Fela Was Counted An Enemy Of The Government---Baba Ani

Baba Ani was one of those who stayed close to the king of afro music, Fela. After many years, he is talking about how strong-willed Fela was and how some friends abandoned him when they couldn’t cope with him.

Baba Ani talked about advising him “Oh yes! In fact, I in particular, tried to advise him so many times. I would always discuss with him. But you see, when somebody is on earth for a mission, there is nothing you would say to divert his attention from that mission. To me, Fela was sent here to do certain things and he did all he could before he left the world. Friends advised him and they also deserted him when they couldn’t cope with him.”

He was so pained when the government invaded Fela’s home “God! I felt very bad. I was very angry. I never thought that a good government would have gone to that extent of doing such to a fellow citizen even with all the civilisation and independence the country had got then. Although Fela was counted an enemy of the government, to us and the masses and even people outside the country, he was an eye-opener. He was a revolutionary. He was just doing a job to open the eyes and minds of the people to watch what was happening around us so we could be up and doing and do something to better our lot. I felt very bad about it but there was nothing I could do. Who I be?”

He revealed “When you see somebody created to do things others cannot do, it is usually difficult to convince such a person when he/she takes a stand. When you know the man you are dealing with, you don’t even bother to appeal to him.

Whatever financial benefit he could have got from the event did not appeal to him. Since we had stayed together for a long time, there was no way part of his traits and way of life and ideology would not rub off on us. We also shunned the rosy life. And actually, if you want to be on the side of the people, you cannot expect to live a rosy life. This is the only house I have got. If we had followed the government and collecting contracts from the government, I probably would have owned more than 10 houses. You would have found so many cars in my compound. We shunned such luxury because we wanted to be on the side of the people and damn the consequences of doing that.”

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