It is very hard to feel Nigerian and to like being Nigerian. Roads are bad, power is nonexistent and our leaders are hopelessly corrupt. Usually, only our national football teams unite us.
That is until when someone from another country attacks. And it doesn’t even have to be a military incursion or terrorist attack to get us all riled up. Just any mention that one of our national pastimes might not be as original as we always thought makes us lose all our home training.
In case you have been living under a rock and you don’t yet know what this its about, late last night, Headies Next Rated artiste, Mr Eazi tweeted something to the effect that Ghanaian music has influenced Nigerian music.
In his exact words, ‘Ghana’s influence on present day ‘Naija Sound’ cannot be over emphasized!!!’
Ghana’s influence on present day “Naija Sound” cannot be over emphasized!!!
— Accra2Lagos 11th feb (@mreazi) January 11, 2017
My main issue with what he tweeted is the extra exclamation marks and refusal to stick to sentence case throughout the tweet. But apart from that I think he is pretty spot on.
Not surprising however is the furore that has risen up over Tosin Ajibade’s statement, for that is his government name. The outcry, as vociferous as it has been harks at something else. That maybe this is not about music influences and whatnot.
Because if you know anything about music or any art, you would realize that it is usually immune to geographical borders and nationality. Influences can flow back and forth before art in its true form is realized
So it would be very foolish of a group of people to want to profess sole ownership or an idea or art form. Even if they are Nigerians.
It would be foolhardy of me or anyone to even try to explain how truly Nigerian music over the past year has been truly influenced by Ghanaian music because this is all not about that.
READ: Who else thinks Mr Eazi is overrated?
It is about the puerile rivalry we seem to have had with our Ghanaian brothers, which seems to have intensified over the past few years, propagated by social media. When we are not arguing over whose jollof rice is better, we are arguing over whose ladies have the biggest butts.
It was fun when the rivalry was all about football and which country was more advanced; maybe not so fun in ’80s, when the Ghanaians were made to go. But it’s no longer fun.
One might even think we are trying to deflect from the fact that our country needs a lot of help and so we are picking on the smaller cousin. Like a school-ground bully who struggles with maths during class but beats up his classmate for having the effrontery to do better than him.
That’s too bad for a country that still thinks its the giant of Africa.
We have a lot of work to do as a country, even in our entertainment industry to be wasting time arguing over who influenced who or who didn’t.
By the way, I think Ghanaian jollof rice is better. Come and beat me.
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