I belong to the school of thought which holds that art should not be for art’s sake.
Professionals deploying their talents for information, education and excitement of society must use such talents to rescue society from where it is trapped. That was why the bulk of Nigeria’s nationalists struggling against the evil of colonialism – Obafemi Awolowo, S. L. Akintola, Hezekiah Oladipo Davies and many more – many of whom were lawyers, put their wigs and gowns aside and picked their pen. The pen was an effective weapon, a sword if you like, with which colonialists were told that they could not take the African society for granted.
When Ibadan-based broadcaster, Bayo Faleke, premiered a video entitled Epistle to Baba Mai Gaskiya last week, he got my kudos. It is a hugely trending video right now on Twitter. It is also receiving rave review on Faleke’s TV Africana YouTube channel.
Epistle to Baba Mai Gaskiya is an odyssey of a Comrade General, one of the voices of reason in Banana village, who pens an epistle to Baba Mai Gaskiya, the Number One citizen of that village. It is an unflattering satire of how a man who came to the helms of affairs with high hopes and acclaim as a forthright man is presiding over one of the most rapacious corruption in history.
This was not Faleke’s first attempt at going beyond the frontiers of his talent to awakening the people of the slide in their affairs. One of the most respected voices on radio in that part of the country, he had earlier released such works as Banana Republic and National Cake. His perfect delivery in Yoruba language on radio throws any man of culture and language into the nostalgia of how much of that language the current generation has lost.
Thumbs up, Bayo Faleke.
