The Federal Government has urged musicians in the country to join the national programme on citizens’ re-orientation in the country through the promotion of societal values in their music contents.
In a statement issued by Segun Adeyemi, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed made the appeal in Lagos where he delivered a keynote speech at the Business Roundtable of the 2016 African Music Awards (AFRIMA).
Mohammed, who spoke on the topic, “Championing Social Justice and Advocacy Through Music,” also applauded Nigerian musicians for putting the country’s name on the global map.
According to him, there is need for music producers to pay more attention to socially-relevant messages in their music.
The Minister described music as a powerful tool of communication, saying the federal government will leverage on the power of music to promote the National Re-orientation Campaign tagged “Change Begins With Me,” which was launched by President Muhammadu recently.
He said, “Because this campaign is about returning to those moral values that stood our country in good stead, a lot of that can be done through music. In order words, music is a powerful tool of advocacy. Good music has no tribe, no gender, no section, no religion.
“The whole country is listening, dancing and sending via all forms of social media, our music and videos, and our artists clearly have more influence and reach than our law enforcement agencies. As 9ice and 2 Baba boasted, they are the ones with Street Credibility!”
Muhammed however, explained that for music to achieve the desired objective, it must have the right content to drive home the message.
He noted that the works of foremost musicians in Africa, including Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Rex Lawson, Sonny Okosun, Victor Uwaifo, Dan Maraya Jos, Mamman Shatta, IK. Dairo and Ebenezer Obey continue to reverberate because of the message they contained.
He said the legendary musicians all used music to fight social injustice or for advocacy, listing many examples, including ”Unknown Soldier” by Fela; ”Fire in Soweto” by Okosun and ”Nigeria go survive” by Veno Marioghae.
