Musician Advises Contemporaries To Uphold Morals

A folklore musician and composer, Akeem Lasisi, on Sunday advised fellow musicians to sing songs that upholds morals and cultural values.

Lasisi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that decency was dying out fast in the Nigerian society, “we need to use songs to speak to people about morals”.

According to him, music should teach morals because it is one of the media used in getting attention of the society.

He said that every artiste, especially musicians, should be tutored on the responsibility they carried as voices of the people.

“The regulatory bodies should also be more active in their job and try as much as possible to screen lyrics and videos on submission,’’ he said.

He said, “sadly, some of the music do not get to the regulatory bodies before they are distributed to the market.

“They have to look for ways to surmount these challenges to sanitise the industry.

“If proper distribution channels are in place, the songs will be scrutinised before they come out.

“Nigerian music has gained international acceptance, we should endeavour to do better than we are doing now.

“Since our act is base on ingenuity, determination and resourcefulness; the new generation musicians have to be more original in their creativity.

“Our music has become a must-listen-to and our videos watch in different parts of the world; we have to use it as a spring board to correct, lecture and promote our arts and culture.

“No matter the genre of music anyone is into, music is a universal language, it can be understood anywhere.

“We should avoid copying or imitate the Western world and the bad they portray in their music, it is their way of life not ours,’’ he said.

NAN reports that Lasisi was an award-winning poet, who grew up in Ibadan, his home town in South-West Nigeria.

In 2000, he won the Association of Nigerian Authors and Cadbury Poetry Prize with his first collection of poems, “Iremoje: Ritual Poetry for Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Lasisi has produced five poetry albums and nine poetry videos, they are “Post Mortem’’; “Ori Agbe-For Wole Soyinka’’; “Wonderland’’, “Eleleture’’; “Udeme’’; “Ekun Iyawo’’ and “Promise Kept’’.

He is also the author of several books which includes “Ekun Iyawo-The Bride’s Chant’’; “Right Option English-a grammar book’’; and Goodness and Messy, a collection of jokes.