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FELA KUTI WAS VISIONARY, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND A PATRIOT

Honestly, I am barely a Fela fan but the events of these few months
make his thoughts unforgettable. On Friday last week after work, I
circled with my friend around the city of Owerri and was got by rain
around World Bank junction, suddenly we realized that the roads were
impassable, my friend turned back and parked the car. Because it was
getting late I was forced to walk or better still swim across the
flood that completely kept motorist to a standstill, as I was moving
along the road, a lot of persons were also trying to navigate through the flooded road, many were laughing, some were chanting “change”, “Sai Buhari”, “my people my people” and as they were doing this, I remembered Fela’s ideologies. When I got back home, I also found out that my family could not make it home due to the condition of the
road, again there was no power supply as usual, it was then I put on my laptop and started listening to Fela’s music and it sounded as if the man was still alive.

The Bible said that God will use the foolish things of this world to
conform the wise (forgive me if you think I quoted out of context).
Perhaps because of his lifestyle, so many persons think that Fela was
foolish, immoral or perhaps crazy but I have come to know that wisdom
is most times clothed in foolishness.  In one of his series Fela said
that Nigerians smile in the state of hardship and nobody would want to
rise to challenge bad leadership because of the fear of the unknown.
Fela was a visionary because he saw the events of today and was crying
for justice in his own style but because of our conservative nature we
were not able to see what he saw. He was a philosopher too because his
ideas depicted wisdom. He was able to stimulate the intellect of the
people who kept wondering at his audacity. He was one of the people
who accept as true, that fools die so many times before their actual
death but courageous people die only but once. 

He may not have been giving a Nigeria National Award but Fela was one
of Nigerians greatest Nationalist whose ideas did not divide but
united majority of Nigerians. Even though Obasanjo was his kinsman
Fela did not look at him that way but was very hard on him too. Fela
understood that governance is a social contract between the government
and the governed and that the later can repudiate the contract when
the former fails to abide by the terms of the contract.
I think it is long time intellectuals gather together to document
Fela’s ideologies for proper study and analysis, perhaps we may learn
from them and see if we can move forward.
In China today, the ideologies of Confucius is still been studied even though he lived
several centuries ago, in fact you cannot graduate from any University
in China without coming across the ideas of Confucius, I also think we
can replicate such  here. All Fela wanted and fought, was for a better
society in which everyone can at least live a decent life; we can take
his message and jettison his lifestyle.
UWAKWE ROLAND C.
PHOTO CREDIT:INTERNET

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