Yemi Obafemi
Renowned Nobel Laureate and celebrated playwright, Professor Wole Soyinka, has strongly criticized the recent ban on a song by Nigerian musician Eedris Abdulkareem, describing it as a troubling revival of censorship and a reflection of the growing culture of impunity in the country.
Nigerian musician Eedris Abdulkareem recently released a new track titled “Tell Your Papa,” aimed at Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu. In the song, Abdulkareem takes a swipe at the President, criticizing him over the country’s worsening economic conditions and growing hardship.
In response, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) issued a directive on Wednesday, prohibiting the broadcast of the song on radio and television. The NBC labeled the song as “objectionable,” a move that has since stirred public outrage and condemnation across the country.
Reacting to the development, Soyinka, in a statement from New York University, Abu Dhabi, on Sunday, described the ban as a disturbing return to censorship. He warned that such actions pose a serious threat to the fundamental right to free expression.
“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 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!
“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.
“We have been through this before, over and over again, ad nauseum. 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 for a as in the most obscure hamlet.
“Any government that is tolerant only of yes-men and women, which accommodate 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.”
Soyinka also condemned the recent spate of mob killings in Nigeria, describing them as a disturbing sign of a nation descending into lawlessness.
“It is a sadly opportune moment, but also an enraged one, to join in conveying my commiseration to the families of the latest victims,” he said. “Edo today, which state next? Nineteen youths in one fell swoop?”
Soyinka compared the tragedy to the gruesome 2022 lynching of Deborah Samuel, a student murdered in Sokoto State over alleged blasphemy. He recalled that some of the perpetrators were never prosecuted, and instead boasted about their actions on social media — an incident he called a “soul-searing orgy.”
He emphasized that the severity of such crimes lies not only in their scale but in the brutality of the acts themselves. “The horror is not in numbers but in the act itself,” he said.
The literary Icon cautioned that as long as impunity is tolerated or even subtly encouraged, Nigeria risks a total collapse of justice and order.
“As long as the culture of impunity is given the sheerest strain of legitimacy in any given cause, such gruesome assaults on our common humanity will continue to prevail,” Soyinka warned. “A reversion to brutish existence [will] become a nation’s stamp of identity.”
He urged authorities to act decisively, insisting that the perpetrators of these crimes are known and must be held accountable. “The culprits are in plain sight and so are witnesses. There can be no excuses,” he said.
