ABUJA (Sundiata Post) Below is an except from the essay: Macron’s Pilgrimage to the Africa Shrine by Owei Lakemfa published by premiumtimesng.com. It is about the lessons of life, that impassioned service to humanity triumphs ultimately over crass abuse of power and primitive accumulation of wealth.
While the essay talks about Babangida in relation to Fela. I want also to add that it is an irony of history that the military dictator, Muhammadu Buhari, who using a military tribunal, jailed Fela on false foreign exchange charges in 1984 until he was released in 1986, happens to be civilian President of the country, today, 34 years later. Fela was reportedly arrested over 200 times by military regimes.
Buhari continues to hanker after political power in a country he and his military/civilian colleagues in leadership had over the decades and until today, debauched and rendered impotent into a fast under-developing country. It is this debauchery Fela used his music and philosophy to criticize. It is for which Buhari, Babangida, Obasanjo and others harassed, tortured, jailed, used soldiers to brutalize his mother, band members, raze down his home, his music club (Shrine) and confiscated his entire landed property. It was a display of unbridled power and unconscionable wickedness against an unarmed man who only sang against the ills of the rulers.
Today, Fela is dead, transiting 21 years ago in 1997. In contrast, all the three dictators are alive and still cockroaching in destructive power intrigues. A popular saying goes: Let my enemies live long to see my success over them. Indeed the three dictators must have watched with green envy, as the President of France, Emmanuel Macron in his recent official visit to Nigeria, spent more time visiting, relaxing and honouring Fela at the Shrine in Lagos than time on bland diplomatic exchanges with Buhari in Abuja.
The oppressors of Fela who sought to shut him up for good must wonder how even in death, 21 years after, Fela glows and radiates not just as a global music icon and sociopolitical cum cultural philosopher, but one viewed with awe and reverence by elites and leaders of the most powerful nations on earth. How history continues to illuminate him. Fela is even more alive today.
Fela will loom large, always, in history while those whose life ambition is mere selfish lust for naked political power will be no more than foot notes if at all remembered and not dismissed as best forgotten pestilences long after they pass on. History never fails to pass on lessons of life. It is not about selfish grab of power and wealth but selfless service to humanity.
Here, now read the Lakemfa excerpt. Enjoy:
” Fela, in death, is remembered and honoured with a visit to his Afrika Shrine by a sitting French president, in contrast, Babangida who went to France on a state visit, is alive, is not visited, and has paled into insignificance even in Nigeria.
” While Babangida was very rich, controlled the Armed Forces and built mansions, including the hill top he lives in, Fela was not and could not afford to build a single mansion. In fact, the new Afrika Shrine was built after his death.
“It is a lesson about genuine sacrifice and the need to build a worthy legacy. To serve humanity, is never to die. Fela lives on!”
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