An African Dictator’s Bestseller
by Jídé Salawu
I grew up knowing the name of the military dictator General Ibrahim Babangida in my hilly hometown, Shao, one of several Northern Yoruba agrarian communities leading up to the River Niger. I spent my teenage years there, climbing hills to watch the military choppers descending into the green fields. For fun, we’d also watch military drills—men in khaki marching through the roads of the town towards the small camp of Isa, which was established on land owned by one of the traditional founding families of Shao. People were summarily executed by firing squad at Isa; it was a death-site for criminals and those who fell afoul of the government.
I spent my childhood years singing about Babangida: te ba n lo sona abuja/e o ri babangida/nibi tan ti kan mogi/tohun kigbe e tumi/e tumi/e tumi. I do not know the origin of this song, but I must say it is a modern classic of the Yoruba verbal arts of abuse. It tells the imagined story of Babangida’s crucifixion, the deserved recompense for his horrendous administration, a karmic episode in which he has lost all power and ends up nailed to a post, begging for his freedom.
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