Vader

[Vader @oladejiumar]

@big_fish217 @SirJarus 🤦🏾🤦🏾

[David Hundeyin @DavidHundeyin]

This is how history gets incrementally rewritten because nobody pushes back on narratives like this.

In reality, no generation in Nigeria ever actually "listened" to Fela. At NO point was he ever embraced by Nigeria's western-educated classes. He was always an outsider and a rebel that they treated with suspicion or outright hostility. Even the wealthy or educated who liked him had to literally hide to do so. His music was (and to the best of my knowledge still is!) banned from radio nationwide, and it eventually got to the point where he made less money in Nigeria - his primary audience - than outside it.

I grew up on a street where a few houses away was Air Vice Marshall Funsho Martins, across the street was Governor Ita Ikpeme, around the corner was Fidelity Bank MD Reginald Ihejiahi, and so on. These were the people I would often overhear having conversations with my dad, and to them, Fela was an "amugbo boy" (weed smoking loser) and community penis who used the guise of African pride to cover for his lack of personal discipline. They had no respect for what he stood for, and I personally was not allowed to listen to Fela's music while I lived under my parents' roof.

Fela was never loved by the people who were politically aware or active in Nigeria. The only people who wholeheartedly embraced Fela were the poorest and most powerless. And even at that, they lacked the education to fully understand his message beyond simple complaint and criticism of the Nigerian government. All his words about colonialism and imperialism flew completely over their heads. It was like explaining the International Space Station to someone who has never seen an internal combustion engine before.

I hate the narrative that Nigeria ever truly embraced Fela or his message because that is a laundering device for Nigerians to avoid asking themselves what on earth was so important about that message that a military government invaded his house, raped his wives and killed his mom, while the global "human rights" yappers provided cover for that government and never sanctioned them for it.

Saying that there was a generation that "listened to Fela" is an easy and disingenuous way of dismissing Fela's work and refusing to examine what made it so important that we're still talking about him nearly 3 decades after he died.

[Abolaji Rasaq Oluwapese @bolazeal]

THERE IS A GAME INSIDE THE GAME

Nigerians are funny people.

Tell them entertainment can be used to influence society, and they will laugh and say, “Abeg, na music.”

Tell them films can shape political thinking, they will say, “Na film, relax.”

Tell them foreign powers can use culture to influence a country, they will call you a conspiracy theorist.

Meanwhile, the same Nigerians will buy a shoe because Rihanna wore it, copy American slang, human hair, relationships, fashion, politics and even mannerisms.

But somehow, the media does not influence them. Osisko!

I have worked in entertainment for years. So I know one thing very clearly:

Entertainment is never just entertainment.

America knows this very well.

The United States openly uses what it calls cultural diplomacy. Music, film, journalism, scholarships, fellowships, festivals and creative-industry programmes are all part of how countries build influence abroad.

Even the U.S. State Department has programmes specifically using film and music to advance American foreign-policy objectives.

So this thing is not hidden.

Na we dey pretend not to understand.

And it goes beyond Hollywood.

Some Nigerian filmmakers attend American-funded programmes.

Some Nigerian journalists and news organisations receive grants, fellowships or institutional support from American organisations.

Some Nigerian music executives and creatives are brought into American mentorship and industry programmes.

Some Nigerian record labels and entertainment companies have received foreign investment or entered partnerships with major American companies.

Does that automatically mean they are CIA agents?

Of course not.

But does money, access, training, distribution and international recognition create influence?

Use your tongue to count your teeth.

America doesn't need to enter a Nigerian newsroom and say, “Write this.” Or call an artist and say, “Sing that.”

Modern influence is smarter than that.

Funders decide what they fund.

Platforms decide what they promote.

Festivals decide what they celebrate.

Labels decide who gets an international push.

Streaming platforms decide what appears on your screen.

Algorithms decide what millions of Nigerians repeatedly see.

And repeated exposure eventually becomes culture.

That is the real power of media.

If I can control what your children watch, what your youth dance to, who they admire, what lifestyle they desire, what country they dream of escaping to and what values they consider sophisticated, why exactly do I need to invade your country?

You will colonise yourself.

Voluntarily.

This is why I laugh when people say entertainment is “just entertainment.”

Entertainment is business, culture, propaganda, diplomacy, social engineering and entertainment is soft power.

Sometimes it is all of them at the same time.

The problem is not that America understands this. The problem is that Nigeria does not.

America promotes American interests.

China promotes Chinese interests.

France promotes French interests.

Britain promotes British interests.

Nigeria?

We are still arguing on Twitter about tribes, jollof and Davido vs. Wizkid😂

Meanwhile, our music, films, news, platforms, distribution channels and cultural gateways are increasingly connected to foreign money and foreign institutions.

And we are expected not to ask questions?

Please.

Follow the money.

Follow the ownership.

Follow the distribution.

Follow the platforms.

Follow the grants.

Follow the fellowships.

Follow who controls access.

Then draw your own conclusions.

Because, like I wrote under that angry music executive’s post:

“Well, well. There’s a game inside a game. You might have been played without knowing it.”

And knowing Nigerians, some people will still finish reading this and say:

“Abeg, na just entertainment.”

Exactly. Ptcheewwwww

One day you will know that your American dream is America's dream.

[Hon Henry Shield @HonShield]

I’ll buy 100 liters of fuel in my car and cough out N150,000 for a week, in an oil producing country and you want Tinubu to return?

Ogun l’oma pa e.

[Vader @oladejiumar]

@garyhgoodridge Apturo

[Vader @oladejiumar]

@mindoverweaknes Bullshit

[Vader @oladejiumar]

@chowdeck if you guys cannot be efficient with deliveries, kindly sell off your company and use the money to eat suya.

[Vader @oladejiumar]

@Odumodublvck_ Bitch ass obomodu

[Vader @oladejiumar]

@Odumodublvck_ Who are you ?
Iwo ti won ti do iyawo e

[Vader @oladejiumar]

@sirrillahfx What is cash out 😭

[YOBAMS. @djyobams]

So good the devil had to make him mad.

[Hon Henry Shield @HonShield]

To be considered worse than Buhari in governance is to be a horrible president.

[Vader @oladejiumar]

@FinPlanKaluAja1 Nigerians need to take note of this girl. She must not be allowed to lead a ward. Oh chim

[Vader @oladejiumar]

@FinPlanKaluAja1 Who be this one gan sef. Can she just gerrout abeg

[Abu Amir @SadiqMaunde]

“Go back to Anambra!”

They went back to Anambra, and you still wan follow dem go Rome?

Stop playing!

[Vader @oladejiumar]

@bin_gbada The funny thing is that tlno work is going on on that road 😂😂

[Goke🍹 @gokehq]

“Mensioning pella”

[Bola Ahmed Tinubu @officialABAT]

Tinubu : Why should any part of this country be under occupation? In any civilized country, Jonathan should resign.

http://t.co/tjEbUPYhtl

[I Am East @EastFelix]

I’ve been here long enough to know that when southerners call out the insecurity in the north, the northerners here and their influencers will defend the terrorists. As a fact, southerners were more vocal about the insecurities in the north compared to you northerners who were either defending it or were completely silent about it. We only learned not to cry more than the bereaved.