‘We’re working to make UNESCO add highlife to World Heritage List’

The immediate past president of the Independent Television Producers’ Association of Nigeria (ITPAN), Osezua Stephen-Imobhio is an actor, producer and highlife enthusiast. He speaks about his creative engagements as well as plans to get highlife music recognised as World Heritage Music in this interview. Excerpts:

SOME years ago when you did a Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson piece before a stage production at the National Theatre, I thought you were just having fun. I have followed you closely since and realised you have more than a passing interest in highlife music. Tell me more about this passion?

Highlife, for me, is a calling; it is much more than passion. I grew up with it. My father had records of major highlife artistes. As a little boy, I usually played them on the gramophone. I think I was exposed to highlife at a very tender age; before I was three.

Later in life, as I heard some of the songs, I realised that I knew them. It has become innate to the point that I don’t get angry when I listen to highlife. No matter the provocation, I keep my cool. When I feel low, and I play highlife records, I feel delighted. That is why I said it is a calling. When I hear highlife, I hear the guitar. I hear the chord, and it strikes a chord inside me, so I relate to it entirely.

Does this passion also inform your forthcoming highlife show on radio, what exactly do you intend to achieve with the program?

It affects everything I do. My children all play musical instruments, and I want to believe it is part of my love for music, especially highlife and church music.I have a 10-year- old trumpeter; a 16-year-old who plays both the keyboard and the violin. My 12-year-old is also learning to play the saxophone, and my baby is trying his hands on the drums. So, yes. My passion played a role in conceptualising the program.

Because of highlife’s position in our history, not just Nigeria’s but West Africa’s and parts of Central Africa, we need to bring it back to the fore in such a way that it will influence present-day musicians. Highlife is very rich, and I believe that our music culture attained its zenith in the golden era of highlife music from 1960 to 1970. It started from the 50s. The golden decade was from the 1960s to 70s when you had the likes of Rex Lawson, Victor Olaiya, Edi Okonta, Roy Chicago, Celestine Ukwu, E Z Arinze.

In Ghana, you had someone I always maintain is the father of highlife music in West Africa, Emmanuel Tettey Mensah, popularly called ET Mensah. In the same vein, I give the King of Highlife title to Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson because of the feat he achieved in 10 years. We want the youth to be influenced when we play the music on the radio; to become aware of the rich culture of hardcore highlife music. Flavour, Omawumi, P-Square, most of the modern musicians, they are influenced or are derivatives of highlife music.

Highlife is seen more like music for the elderly with a majority of youth interested in other genres. Are the old highlife musicians not endangered?

That was my fear initially, but when you begin to listen to the likes of Timi Dakolo and the others I mentioned previously, you find that highlife is not endangered. Most of what the youth are playing today, call it whatever name, they are highlife derivatives.

Because of highlife’s richness, I think there is a need for them to dig further into hardcore highlife as it was played in the 50s and 60s and part of the 70s. That will help what they are playing now. Because of the richness of that music; it is well-rooted in our culture and musical idioms, if they listened and are further influenced, their music will be much better. I think that is why people still want P Square together. They want to hear Flavour but what they are asking is go back to the past.

Why do you think Flavour is a success? It is because of the richness, influence of hardcore highlife on his music. He sampled Rex Lawson’s ‘Ashawo’ released in the 60s. Listen to Omawunmi’s ‘Bottom Belle’, it was done initially in 1958. As Africans, we have that rhythm; we have that beat, which is also one of the secret ingredients in highlife music. That’s why if they play Victor Olaiya, Adeolu Akinsanya, you will see kids dancing to it because it connects to the African in them. Let them go back, but they don’t have to play it the way it was played then. The more they get into the past, the richer their present form will be.

Are you entertaining ideas about releasing a highlife track or album?

I think what I have to offer is more profound than being a musician. Rather than a musician, I see myself as a highlife enthusiast. I see myself as someone who wants to take highlife to the enviable heights it deserves to be.

That is why on my [WhatsApp] platform, we have talked about making UNESCO recognise highlife as world music heritage. I’m still working on that. I’m at the forefront of that initiative, and I think we will achieve it by God’s grace. Per being a musician or releasing an album, the thought flashes through my mind. I have not given it serious consideration.

As a former ITPAN president, what’s your take on some of the provisions of the amended 6th NBC Code, particularly the area dealing with exclusivity?

I will say that it’s the greatest thing the Buhari administration has achieved. What he has done is to bring back producers who had become farmers because of the unfavourable climate. All the ad revenue, especially from the European league, the cash cow of TV stations, had been taken by foreign bodies. The TV stations are always struggling, and because they can’t get money from other sources, they are at the neck of independent producers.

Come and pay for airtime, pay for that. And sponsorship is almost near zero. You only go around to look for spot ads for your program. When you struggle with that, after some time you don’t have money to produce anymore. I know many producers looking for other things to do. Some are already into farming, but if some of the Code’s provisions can be fully implemented, I think we would get back our industry. A lot of producers will come back.

I don’t understand why anybody would kick against it. Those who had been making a lot, they would be making more money now. When you are obtaining a license, negotiate sub-licensing into that. I support the government entirely, and I repeat, it’s the best policy I’ve seen from the Buhari administration. It’s going to be a catalyst for our industry.

You were part of the committee that reviewed the MOPPICON document, what’s its status. Are we seeing it in this lifetime?

From the Federal Government side, I can tell you that the answer is blowing in the wind. But the industry is cooking something. When it’s time, those who have the right to talk will brief about it. When it gets to a point, you grab your destiny with your hand. The industry is self-regulating, and very soon, those designated to talk will address the issue.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

North May Back Atiku In 2023 — Yakassai •Says APC should pick Southerner as presidential candidate •‘Tinubu better than Buhari who has no plan’
IF former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, contests for the presidency in the next general election in 2023, the majority of the votes from the North will go to him, elder statesman and politician, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, has said. Yakassai, a former Liaison Officer to former President Shehu Shagari, described both Abubakar and former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, as potential 2023 presidential contenders…

Buhari Suspends Babalakin As UNILAG Pro-Chancellor, Sacks Acting Vice-Chancellor
President Muhammadu Buhari has suspended the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council of University of Lagos (UNILAG), Dr Wale Babalakin, SAN and the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, over the lingering crisis…

‘I Lived As A Beggar. I Begged To Eat, I Begged To Wear Clothes, I Even Begged To Put My Head Under A Roof’
EMMANUELLA Udeh had just finished peeling melon inside the one-storey building she lives in when Saturday Tribune called. Surrounded by a calm environment in Emene, Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, the 39-year-old paraplegic recounted her experience since she was disengaged as a beneficiary of N-Power, a scheme set up by the Federal Government to address the issues of youth unemployment and…

We Pay N250,000 Bribe Per Trip, Lagos Truck Owners Cry Out
On Monday last week, the Lagos State government staved off a planned strike by the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Association (PTDA) in the state over alleged extortion of its members by security operatives and hoodlums in the course of conducting their lawful business…

It’s Sad That Public Servants Depreciate Immediately After Retirement —Osun Ex-HoS, Akinwusi
I must tell you that I am one of the saddest people around because having served the government for a good part of one’s life, 35 years, and retiring with nothing to take home is disheartening. Even when such people were still in the active service, their monthly earnings were not sufficient for them. Before I became the HoS, I was always challenged when I saw people retire and discovered that the quality of their lives depreciated…

El-Rufai’s Humiliation And Mamman Daura’s Curious London Trip
The rescission of the invitation extended to Governor Nasir El-Rufai to speak at the annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as a consequence of sustained social media pressures from people who are discomfited by his history of intolerance and verbal terrorism against his own people will inflict tremendous violence on the governor’s psychic wellbeing…