Wole Soyinka slams NBC for banning Eedris Abdulkareem’s song

Wole Soyinka slams NBC for banning Eedris Abdulkareem’s song

 Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka blasted the National
Broadcasting Commission for banning Eedris Abdulkareem’s song against President
Bola Tinubu’s government.

 

Soyinka describes the development as a return to the culture
of censorship and a threat to the right to free expression.

 

In a statement released on Sunday, the literati highlighted
past attempts to stifle artistic and socio-political commentary in Nigeria.

 

“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,” Soyinka said in the piece
posted on PM news.

 

With a touch of irony, Soyinka suggested that the ban did
not go far enough. He remarked, “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.”

 

Soyinka said even though he hadn’t listened to the song, he
emphasised that the issue transcends content and concerns a fundamental
democratic principle.

 

“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.

 

He also pointed out the irony that censorship often benefits
the targeted artist, noting that “Abdulkareem must be currently warbling his
merry way all the way to the bank.”

 

He maintained that such censorship is counterproductive and
dangerous to democratic development.

 

“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,” the literary icon said.

Source: Wole Soyinka slams NBC for banning Eedris Abdulkareem’s song

 - NigerianEye
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