By Rilwan Muhammad
In what would seem as a joke to the Nigerians, who voted in president Muhammadu Buhari to office in 2015 and 2019 general elections, Dauda Kahutu Rarara, the political praise singer of Buhari and other top brass of APC in the country, has asked those who are still keeping faith with president Buhari to sponsor his next song in honour of the president.
In a short video, the singer said that Nigerians, keeping their fingers crossed, are still keeping faith with president Buhari and his administration and that it’s only those who don’t support the president that harbour the laughable idea that Nigerians are fed up with the president and his, according to them, clueless way of handling the delicate affairs of the country.
Rarara, who was, in 2018, appointed as National Director of Music for the Buhari 2019 Presidential Support Committee by the presidency through the office of the Secretary to the government of the federation, is known for his praise songs for Buhari and other APC bigwigs.
During the first stint of the Buhari administration, Rarara’s songs became a promising feather in his cap as they not only made him popular but paved way to his gaining favour with Buhari and the retinue of his aides.
Sponsored by the courtesy of, as believed by many, Buhari’s people, Kahutu continued to produce songs in favour of the president and other party men in utter enjoyment of the grandeur of his position as a singer whose songs permeate the fabrics of the country.
In 2018, prior to the 2019 general elections, Rarara’s songs were believed to have canvassed support for Buhari, but this narrative was later to be told in another fashion.
After Buhari’s campaign and reelection in 2019, some Nigerians, among whom were people who elected him, began to express their displeasure over the way the president was – and is – handling the affairs of the country, censuring that the president has lacked focus and the political will to chalk out and address problems of national concern, such as the lingering Boko Haram insurgence, banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling, soaring prices of food items and other challenges faced by the country.
A year and a few months into the second tenure of president Buhari, some Nigerians, having broken faith with his administration, felt that it’s about time they sprang down from the ‘Buhari Supporter Van’ (BSV) because to them, they have given the president enough an excuse to take and dart the country on the path of development, but the president has failed.
That is why the video of Rarara asking Nigerians; supporters of Buhari, to be exact, to sponsor his next song for the president, with the sum of N1000 is eliciting a lot of media outrage.
Some think it’s an insult on their sensibilities as Nigerians who are suffering the brunt of bad leadership of the present administration for someone to demand that they pay a sum for a song in favour of the man that, as some opine, is yet to walk his promises into action.
Taking into cognisance the fact that a host of those who voted Buhari into office are people living in rural areas; where there is limited or no access to the internet, one would laugh at the call made by Dauda Kahutu for so many reasons. One, these are people whose interaction with the cyberspace is minimal and so might not even hear of the recent call on them to sponsor the next singer’s song that’d feature achievements of the Buhari administration, much less pay the sum.
Two, these people are always at the receiving end. During elections, efforts are put in place to ensure that election materials reach every village, but as soon as elections are over, even their immediate representatives at the local level hardly get back to them on time till when it’s nearing election.
Three, N1000 is good, nay huge, a money to be sent away to someone in this trying time when people are trying to make ends meet.
Four, some people in our villages don’t have bank accounts, therefore cannot, even if they want to, send their own ‘contribution’.
Five, Buhari’s popularity has reduced, as many are now playing the cynic and disparaging his government.
Surprisingly and unsurprisingly, Kahutu’s bank account started to receive alerts as Buharists began to send in their contributions. It’s surprising because, in this trying time when the country’s economy is just summoning every ounce of strength to stand on its broken feet after the meltdown occasioned by the novel pandemic that feasted and still feasting on the global economy, one would think the pockets of poor staunch Buharists who aren’t ready to alight from the ‘Buhari Support Van’ couldn’t suit expending N1000, at least to someone other than Buhari.
It’s unsurprising because the BSV is thronged with people of envious financial buoyancy and stability, and so N1000 wouldn’t be a thing worth any fuss.
From the ‘screenshots’ we see on the social media platforms from the time the video was released, it’s clear that Buhari would have a new song. While it could be agreed that those sending their contributions might be doing that to rile the wailers (those who criticise and call the Buhari government names), we could also revert to mulling over the possibility that Buhari is still being loved by some Nigerians so that anytime there’s a call on them to expend their resources in his favour, they’d do that with every merriment.
There’s a certain post on the social media that elicited comments. It’s of a chap who, desperate, perhaps, to send his N1000 to Rarara, mistakenly sent a figure more than that.
The one striking thing about it all is, these people sending in their monies and doing screenshots as evidence may not represent the real _‘talakawas’_ (the poor) Rarara is talking about.
Anybody posting a screenshot of his N1000 or so transaction as evidence of giving his _‘Buharial’_ quota is undoubtedly a person having a bank account, a smartphone and the means of purchasing ‘data bundle’, which, in whatever way you are to look at it, means that the person isn’t symbolic of the peasant farmer in a remote village that voted Buhari and was promised of eating _‘jar miya’_ (Hausa metaphorical equivalent of dividend of democracy).
So if, as promised by Rarara, he would not sing any song for Buhari until the poor Buharists sponsor the song to show that they are still sitting on the soft seats of BSV and firm in belief that Buhari can deliver, then the singer should have to devise other means of reaching the real _‘talakawas’_, majority of whom neither own bank nor social media accounts.
Rilwan Muhammad can be reached via reedwandk@gmail.com 07061124918
