'Tell Your Papa': Not Only The Allegedly Offensive Record That Should be Banned, The Musicians and Whatever Label He is a Member, Should be Hammered - Wole Soyinka

Israel Adeleke

OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) News reports that Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, while giving his take on the recent move by Nigeria Broadcast Commission, NBC, has expressed irony in suggesting that the ban placed on a song by Nigerian musician, Eedris Abdulkareem, did not go far enough, stating that it is not only the allegedly offensive record that should be banned, that the musician himself should be proscribed, also next, PMAN, or whatever musical association of which Abdulkareem is member, should also go under the hammer.

OTN News further reports that the Nobel laureate who said this in a statement issued from New York University, Abu Dhabi, on Sunday, criticised the action and its wider implications, saying that it echoed past attempts to stifle artistic and socio-political commentary in Nigeria.

OTN News had earlier reported that the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) had officially banned the broadcast of veteran rapper’s latest protest song, ‘Tell Your Papa’, across radio and television platforms in the country.

In a memo addressed to Nigerian radio and television stations, dated April 9, 2025, and signed by the Commission’s Coordinating Director of Broadcast Monitoring, Susan Obi, the NBC declared the anti-President Bola Tinubu song ‘Not To Be Broadcast’ (NTBB), citing its “objectionable nature” and a violation of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.

Soyinka, however, reacting to this move, said that the ban had promoted the song, noting that the rapper is currently smiling to the bank.

According to him, “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."

Soyinka who described the ban as a return to the culture of censorship and a threat to the right to free expression, noted that he had not listened to the banned song but stressed that the issue transcends content and concerns a fundamental democratic principle.

According to him, “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.'

“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,” he said.

Soyinka who pointed out the irony that censorship often benefits the targeted artist, warned that such censorship was not only counterproductive but also dangerous to democratic development.

He said, “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 seizures of the fundamental right of free expression."

He, however, warned that it creates “a permissive atmosphere of trickle-down power,” where state authorities feel emboldened to clamp down on dissent.

OTN News observes that the literary icon's statement also touched on broader issues of impunity and mob violence in Nigeria, lamenting the recent lynching of 19 youths in Edo State.

He said, “My heart goes out to friends, colleagues and families of victims and traumatised survivors of this senseless slaughter. Our thirst for justice must remain unslaked."

Referencing the 2022 killing of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto, Soyinka criticised the culture of impunity, saying, “Identified killers were set free to gloat, and paste their photos on the Social Media… in full daylight glare, in the presence of both citizen voyeurs and security forces.”

He, however, called for accountability, warning that “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 concluded by urging the relevant regulatory body to reverse what he described as a “petulant irrationality,” warning that any government that only tolerates praise-singers “has already commenced a downhill slide into the abyss.”