The deterministic roles of Nigerian artistes in the forthcoming 2019 elections

A melodious sound by itself has the power to travel far and wide to draw large attention amongst its audience. Since top artistes like TuFace Idibia,Pasuma, Psquare etcetera, emerged on the scene of Nigerian music that was once dominated by the hip-hop, blues, and soul from America; the music industry has seen an incredible transformation.

Beyond transformation, the Nigerian artistes have become influential figures in society and their songs have greatly affected the value system. Given the large followers they command,politicians usually recruit them as part of their campaign teams in order to influence the electorate’s decision, and by extension, determine the outcome of electoral results.

In 2011, Dbanj, Tuface, Nice, Saheed Osupa, Sunny Nneji, Pasuma, Mocheddah and many more, were instrumental to the victory of President Jonathan and governor Fashola via their different campaign songs. Added, Davido also played an important role in trying to secure victory for the PDP gubernatorial candidate in Osun, unfortunately, his influence was no match for the federal government’s might.

Beyond being used as electoral accomplices by the politicians, which has never generally paid off, Nigerian top artistes can use their influence to sensitize the electorate to vote wisely.

They can do a campaign that is againstvote buying, electoral violence, ballot theft, rigging, and polling booth disruption and its implications, instead of collecting money and taking sides with them regardless of whether they have ideas or not. This will go a long way to change the electorate’s attitude towards elections and change the outcome of results.

Rather than vote, there are many Nigerians who will prefer to maintain an apathetic attitude towards the 2019 elections because of the failure of the previous leaders to keep to their campaign promises. Those in this category are disillusioned and do not see any need to keep recycling leaders who are not true to their words and are not interested in serving the people. Top Nigerian artistes can collaborate and do a didactic song that will persuade people not to embrace political apathy.

What happens after the elections is also very important and based on precedence, some dissatisfied candidates who lost elections and did not concede defeat, have through their words and body languages encouraged their followers to resort to violence as a way of expressing their discontentment for the outcome of the elections. Innocent lives are usually lost as a result.

To avoid this, the top Nigerians artistes must come together and proactively address this issue through music. The 2019 elections will not be like every other elections that Nigeria has had between 1999 and 2015. There are already ominous signs of violence based on the tone with which candidates and their political parties have used to communicate.

Finally, influential artistes should desist from supporting candidates openly and allow the electorate to vote as they deem it fit. This will not only save them from the blame of projecting wrong and bound to fail candidates but will also save them from the embarrassment that comes with.