Suck it up abeg
Wole Soyinka drags Tinubu over song ban
Good morning, Big Brains. Today’s edition of the newsletter is all sorts of annoying, but I'm choosing to ignore it because it’s not me that Nigeria will wear out.
This week’s Big Question: “24 hours in Tinubu’s seat; who are you sacking?” Share your responses with us, and if we think they’re fun enough, we’ll feature them in the
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-Margaret
Let’s get into the news you missed during the weekend:
Wole Soyinka drags Tinubu over song ban
SERAP is fighting the National Assembly for your rights
The Big Deal
Wole Soyinka drags Tinubu over song ban
Wole Soyinka has just told your fave in the most impeccable English, to suck it up, and it all goes back to the ban of Idris Abdulkareem’s new song. So, you remember how we told Seyi Tinubu to calm down after he went on a rant saying the man was the best thing since sliced bread? Abdulkareem took the “your daddy ain’t shit” gospel even further by putting it in a song titled ‘Tell Your Papa.’ In the song, he tells Seyi Tinubu, who you know by now to be his daddy’s biggest cheerleader, to relay the pains of Nigerians to him.
Abdulkareem did not just drop a generic “we are suffering line,” he legit listed the specific sheges that Nigerians are currently passing through, with things like electricity tariff, fuel subsidy removal, and inflation, making the list.
The song must have made somebody big mad (we’re not saying who) because on Thursday, April 9, barely four days after its release, the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), released a memo saying it was banning the song because of its “objectionable nature.”
Reacting to news of the ban on Sunday, April 13, Wole Soyinka took time out of his busy schedule at the New York University, Abu Dhabi, on Sunday to write a statement that basically told the Tinubu administration to stop moving like a dictatorship. Apart from the autocratic nature of the ban, Soyinka took a tiny jab at the government, saying it shot itself in the foot. In his words: “Mr Abdulkareem must be currently warbling his merry way all the way to the bank. I envy him.”
Why is this a big deal?
Let’s start with the fact that Idris Abdulkareem’s song is not personal at all. He has done this before with his song ‘Nigeria Jaga Jaga,’ which criticised the Obasanjo administration.
Let’s also point out that he said nothing wrong in that song. Nigerians really are suffering, and there’s no dainty way to put it. The cost of living keeps skyrocketing, and this can be traced back to Tinubu’s not-so-iconic fuel subsidy removal announcement on his very first day in office. There are other things, like the devaluation of the Naira, too, but who’s counting?
Under this government, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which are super important to the Nigerian economy, have been falling faster than a deck of cards. The hardship in the country is glaring for all to see, but apparently, we’re not supposed to talk about it.
It’s actually insane that this government is this obsessed with shutting down criticism because Tinubu was heavily critical of other governments, too. It’s also scary that this intolerance to criticism is no longer subtle or rare; it’s full-blown in our faces and happening more frequently than it should. Just a few weeks ago, a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Raye, was threatened and hounded for calling out the government over hardship. Before her, there was also Olamide Thomas, who was tracked for weeks and arrested for insulting President Tinubu, his children, the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and Force Public Relations Officer Muyiwa Adejobi. There’s also Tiktoker, Sea King’s arrest over the same matter, but again, who’s counting?
It’s also not just about this song— it’s about the confidence with which this government moves like the rule of law and tolerance is a suggestion rather than a necessity for democracy. We saw it a few weeks ago with the declaration of the State Of Emergency rule in Rivers State and we’re seeing it again with this song ban which contradicts freedom of speech as enshrined in Nigeria’s constitution.
SERAP is fighting the National Assembly for your rights
While you probably partied hard over the weekend, The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) warned the National Assembly not to tamper with your rights through a very sus bill that it’s looking to pass.
The bill, titled “A Bill for an Act to Amend the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, to Mandate the Establishment of Physical Offices within the Territorial Boundaries of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by Social Media Platforms and for Related Matters” is looking to regulate bloggers by making it compulsory for them to have registered local offices and join recognised national association for bloggers
This bill, according to SERAP, “would also be used to ban major social media platforms—including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok, and independent bloggers if they ‘continuously fail to establish/register and maintain physical offices in Nigeria for a period of 30 days”
Why is this bad?
At this point, we’re beginning to sound like a broken record so we’ll just go ahead and reechoe SERAP’s thoughts here. Firstly, if passed, this bill, like a handful of others before it, will serve as the perfect avenue to clamp down hard on criticism or opposing voices, abuse Nigerian’s rights to free speech, and so much more.
It’s not just bloggers who would be affected. SERAP also pointed out that “The bill would pose major barriers and threats to any individuals, especially journalists, human rights defenders and civil society organisations who may be critical of the government.”
This bill, by its very nature, does not respect the rights to freedom of expression and it is insane that it was even drafted in the first place.
Unsurprisingly, the bill has passed its first and second readings in the Senate, and we should all be worried like mad. Talk about this on social media, and tag all the lawmakers if you have to; these people might be using us to play a dangerous game.
The Big Picks
Nigerian Senate speaks on disbarment of its ethics committee chair from practising law in US: The Nigerian Senate has finally broken its silence on the disbarment of Neda Imasuen from practising law in the US.
China’s exports surge by 12.4% amid tariff tensions with US: China said Monday that exports soared more than 12 percent last month, beating expectations as businesses rushed to prepare for the swinging tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on his so-called “Liberation Day.”
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