The Song Obasanjo tried to Ban in Nigeria during his tenure
Eedris Abdulkareem, Nigeria jaga-jaga
In 2004, Eedris Abdulkareem released a song that caused a stir in Nigeria. The song lyrics portrayed Nigeria as a scattered, impoverished country filled with suffering.
Although, it captured some of the harsh realities of the country, it made use of violent vocabularies and exaggerated the situation in a manner that sparked conflict rather than fostering innovation among its listeners.
At that time, it was widely celebrated in the streets; and clubs took to play the song even after the then-president Olusegun Obasanjo banned the song from being played at radio stations.
In the eyes of the ignorant, it was Nigeria’s Redemption Song but perhaps, this is the reason we are where we are in the present day.
Years later, during his speech at a 2012 event organized by the Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI), Obasanjo referred to the ban attempt and highlighted that one of the most critical issues plaguing Nigeria was a crisis of faith. He emphasized that Nigerians had lost faith in themselves and the country, no longer harboring a sense of belief or trust. He added, ““That takes me back to that song ‘jaga jaga’. How could a sane man dare to call his country jaga jaga? It is the height of blasphemy.”
I do not claim that our leaders don’t have a role in our current state of poverty amidst inflation, corruption, unemployment, strike and all of the above. Nonetheless, the rate at which the media and entertainment sector depict the bad is alarming. We give too much credit to our reality and fail to enact our faith or imagination.
A call to good is more necessary. Different approaches, but they have the same goal of addressing the social problems
