Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has condemned the recent ban on a song by Nigerian musician Eedris Abdulkareem, describing it as a dangerous return to censorship and a direct threat to freedom of expression.
In a statement issued from New York University, Abu Dhabi, Soyinka likened the development to past attempts to suppress artistic and political voices in Nigeria. “Courtesy of an artist operating in a different genre – the cartoon – who sent me his recent graphic comment on the event, I learnt recently of a return to the culture of censorship with the banning of the product of a music artist, Eedris Abdulkareem,” he wrote.
Soyinka, with a note of irony, suggested that the action might as well go further. “It is not only the allegedly offensive record that should be banned – the musician himself should be proscribed. Next, PMAN, or whatever musical association of which Abdulkareem is member, should also go under the hammer,” he said sarcastically.
Although he admitted not having listened to the song, Soyinka stressed that the core issue was not the content but the democratic principle at stake. “It cannot be flouted. That, surely, is basic,” he said, while recommending the work of cartoonists as a digestible critique of the absurdity of censorship.
He highlighted the irony that such bans often serve as free publicity. “The ban is a boost to the artist’s nest egg, thanks to free governmental promotion. Mr. Abdulkareem must be currently warbling his merry way all the way to the bank. I envy him,” he quipped.
Soyinka warned that censorship only emboldens authoritarian tendencies. “It is boring, time-wasting, diversionary but most essential of all, subversive of all seizures of the fundamental right of free expression,” he stated, adding that such acts foster a “permissive atmosphere of trickle-down power,” where state authorities feel justified in silencing dissent.
The Nobel laureate also touched on broader national issues, particularly the lynching of 19 youths in Edo State and the lingering culture of impunity. He recalled the 2022 murder of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto, lamenting how identified killers were celebrated on social media in the presence of security forces.
“My heart goes out to friends, colleagues and families of victims and traumatised survivors of this senseless slaughter. Our thirst for justice must remain unslaked,” he said.
Soyinka concluded by urging the relevant regulatory authority to reverse what he described as “petulant irrationality,” warning that any government that silences critics while celebrating praise-singers is “already on a downhill slide into the abyss.”
