Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has condemned NBC’s ban of Eedris Abdulkareem’s song ‘Tell Your Papa’, calling it a return to the culture of censorship and a threat to freedom of expression.
Mr Soyinka, in a statement on Sunday, said he “learnt recently of a return to the culture of censorship with the banning of the product of a music artist, Eedris Abdulkareem.”
“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,” said the playwright ironically.
According to Mr Soyinka, the issue transcends content and concerns a fundamental democratic principle.
The song called out President Bola Tinubu for misgovernance while highlighting the country’s economic, social and security issues.
The song was released on April 6 after the president’s son, Seyi Tinubu, called his father “the greatest president in the history of Nigeria.”
On April 9, NBC banned the song, citing a violation of section 3.1.8 of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
Mr Soyinka warned 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,” said Mr Soyinka. “It is boring, time-wasting, diversionary, but most essential of all, subversive of all seizures of the fundamental right of free expression.”
