Amid national outrage over the ban slammed on the latest hit song, ‘Tell Your Papa’, by controversial Nigerian rapper Eedris Abdulkareem, by the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, (NBC) Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has lent his voice to the widespread condemnation of the action, warning that such censorship was not only counterproductive but also dangerous to democratic development.
While urging the relevant regulatory body to reverse what he described as a “petulant irrationality,” Soyinka warned that “any government that only tolerates praise-singers has already commenced a downhill slide into the abyss”.
Describing the ban as a return to the culture of censorship and a threat to the right to free expression, Prof. Soyinka upbraided the action and its wider implications, saying it echoed past attempts to stifle artistic and socio-political commentary in Nigeria.
The literary giant stated derisively that “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.”
Admitting that he had not listened to the banned song, he however insisted that the issue transcends content and concerns a fundamental democratic principle.
According to the Nobel laureate, “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”.