Why I Moved The Motion For Fela’s Immortalisation —Lawmaker

A lawmaker representing Epe Constituency 2 at the Lagos House of Assembly, Olusegun Olulade, has explained that he moved for the late Afro-beat maestro, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, to be immortalised by both the federal and state governments because he realised that the late musician has become a source of history.

His motion has enjoyed a favourable place among his colleagues when he raised it at the floor of the House few weeks ago.

According to Olulade, the late Fela endured pains just to ensure he liberated the citizens of the country in his own way. Even though those in authority saw him as a stumbling block to their bad governance.

“Having considered Fela’s contributions politically, socially, philosophically and in all aspects of the society that he touched, I could not help but move the motion for him to be immortalised.

“He has touched so many lives through his music; he has been able to showcase a lot of things that we have in Africa; he is an icon of the afro beat music industry. He released so many albums to sharpen our reasoning in terms of several social, religious and moral issues; he touched nearly every aspect of life.

“Through music, he has been able to reach out to so many people in fighting the injustice that we find in our land and Africa, the military incursion into politics, anti-corruption crusade that he stood for and all sorts of issues,” Olulade explained.

Olulade, who said the late Fela is celebrated worldwide as a result of his contribution to humanity, added that “he faced a lot of intimidation, victimisation and brutalisation, yet he was committed to champion the cause of the masses, and I feel such a man cannot just go like that without being immortalised.

“That is not all, he also exported the culture of the black man abroad, and he was an ambassador of the black man abroad.

“Even in death, Fela still lives in the lives of people. The Afro beat he originated is still very much alive and whenever his music is being played, you want to listen to his lyrics; those messages that he passed across about two decades ago are still very relevant today.

“If you look at his ambassadorial role in propagating the culture, beauty of Africa in his music, showcasing what Africa is and should look like, we need to celebrate him better than we celebrate other musicians in the world.

“We are all shouting about corruption today, Fela started the crusade even before some of our social critics. He has touched every aspect of the nation’s life, government, family, community, religious bodies, private sector, corruption and so on.

“He had his own shortcomings, no doubt, but he has done a lot in contributing to the development of Nigeria through his music and we need to do something about him,” the lawmaker insisted.

The lawmaker challenged Nigerians and upcoming artistes to know why they are in the entertainment sector as this is the best time to do things that would make them celebrated when their time is ripe.

He said Fela’s death on 3 August, 1997 affected music globally just like the death of reggae musician, Bob Marley.