Falz, a Nigerian human rights activist and rapper, has discussed why he uses his music to criticize the excesses of the government. He recently released a song named “Yakubu” in which he criticizes INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yabuku. Yakubu was the presiding chairman for the just concluded Nigerian presidential elections. The rapper is a well-known artist for using his music and platform to promote social justice causes.
Vector and Falz claim in the song that violence, manipulation, and electoral fraud tainted the recently-concluded elections. Speaking on the song in an interview with Arise TV, Falz, who joined the program via Skype from the United Kingdom and spoke about the song, said that he was not travelling because he was concerned about being confronted by state actors over the contentious song.
In his words,
“I knew that was going to come up when you announced that I was doing this from London. As I said earlier on, this is not the first time, this is not the second time, and this is not the third time. “I have released tons of records that are very confrontational. And I was on the ground. I’m always on the ground when I released these records.
“It is not to say that I’m running anywhere. Absolutely not. Everyone knows where to find me. If anyone wants to find me. But I have no reason to fear anything. And I always say this when people ask me ‘How do you do these things without any fear of consequences?’ “And this is the same answer that I always give: the kind of life we are living already is one which we are more or less fading away already. It’s not a meaningful life what we have in Nigeria as a country.”
He said,
“I’d rather die from a broken system than stay mute and die for an unjust cause.”
“What’s the worst that could happen? It’s death. I don’t fear death. I would rather go down fighting for a just cause.
I would rather be remembered as someone that lived a life that was meaningful rather than someone that for example was walking down the road and got run over by a danfo [bus] because he was driving recklessly. Or, someone that got a heart disease and could not save himself because there are no hospitals capable of saving him in Nigeria,” Falz added.
