Popular Nigerian rapper and actor Folarin Falana, better known as Falz is an artiste with a mission. And he has over the years left no one in doubt about where his interests lie, what with his activism and socially relevant songs such as Johnny, Soldier, Confirm and This is Nigeria (a song that was banned by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation.
Falz, who has been an avid critic of the just concluded 2023 general elections recently released a single entitled “Yakubu”, featuring popular rapper Vector.
The song was released through Bad Guys Entertainment and Dvppper Music alongside an official video directed by both Falz and Oyetwopointo. The colourful video depicts the series of events that happened at the collation in a kaleidoscopic manner.
The song, which has gone viral and is generating discourse in social circles, satirizes Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC as well as the large scale irregularities, corruption, intimidation, ethnic profiling and violence that marred the recently concluded 2023 general elections.
Still, a very unique feature of the hit song is that Falz in less than four minutes with both song and video encapsulates all the irregularities of the election as earlier mentioned as well as corruption in the judiciary, making use of both humour, rhythmic mid tempo beat, repetition and lyricism to satirize it.
The song as rhythmic and lyrical as it is is a witness to not just history but the realities of our time. Falz makes use of social reality, its odditties and brazenness, to satirize the system.
Falz here is not mouthibg fictions but portraying the anomalies and realities of our time. Little wonder many can identify with and relate to it. The resonance of the music spiced with lyricism and black humour is one of the reasons it is a hit.
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The eponymous song, entitled after the INEC Chairman, is unambiguous about whom and what it is about, the smartness and unabashed crookedness of the electoral umpire as well as the corruption, fraud and violence that marred the elections.
Falz starts by calling out the INEC Chairman in a chorus the repetition of which added not just lyricism to the music, and power to the message, it also sets the pace for Vector who does justice to his own part. The first line in the chorus “Mr Yakubu! E ma n se bi frauds,” means Mr Yakubu! Don’t act like a fraudster”).
“Mr Yakubu! E ma n se bi fraudster / You don’t want to prosper / Come and collect Oscar / 300 billion te gbà lówó ìjoba / Kí le fi se ná sir ? / A ti fi je Mossa
Falz then lambasted the INEC Chairman for not wanting to do the job expected of him and by so doing receive credit and praise.The three hundred billion Falz refers to in the song was the humoguous amount INEC spent on the elections.
The song also references the EndSARS protest in which citizens were shot, the Twitter frenzy, the trust Nigerians had in the INEC Chairman and the enthusiasm they showed by getting their PVCs ready only for their hopes and dreams to be dashed by the intimidation, violence, fraud and the connivance of security agents that characterized the electoral process.
“Twitter dey talk, This one go hot, Other chairman corrupt but, This one is not, Youth sef dey talk, When we protest, they shot”.
“Make we carry PVC, Make we see wetin go sup (Go sup) Suddenly, e scatter, Area boy ti jagba, As ole dey japa, Ọlọpa dey guide am”,
“You wayo the number, The portal, e shut down, You drop us the lamba, Somebody e hack am”.
Almost all the keywords and characters associated with the elections, the haze, expectations, confusion and angst it generated were referenced in the song, using the local slang and parlance: PVC, scatter, area boy, ole (thief), japa (escape) olopa (police officer), wayo (fraud), number (figures), portal, shut down, lamba (money), hack etc.
Vector then took over from Falz in the second verse, following his lead and maintaining the tempo as he goes on to satieize the INEC Chairman further. The rapper also hinted at the aelf-destructive nature of the law and the damage it has done to itself.
“Na who do the law? (Law) Na who kill the law? (Law) Who people go ask? (Law) Na who dem go call? (Law)”.
Vector goes further to express his pessimism at the outcome of the proceedings at the election tribunals due to the adroitness with which Mahmud carried out his coup de grace against the Nigerian people.
“You must be stupid if you think you have a case (Have a case) Mr Yakubu who came from out of space (Out of space) Mr Yakubu who is not like Gowon (No) He’s not head of state (No) He doesn’t need a gun (No, no)”
“He took the results verified by a lot (Yes) The honorable court even ruled back then that all parties can go ahead and access the source of their claims Mr Yakubu is just a name”. He emphasizes that Yakubu is just a name, a metaphor for the fraud that was the electoral process.
In the third and final verse Falz continues to question Yakubu’s integrity and the credibility of the electoral process. He starts with the rhetorical question “Ki lo wi?” which means “what do you want to say?” in Yoruba, as he impugns Yakubu’s assertions that he did not compromise, adding that all what transpired in secret is now public knowledge. According to him, no be say the job clean, as there is evidence everywhere. Falz emphatically says they didn’t do the right thing.
Falz sings:
Yeah!
Ki lo wi?
Talk am make I hear (Make I hear)
Ole
Alatenuje
You want lie say the cheddar no flow
The right thing na wetin you no know?
Lion no dey sleep for jungle
As the breeze blow, fowl nyash e don show
Lion no dey sleep for jungle
As the breeze blow, fowl nyash e don show
Thank you my lord
I respect you my lord
Unreasonable tribal prejudice galore
Sebi wọn ti sanwo? ẹ ti sáré kọ
O wa sọ fun p’o ti jọba tan, kan ma gbadebọ
No be say the job clean, dem no get janitor
Evidence everywhere, everybody capture
Wetin you come write for inside your report card?
You think two hundred million people are not smart?
Falz says that the people are so smart that no matter the foul play and how much they try to hide it, the truth will always be revealed.That is what he means when he sings Lion no dey sleep for jungle/As the breeze blow, fowl nyash e don show.
Falz also carpets judges, their propensity for corruptly enriching themselves and pandering to primordial sentiments such as ethnicity, saying that the evidence of their dirty jobs is everywhere.
Evidence everywhere, everybody capture
Wetin you come write for inside your report card?
You think two hundred million people are not smart? Falz asks.
The songs ends with the rhythmic chorus aimed at the INEC Chairman, telling him not to act like a fraudster, out to play a fast one one the Nigerian people, which Falz repeats many times to give the song not just lyrical power but also meaning and force. Mr Yakubu! ẹ ma n se bi fraudster” (meaning “Mr Yakubu! Don’t act like a fraudster”).
In consclusion, the interesting thing thing about this satiric song is that Falz makes use of comedy laced with lyrics to talk about serious issues that are still dominating public discourse: issues such as electoral fraud, intimidation and violence, ethnic profiling and divisions as well as corruption in the judiciary and among politicians.
The chorus, Mr Yakubu! ẹ ma n se bi fraudster… emphasizes the message Falz is passing across and makes the song maintain a constant lyricism that is not just sweet to the ears but also relatable.
In an interview, Falz sums up what the song is about when he said it was his truth about the elections, saying ”INEC’s performance at the just concluded elections was a big mess”.
“There’s absolutely nothing I’m saying on this record or Vector is saying on this record that hasn’t occurred,” he said.
“We are not fabricating facts, we are not making things up, we are not painting a scenario that did not occur.
“We are telling you things as they happened.”
“We went out there, we voted and suddenly, everything was scattered before our very eyes. Absolutely nothing was done about that and even upon all the numerous cases of violence that we witnessed, ” Falz maintained.