Femi Kuti Speaks On His Journey Through Life 

 Femi Anikulapo- Kuti, the Afrobeat king, opened the door of his Afrika Shrine office during this interview. He spoke about his coming album, ‘Journey Through Life’, and the happenings in Nigerian political space. Below is the excerpt of the interview with CHARLES OKOGENE 

 You recently came back from a tour of some UK cities, how was the reception? 

It was very nice. 

By April you will be dropping your next album. I will not call it the latest album because I have lost track of the number… 

(Cuts in) 12. April 25. 

‘Journey Through Life,’ according to you, is a summary of what has been happening in the country since politicians took over from the military in 1999; why has it taken you such a long time to do so, especially after Sorry, Sorry? 

It is not a long time; you need to see what I have done after. Sorry, Sorry. I have released an album, ‘Legacy,’ that got a Grammy nomination with my son, Made. After ‘Sorry, Sorry’ (2000) was ‘Fight to Win’ (2004), ‘Sotean’, ‘Day by Day,’ ‘Africa for Africa’ and so on. In Sorry, Sorry, when I was saying that soldiers and politicians are the same, people abused me. 

I have watched the political process that led to the 1999 elections, it was obvious that the politicians and soldiers were the same gang members. They brought Olusegun Obasanjo back to power and then many of the soldiers took off their uniforms to join the democratic process and we saw nothing wrong about that. Why did the civilians not say no? We want a real political process. 

Do not forget that in one of my songs, I reminded us that politicians gave us the constitution and they want to come and operate it. Even when some of the civilians got into power, what were they fighting for? Salary, car allowance, newspaper allowance and so on. Is that what we voted them into power for? 

Did they fight to improve our electricity supply? Did they rehabilitate the roads? Did they sort out the rot in our educational system? Did they sort out our farming and food security? Tell me one thing they sorted out. So I have given them enough time. Do not forget, you are one of the journalists, I played this song at Big Brother Africa in South Africa, in 2000.Nigerians abused the hell out of me, and that I do not want progress for my people and country. 24 years after now, no? Was I right or wrong? Again, I must emphasise how I want Nigeria to be bad. If Nigeria is bad, will I not suffer too? Will my children not suffer? When I am speaking like this, it is not like I want the country to be bad, no. I want it to be better and hopefully, the people that are there should change, listen and do things better. 

How can somebody who served in government for four/eight years get a life pension, and the one who served 35 years gets nothing? Is that okay? Those that served this country for 40/50th years are yet to get their pension. When soldiers die on the war front, they struggle to get the departed ones benefit and they cannot complain when they do not get enough. 

There is no sector in this country that we can say is better. If these politicians were serious, they would have had enough time to put us on the path for an easy life. Somebody like me, I am 62, if anybody has anything good for our age group, he/she first tells us sorry because they have ruined our lives. 

In my area we are supposed to be in Band A. They say we are to get 20 hours electricity but we don’t have electricity. They bring up all these laws, Band A, B, C… what is all these? Give us electricity. They categorise the distribution of electricity and yet we do not have it. I was at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital the other day; patients, doctors were complaining that there is no electricity. 

It is so bad that people were bringing their own generators to light up the place. Haba! Charles, in 2025! What have we not said? What have we not sung about? 

Unfortunately, I am not like the person that wants to run away from the challenges we are facing, I want to be part of the solution. It is not for nothing that I sang Africa for Africa. I do not want Africa to be a poor continent or Nigeria a poor country. No, I will stay here and defend what I say or sing. 

Donald Trump is American first, so Africa or Nigeria should not want Nigeria first? What’s wrong with you? Charles, if we had built a railway line that will take us to Johannesburg but not those jagajigaja Second World War train o. I mean those fast trains we saw in Europe. Was it not what Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was talking about? Was it not why they killed Sankara? Anybody that wants something good for Africa is eliminated. You can even travel from Lagos to Cotonou; one day I said let me go to Cotonou by road. 

The checkpoints are uncomfortable. Police, Customs, Army, Immigration, NDLEA, and so on. There is a checkpoint at every kilometer. That is how you see them till you get to Cotonou and the same on your way back. You have been to Europe with us before. Is that how you see them on your way? We just make life unnecessarily difficult for our people. 

Okay, you now get to power no matter the political party you are in. Before we know it, you are now jumping from one political party to another like grasshoppers and frogs. Today this one is in PDP, tomorrow he is APC. It is where favours him. Not how to better the lots of the people he claims to represent. 

They do not have any commitment or ideology their parties stand for and if you criticise them, their supporters will come for you. I have not changed my views. You have known me all my life but I emphasis that I am not saying it because I want to be right in saying those things. I say it because it helps. I have been all over the world. I have been everywhere and I have seen how things run in other countries. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying those countries do not have their challenges, far from that, there is nobody or country in this world that does not have challenges but it is the duty of the government to make life less stressful for its citizens. 

To be continued…