pastor entrepreneurs have lost compassion for the faithfuls and instead they have embraced greed building universities members cannot reach and shuttling the nation in private jets.

    They even preach violence and hate instead of love. By so doing the rich gets richer by fleecing the poor and looting the country. Bamidele believes the church has failed to provide the moral fabric necessary for a great Nigerian nation to emerge. Pastors and imams know that the greater your education, the more you understand the world. Education allows you to need less miracles and magic. So, they ruined education, made their colleges unreachable to the poor- collaboratively- both church and mosque.

    That is why religious organizations that invested in education made their schools expensive so their congregation can remain gullible. In that way they can continue the manipulation and the enslavement of the people. Nigeria will become better if religion focuses on skills acquisition delivered through subsidized education.

    For the second section of the book: Olateju dwells on  youth as Nigeria's  emerging underclass. But for the prevalent mediocrity of our psyche, the unemployed youth can use their permanent voters' cards to alter their destiny either by voting themselves into power or by promoting better leaders. Unlike the Israeli student who killed Prime minister Yitzhak Rabin to stop a two state solution to the mideast crisis, Nigerian students can only undertake armed robbery to get rich quickly.

    "No nation can achieve greatness without investing in its youth. Yet, Nigeria cannibalizes her young through policies and through determined deprivation. The youth is usually energetic, vibrant, adventurous, learning and full of life. In Nigeria, the youth is disoriented, weak, miseducated, thoughtlessly shallow and directionless yet burdened by impenetrable armour of meaningless swagger and overrated sense of worth and exaggerated aspiration for material acquisition."

    But somehow, we cannot blame the youth for this exaggerated vision of grandeur. This is because they have seen the dregs of society come into stupendous wealth by going into politics or advanced fee fraud. The 18 to 35 age bracket is about 70 million and is growing rapidly. The youth have no credible role models. All they see are grifters who reinforce their believe that education is a waste of time.

    However, our missteps are traceable to our antiquated educational system. While most nations developed through skills acquisition due to technological revolution, our educators still insist in the ancient rote learning, the knowledge that has become obsolete because the communication revolution. The consequence of our poorly educated youth, especially in a Nigeria that is desperately in need of investors, is underdevelopment and insurrection.

    With a literacy rate of less than 60 percent, our nation cannot achieve industrialization without solid educational investment in our citizens. Finally, why Nigeria is good at picking bad leaders will cap this review. We are as bad as that because we focus on wrong things. We rely on contrived narratives such lack of shoes ( Goodluck Jonathan), exaggerated meekness and superfluous religiosity(Buhari) or even deep pockets(Bola Tinubu). Even then, a new leader faces daunting obstacles such as ethnic/religious pressure, sabotage, endemic corruption and a staggering mediocrity.

    In what qualifies a leader, Olateju examines seven qualities of eminent leaders. From integrity: the quality of being honest, having good morals and the absence of hypocrisy, the author  dwells on such others as courage, empathy and vision. She avers that we generally lack men of courage and vision because oil boom has made our leaders to be greedy and clannish. Lack of empathy, the inability to share in the agonies of others propelled our leaders to attend weddings befor sympathizing with the parents of the 110 abducted school girls.

    There are many ideas you will gain by reading this book. As you follow Olateju's twin themes of "for the love of country and the sermon on the political pulpit, you will readily imbibe her passion for justice and conviction for a better Nigeria. Olateju has masters in both Business administration and computer information systems. She worked in two top companies in the USA before establishing her own business in Nigeria. Apart from being a farmer, she is a member of the editorial board of Premium Times where she  maintains a weekly column on politics and social justice in Nigeria.

How to change your living habits

                              By Bayo Ogunmupe

      It might look a crazy notion for you to change your way of life, your lifestyle or living habits. But this is possible. Most of us can't even change one habit or even stick to one New Year's resolution, let alone making a change like turning your whole life around. This will be very difficult but it is worth treading some steps to bring about a new you. This researcher promises to bring out a new you in four weeks. By adhering to these steps you won't recognise yourself again in one month. This plan is divided into four sections,  one for each week and each week has three tasks.

    In week one, you are to purify your mind and body. "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." That quotation from an American revolutionary leader, Benjamin Franklin epitomizes what is meant by purifying your mind and body. You rise early to do whatever you want to do; because early starters always win. By rising as early as 6 a.m, a time of peace and quiet when you sort out your thoughts while everyone else is still sleeping. However, the mere fact that you are reluctant to get out of bed indicates that you don't really want to change your life.

    Improving your nutrition is your next step. Medicine is not healthcare, food is healthcare. Medicine is sick care. This means to maintain optimum health you have to eat nutritious food. For a healthy diet, ditch junk food, alcohol, the sodas and potato chips. Drinking plenty of water won't kill you. Then, take up a sport. To power some life into a tired body you need to shake that body itself. Choose whichever method seems right for you. But make this sport a regular part of your new lifestyle. Good character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

    For the second week, put your private life in order. Clean up your household by removing unnecessary clutter which befuddles your life. Get rid of everything you don't use. What do you keep? Keep only such stuff you are using, things and gadgets which make you happy. It is liberating throwing away all those valentine cards from people that are not on the same page with you anymore. Sort out your personal business; fulfill your obligations, pay your bills, visit your grandparents. Unfinished business has a way of dragging you down and eating away at finance and energy.

    Sort out your social life by getting rid of relationships that don't serve you. Break contact with people who bring you down or sap your energy. Of course, this is not as easy as it sounds. In order to do this, give yourself the permission to be unpleasant if that is what it takes to be free from toxic relations. But for whatever it is worth maintain good relations with your parents. For your plans goals and dreams, getting things clear in your head is a priority. You've got to push aside the static to really hear the music. Write down, then carry out your plans.

    Plan you day to day activities ahead to enable you get things accomplished. Daily schedule things you want to accomplish by writing them down. In writing, list your implausible dreams and those dreams that are achievable too. What today seems impossible may very well become reality in years to come. Plan things on a daily basis. The night before, write a plan for the next day. By writing down what you want to do the next day, makes you more productive, wastes less time and brings you closer to your goals in a shorter time.

    Finally, expands your horizons. The mind which opens to a new idea never returns to its original size. Try and actually live differently from others. Take different forms of transport to work; take different routes home, eat lunch with different people. Eat in an eatery you've never been to before. Wear something you would never have worn before. Everyday ask yourself: how can I do this differently now? Try always to get out of your comfort zone. if you can't swim, learn to swim. Thereafter, take a break. Spend time with yourself alone. Reflect on your past with resolve to do better, in solitude.

THE BURDEN OF LEADERSHIP

THE BURDEN OF LEADERSHIP

The leadership conundrum in Nigeria has been an ever recurring decimal in our march towards self-sustained development. Many authorities have proffered all sorts of hypothesis on this problem but like the proverbial offensive odour of an elephant’s fart, it has refused to go away. Unfortunately, our leaders have failed to adhere to the various injunctions pertaining to leadership in a community. Most of them are people of questionable pedigree, dubious characters and most often people operating on the periphery of crime. Therefore: Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes off thorns, or figs off thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (Matthew 7:16-20)

Jules Masserman, United States professor of Psychoanalysis, University of Chicago says the leader must fulfil three functions:

1.    The leader must provide for the well-being of the lead ... The leader, whoever he is, must be interested in your welfare.  He must not be ravenous like most of the vampire leaders of the ‘Third World’; such as our present day political and religious leaders; who have turned the masses into their ‘milking cows’, to be exploited to satisfy their greed and lust. 

2.    Leader or would be leader must provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure ... a Leader must provide a social order free of self, voracity and ethnicity. Unfortunately, “there is still with us much sorrow and sin, injustice, oppression, wrong and hate. Still does arrogance deaden conscience, rob struggling souls of even the crumbs of pity, and make, of loathsome flesh and crumbling dust, fair-seeming idols for worship. Still does ignorance blow a mighty horn and try to shame true wisdom...  Still does greed devour the substance of helpless ones within its power: Nay, more, the fine individual voice is smothered in the raucous din of groups and crowds that madly shout what they call slogans, new, old falsehoods, long discredited! What can we do to make God's light shine forth through the darkness around us? Prof. Jitendra Dhoj Khand.  We are a helpless people, who have refused to make efforts to help ourselves; architects of our own misfortune. Like Cassius lamented to Casca in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar,” And why should Caesar be a tyrant then? Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf, But that he sees the Romans are but sheep. He were no lion were not Romans hinds.” 

3.    The leader must provide its people with a set of beliefs or national ideology. It is easy to talk of the fellowship of men under a single banner. This has not been possible in our clime as the leaders are bereft of vision and mission; and are not endowed with the spirit of corporate, political or spiritual leadership. They do not have any apparition of a ‘promised land’. Neither are they agitators who are more likely to possess these qualities. 

Leadership denotes the ability to move masses of men, the talent to produce ideas, and forge the union of theorist, organizer and leader all in one; a rare phenomenon which we find only in great men of history: Ghandi, Napoleon, Caesar, Lenin, Mao, JFK and Hitler.

The leaders we have are charlatans, deceitful leaders and men of untruth. Like they say: A false man cannot build a brick house! If he does not know and follow truly the properties of mortar, burnt clay and what else he works in, it is no house that he makes, but a rubbish heap. It will not stand the test of time and it will fall straightaway.  It is like a forged bank note; they get it passed out of their worthless hands.” Heroes and Hero-worship), p.58.  It is sad indeed! And the 21^st Century is fast going.

Let me end by quoting the conclusions of Olutola Abolurin in his treatise on Religion and Religiosity, when he said: Nigeria therefore is not suffering because of the open show of religiousness, rather there are too many professing religion who do not really have ingrained in them the virtues of the religions they profess and have no intention of seeking the redemptive paths offered by their religions. Religion has become for many the mask to wear to obtain preferment or to lull others into dropping their guards in their personal and business interactions.

The problem we have is the leadership of the society - political, business, civil, and religious. We all claim to be religious but we do not reflect the values of our professed religions in our behavior, in politics or in governance. Indeed for most of us, politics or business is a “do or die” affair and anything goes. And a lot get away with it. Institutions to curb our excesses are corrupted by us. Religious leaders unfortunately also pander to those who are rich or powerful, and in the process, undermine the religious values that should provide the moral anchor for the society. By our actions and inactions as leaders we debase the society and the people become cynical and alienated. We, the leaders in Nigeria, nay Africa, are the problem.

Barka Juma’at and a Happy Weekend.

Take One:

The Apapa gridlock, which has been in place for the best of the past 15 years, defying succeeding regimes, is a great sign that Nigeria is a country that cannot solve the most elementary of its problems. We have ports in Warri, Sapele, Port Harcourt, Onne, and Calabar. We have also river ports in Onitsha, Lokoja and Baro. Why can’t we activate them to disperse these trucks and tankers to other ports and allow Apapa to breathe? Why must the whole nation depend only on Apapa and Tin Can Ports? Why can’t we rehabilitate the various fuel depots around the country so that tankers will not need to come to Lagos to load fuel? Can’t we quickly complete the roads in Apapa? Can’t we activate the Apapa rail corridor to join in evacuating goods? When will Nigeria have a government (leaders) that can solve problems? Emmanuel Okogba, Vanguard Editorial.

Lastline: My favorite auntie; Alhaja Idayat Adetona was 75 yesterday. A very genial and quiet woman and an epitome of contentment and a true daughter of the Ashafa/Motajo ancestry. We wish her happiness, good health and Allah’s blessing for the remaining tenure in this life.  

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Babatunde Jose iPhone 7