Inauguration Speech - for Saturday

Nigeria. Opportunities, beauty, plenty of natural resources, plenty of talent. This country has been blessed in so many ways.

We all know that there are also so many ways in which Nigeria could do better.

What can entertainers do to really help make a difference, really bring this country forward?

Listen to Fela’s songs and tell me how you feel. Doesn’t he still make an incredible amount of sense, no matter if he talks about the disunited United Nations, colonial mentality, Water Foodo Lighty Housy Wahalla, or the nonsense of skin bleaching?

Today, all the positive messages Fela tried to get out to Nigerians are still just as valid. But we are a new generation. There are new ways, new messages we need to get out.

It is informed people who will stop allowing problems like corruption or HIV/Aids to destroy any more of this country’s riches. It is people who are proud of what they have who will finally stop looking abroad and thereby be cheated out of really investing all their resources at home. It is people who know what is happening that will finally stop allowing a few bad individuals to steal and cheat and give this country a bad name.

And who are Nigerians listening to every single day? Does any political speech ever really make a difference or touch anyone’s heart? How many NGOs, how much foreign funding, but what change does it really make to your everyday person?

Think jingles. Faceless corporations and political parties spend and spend and spend to get their message into a song which will enter people’s minds and hearts. Don’t you think it is time we use this same thinking to actually do something to positively influence people’s lives? What is it that can make kids love O’Noodles? Sorry to break this to you, it’s just a brand, it is not your friend. You have talent, use it wisely.

We need to help every single person in the entertainment industry realise how incredibly much you can do for your country. You are the people to now step up, take your responsibility, work on your own social conscience, and be aware how much what you say in your songs influences the direction this country is going in.

Music for Change in Nigeria needs every single artist to look into their hearts and take up this important role, both in their own songs and in small and big events we will use to entertain and push out messages and bring on this change for the better in Nigeria.