Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has condemned the Federal Government’s decision to ban a song by Nigerian musician Eedris Abdulkareem, describing it as an act of “petulant irrationality” and a dangerous return to censorship.Nigerian political art prints

In a statement issued from New York University, Abu Dhabi, on Sunday, Soyinka warned that the move poses a serious threat to freedom of expression and mirrors Nigeria’s authoritarian past where dissenting artistic voices were routinely suppressed.

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,” Soyinka said in the piece.

With biting sarcasm, the literary icon mocked the ban, suggesting it didn’t go far enough.

“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 wrote.

Though he admitted not having listened to the song, Soyinka insisted that the issue at hand transcends the lyrics and touches on a more critical democratic principle — the right to free expression.

His words: “It cannot be flouted. That, surely, is basic. This is why I feel that we should look on the bright side of any picture and thus recommend the Aleshinloye cartoon – and others in allied vein – as an easy-to-apprehend, easy-to-digest summation of the wisdom of attempting to stifle unpalatable works of art or socio-political commentary.”

Soyinka also noted the irony of censorship, stating 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 stated that any government that censors dissenting voices while encouraging only praise singers is on a “downhill slide into the abyss.”