Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has frowned on the latest ban announced by the National Broadcasting Service (NBC) on Eedris Abdulkareem’s song, ‘Tell Your Papa.’
In an April 13, 2025, press release, Soyinka called the action a return to Nigerian censorship and said that these days, violations of fundamental rights are not a private matter but rather garner international attention.
According to him, the song’s popularity only increases as a result of the ban.
“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 stated.
“Any government that is tolerant only of yes-men and women, which accommodates only praise-singers and dancers to the official beat, has already commenced a downhill slide into the abyss. Whatever regulating body is responsible for this petulant irrationality should be compelled to reverse its misstep.”
Soyinka denounced the culture of impunity that frequently follows similar mob killings in Nigeria in response to the murder of 19 youths in Edo State.
“The horror is not in numbers but in the act itself. As long as the culture of impunity is given the sheerest strain of legitimacy in any given cause, such gruesome assaults on our common humanity will continue to prevail, and a reversion to brutish existence will become a nation’s stamp of identity.”
“The culprits are in plain sight and so are witnesses. There can be no excuses. 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.
