“Falz” Folarin Falana kicked off 2019 with this socio-political and conscious record about several hypocritical situations in the country especially as the now concluded 2019 elections were held in Nigeria for a variety of positions most notably that of the President and several Senate/House of Representatives seats. Falz the ‘Bahd’ Guy, as he is also known, has developed a reputation as a music activist and this single is off his fourth studio album, Moral Instruction which was released on January 15th, 2019.
In the video, Falz addresses several issues including fraud/Yahoo Yahoo boys, corrupt politicians, the National Youth Service Corp Scheme, mega-church pastors, tribalism and nepotism. He first tackles MURIC (Muslim Rights Concern) who threatened to sue him for his acclaimed This is Nigeria video which featured girls wearing hijabs and dancing shaku shaku, a popular Nigerian dance. They asserted the video had put muslims in a bad light but however did not show up in court after the suit even though the song was kept off the radio stations. Falz also addressed fraudsters who are notorious in Nigeria for spending in night clubs for going ghost after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission raided a popular club in Lagos. This led a lot of them to stop going to the club even though they claimed to have legitimate work. Similar to his older songs, Falz once again attacks the phenomenon of mega-churches and their wastefulness, be it in buying private plans that are not for the congregation or building universities that their members cannot afford to go to.
An important issue Falz raises is the idea of jungle justice, in which a mob can beat a thief to stupor and then set him on fire without any due process. The theft itself is usually very trivial and Falz compares this to the trend of worshipping politicians who loot billions and are rarely punished. The main ills he addresses is that of politicians who lie when it is election time only to be elected and take a three year holiday out of their four year tenure. They are especially notorious for clinging to power for a long time even when they do not deliver on their promises.
Falz has previously spoken of the need to re-educate and re-orientate the populace to restore sanity as well as the need to redefine humanity and morality. The video sees him driving with the producer “Willis” and other individuals as different scenes relating to the lyrics of the song play out. At the end of the song, Falz notes that a revolution is inevitable:
We dey suffer, we dey smile
We dey fear to talk
My people no get chop, my people no get work
These days we no know if authority dey for office
Cause the yawa wey we see, no be security we you promise
And the cup e don full, we don tire for all the rubbish
All the punishment
Na me talk am o!
He states that the cup is full and and that the people are tired of the lies and broken dreams the old politicians have been peddling for years. Much like most of the song which follows the talk-talk chorus style of Fela, he ends by owning the lyrics, which is different from the previous lines – “Na you talk am o/ no be me talk am o” – saying he is the one saying all this.
Social Media: @falzthebahdguy (both IG/Twitter).