“Egungun be careful, na express you de go” is perhaps the most confounding entertainment rebound of our generation in Nigeria today. In almost magical fashion, a subtle but firm warning against indiscretion in conduct occasioned by wealth, ability, privilege or opportunity has sipped into our sociosphere and raving. Fuji Musician, Abass Akande, had loosely but energetically deployed creative imagery of an Egungun (an elaborately dressed masquerade in this case) whose stock in trade is amusement from a cheering crowd and perhaps tokens earned from performances to depict men and women in places of social recognition and attention.
Extendable to any phenomenon that is cynosure of all eyes, caution and moderation is preached by this popular musician of Yoruba extraction in that musical stretch. Obesere as the musician is popularly called, laced warning for the ‘Egungun’ with proverbial insight of the consequences of discarding restraint and caution during performances. 20 years after, and basking in the emerging euphoria of this rather strange comeback, I am quite certain that Obsesere held little or no premonition of the relevance of his musical satire in the class duel that would envelope power junctions in Kano State as observable over the last 3 years.
