R.I.P PRINCE & PAPA WEMBA

I think myself an eclectic because I listen to and enjoy all kinds of music, many times without understanding what's been said or sung about. Sometimes I purposely don't rush to learn the lyrics of songs or rap music in English, because I fear I might lose interest in the song, especially when the song is still "pon da replay".


When I learnt about the death of "Prince" I wasn't devastated. I doubt I had heard any of his songs recently, but I felt bad that he had to go still so young with what many consider enough time to continue to churn out the kinda music that made him peculiar. Back in the day, Prince' music was thrown at me by the TV and radio without much I could have done about it. Eventually, his music grew on me as long as I saw or heard it before I began to have much of a choice about what I heard or saw, with my TV and Radio, and my remote control, and began to hear and see less and less of Prince, not because I didn't enjoy his music while it lasted, but because most of the time I was confused about him, what he tried to say, how he tried to say it, and how he expressed himself.

PRINCE WITH ONE OF HIS GUITARS

Much later, I guess on discovering he was black (after seeing him as white in our Black & White TV many time as a kid), and didn't look it, also began to affect how I felt about him, though Michael Jackson who was also black and looked whiter than Caucasians was never diminished before me. Also, it was such that each time I saw a Prince video, I was easily distracted by the shape of his guitar, or the feminine way he went about gesticulating while singing, as well as all of the lights, that before I had the chance to pick the lyrics the music was over. That honestly, was how it had been between me and Prince before I took control of TV and Radio, saw and heard less of him, except for a few times in recent years and then last week when he died.


It was different between me and Papa Wemba, who also came to my consciousness about the time Prince was riding the waves. In his case however, I continued to see and hear him after I had my remote control. It didn't matter that I understood no word he spoke in French or the local Congolese language he often used in his Makosa. Somehow I felt I got the message he was passing in his songs in that very peculiar soprano of his, even when I had no idea what he was singing about, like in my best of his, "YOLELE". It was a great relief for me when he did a collaboration with another artiste in English, unfortunately the song didn't resonate with me as did the ones in lingua I didn't understand.

PAPA WEMBA DURING A SONOROUS RENDITION

His death late last week didn't shock me, but I felt bad, just as with Prince'. Apparently, both of them left right in the middle of doing what they loved most. Prince found dead at an elevator, days just right after a tour promoting his latest work, and Papa Wemba after he collapsed while performing at a show in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan. Both weren't retired from their careers when the grim reaper visited, rather they left while in very active service, associated with what both have always been known with and for. I definitely may not miss them as much as those close to them, but having played some roles in my formative years musically, I will notice their absence, especially their peculiarity, especially in an age where almost every singer sounds the same, killing the very essence of music.


May the souls of Prince, and Papa Wemba Rest In Peace, and their works Live Forever!


'kovich


PICTURE CREDITS:
- http://www.laineygossip.com
- http://www.thecitizen.co.tz

FULANI HERDSMEN AND THE SACRED COWS

President Muhammadu Buhari's media aide Femi Adeshina is once again defending the indefensible. What has become very obvious despite several attempts at masking it is that the President cannot help being less sectional in his utterances and dealings with Nigerians. You can see it in the way he has rushed to warn pipeline vandals (as with Niger Delta militants and pro-Biafra groups) to stop their activities or else he'll deal with them like he's done with Boko Haram, yet no such statement issued against Fulani herdsmen, who are his kinsmen.


The most he's done, according toMr.  Femi is release a statement or something of the like regarding what happened in Agatu, in Benue State, which isn't even a warning to the marauding Fulani, who carried out something akin to genocide there, and even in Taraba, amongst other communities in Nigeria where the murderous activities of the group (known to be the fourth most dangerous militia in the world) have continued unabated with impunity, with no single herdsman punished even when there are people that can be held for been privy to such activities, if not active participants.


Now a bill to set up a grazing commission is before the National Assembly, at a time the presidency has promised to bring an end to constant clashes between (Fulani) herdsmen and farmers across the country, which in itself is a farce considering that most times the casualty levels (which is more on the side of the farmers and inhabitants of the host communities, than the herdsmen, who many times record no casualties) is disproportionate, unlike what you will find in a true clash between two groups like that between Hausas and Yorubas in the Mile 12 area of Lagos recently.

 FULANI HERDSMEN WERE KNOWN TO BE ARMED IN THE PAST WITH BOW AND ARROWS TILL RECENTLY WHEN THEY STARTED STARTED MOVING AROUND WITH AK-47'S

If it is this controversial bill before the National Assembly, which will empower a commission to takeover just about any land, anywhere in Nigeria for grazing purposes in contradiction to the dictates of the Land Use Act, as well as extant laws of the different states, and traditional means of land ownership in the different areas, is what the federal government is looking at as the possible solution to the massacring of innocent Nigerians who couldn't stand aside to allow their lands to be ravaged by cattle led by armed Fulani herdsmen, then even that is dead on arrival owing to the opposition that is currently mounting against the bill within and without the National Assembly.


While I would also love for a solution to be found to the growing menace these herdsmen pose to Nigeria's sovereignty, it is pertinent that justice and rehabilitation be accorded the victims and survivors of Fulani herdsmen attacks, as there can be no peace without justice. The body language of President Buhari seem averse to this, as well as that of the security agencies which over time have not only watched helplessly as these herdsmen wreaked havoc on the localities they fell on, but even said to overtly provided logistics to the marauders, and as if to rub salt on injury as with the case in Enugu, arrested farmers while protesting the wanton destruction of their means of livelihood by the Fulani herdsmen, not to talk of the recent statement credited to the DSS in regard of the discovery of shallow graves in a forest in Imo State of five Hausa-Fulanis who were allegedly killed by pro-Biafra activists, when that agency had never spoken up about Fulani killings.


The killings, if true of the Fulani by so called elements of pro-Biafra groups (or any other group for that matter) is wrong, so also is the statement by the DSS that is capable of aggravating the tension in the polity, especially after keeping mute on Fulani herdsmen atrocities for eons on end, which only feeds into the conspiracy theory of an agenda by the Fulani to expand their territory even to the Atlantic, and have seen no better opportunity than now that one of their own is in power, as well as having the instruments of coercion also either in their hands or those of loyal stooges. Therefore, it behooves on government to act in a way to allay these concerns speedily before aggrieved groups organize themselves in a way to prove to all that no particular group in Nigeria has the monopoly of resorting to violence to settle grievances, by exploring solutions that will not leave any side disadvantaged, or else whatever peace that will come out of the so called solution will be short-lived.


'kovich


READ ALSO: FULANI HERDSMEN: RANCHING OR NOMADISM, PEACE OR WAR | https://madukovich.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/fulani-herdsmen-ranching-or-nomadism-peace-or-war/


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.nigeriannewsdirect.com