"This is Nigeria... Where that Madam Philomena?"

Let me take you on an adventure. No, this time it is not a boring story of a dog eating your homework. It's more gruesome: 36 million naira is missing in an education board office and cashier Philomena Chieshe reports that the vanished amount (2,000 times the nation's monthly minimum wage) was eaten by a snake. Now that should be a comedy story synopsis, right? Wrong!

Imagine a nation where you can get arrested and punished by an extra-judicial police system for carrying an Afro hair or adorning a tattoo. For real.

How about a place whose majority population are living below the poverty line, yet its political class are the best paid compared to others anywhere in the world?

No this is not fiction. This is Nigeria! Look at my nation o!

Falz recently released his mirror of Childish Gambino's "This is America."

Unlike "This is Canada" As should be, This is Nigeria is charged with very loud messages on socio-political issues, albeit disturbing. Issues that will tower up if you only stayed in Nigeria for a few days.

Because I am so excited about this music release, I decided to share it, with a few original thoughts of mine, about the artist and the music.

Some Background on Falz

Not many will disagree that Falz is an exceptional talent and more or less floats his head above an industry that has been widely criticized for failing to take on serious issues of society with its music.

For Falz, some credit his social consciousness to the fact that Folarin Falana a.k.a. Falz is son to renowned activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana. I personally can't help imagining a childhood reading two issues of Newswatch as punishment for failing to do his laundry. As Oby Ezekwesili rightly observed on her Twitter, "This apple definitely did not fall far from the tree."

Falz's main selling point would be the humor he approaches his art with. And he brings the full package to This is Nigeria. The music is awash with punchlines that will linger on the language streets of Nigeria. An example is "Police station dey close by 6: security reasons o" that has already gotten fair attention from Twitter Nigeria.

The Issues

"This is Nigeria. Everybody be criminal."

The groundwork is laid in the opening of the music video as Falz is introduced listening into a vintage radio while a narrator criticizes the medical facilities in Nigeria as "extremely poor." Another commentator immediately takes on the "predatory" neo-colonial capitalist system that succeeded colonialism in all of Africa in the 50's. A system he rightly claims was "founded on fraud and exploitation, and therefore... bound to have corruption institutionalized."

At this point of the video there is a mild introduction of chaos, but mostly there is order. Two youths are exchanging punches. The okada rider is on his hustle. The Fulani man is playing his traditional mandolin, in a seemingly joyous mood. I guess this is Falz trying to incorporate Childish's portrayal of society as the train that rides on irrespective of who and what falls off of it, or jumps on it. Life always goes on... usually to our chagrin.

In Gambino's, shit got real when he pulled the trigger on the hooded black guitarist. In Falz's the voice of the radio narrator saying "many criminal cases are settled in police stations" seems to get things started for the once cheerful Fulani youth. That voice was recreated to sound like that of immediate past president Goodluck Jonathan. This could be me reading extra meanings, or there is actually a message there that highlights the perceived low love of the northern people to the past administrator. From that point the irate Fulani moves to his kneeling victim (with head hooded in a black sack bag that has become symbolic to Nigeria's commerce) and raises his machete against his neck to murder him execution style.

That scene set in motion a lot of reference to the rampant raiding of farming communities by Fulani herdsmen, usually brutally massacring dozens of indigenous people at a time, as they seek to conquer open grazing lands for their cows. According to a report from the Coalition on Conflict Resolution and Human Rights in Nigeria, the death tally was at over 2,000 between January to April of 2018 alone. These are disturbing numbers, and made worse by the fact that the country is presently ruled by a Fulani man whom many have accused of protecting his kinsmen, and thereby condoning the inhumane activities.

"Polititcian wey thief some billion and billion e no dey go prison o"

It is refreshing to hear Falz boldly use the term "Fulani herdsmen" throughout the song even when the Presidency and mainstream media (especially pro-government ones) had since refrained from calling these people "Fulani" that they are, and rather resorting to escapist euphemisms like "bandits" in referring to these murderers with ethnic prejudices.

A few months ago Falz got in the spotlight for being among the very very few celebrities to speak up against the internet fraud industry known back home as "Yahoo yahoo." In "This is Nigeria" he did not hiccup in speaking against it again, among other societal vices. From calling out "looters, killers and stealers" who keep contesting elections, to criticizing dubious pastors who exploit women sexually, and others for money while promising miracles and wonders; Falz embodies the typical wailer against a very corrupt system called Nigeria.

"Pastor puts his hands on the breast of his member, he's pulling the demon out."

Falz's approach is the case of warning off the hawk and advising the chick. While most of Nigeria's problems can be blamed on the elite leadership, there is work cut out for everyone else. Falz's video may troll the half illiterate Police Inspector General or a stupid president demarketing his own country, but it also criticizes the lack of ingenuity among youths who spend too much time debating choices of Wizkid vs Davido, or Messi vs Ronaldo. Falz addresses drug abuse and general restiveness.

"Person wey no get work is checking to see if my watch is original."

Falz's record and video got a lot of people uneasy. But for the right reasons, I would say. The massacres need to stop. The yahoo yahoo too needs to go. SARS should stop harassing people on the road. We need intelligent and morally right leaders. Religion should build us rather than exploit and divide us. We need functional institutions. Then we will collectively revisit what we call Nigeria. But right now... THIS IS NIGERIA! And "there's plenty wahala sha."

Falz's video promotes the shaku shaku dance that won't stop thrilling us anytime soon. The general choreography is awesome too. Director Prodigeezy did an awesome job recreating the warehouse stage that Gambino employed. Brilliant use of space there. The color grading is unique in its own way and yet paid tribute to the original inspiration.

image credit

An Extra Thought: Fela Kuti Reference

Gambino wore a trouser that many have pointed out is a replica of the confederate army uniform in America. Falz too isn't clad in more than just a pair of trousers, but he chose one that is sewn with Ankara material that has been Africa's biggest export to the world of fashion. More importantly, Ankara trouser on a bare upper body is to Fela what a stickman drawing is to the entire mankind: the easiest way to portray the other. This may be Falz paying tribute to the King of Afrobeat whose politically charged music was a thorn in the flesh of the military dictators of the 80's and early 90's. This thinking is reinforced by Falz striking a Fela power pose at the end of the video. Both from the same tribe; the issues of 1988 plaguing us still in 2018; both artistes committed to speaking up; it is easy to see the lines blur between these two representatives of their people.

I hope you enjoyed the short review. Join the conversation. Please watch the Youtube video if you haven't upto now. Thank me later :)

Fellow Nigerians, drop your thoughts on the issues addressed by the music, or your thoughts on the music, using the tag #thisisnigeria. I would check often and would give away a few STEEM to deserving ones.