Letter to Funmi Adams -By Abdu Abdullahi

Dear patriotic Funmi, I came to know you for the first time in the late 1980’s. That was when you gingered our dying spirit of nationalism with your highly inspiring song, ‘ Nigeria my beloved country’. I cannot remember the last time I heard it played in public. As of now, I have not heard about you for quite a long time, but I hope you are healthy and this medium will be our point of convergence.

To the best of my discernment, your song is still a master piece, more fitting now than before as Nigeria is in great turmoils. Many Nigerians of my age and beyond must have abandoned you, after serving us the best amusement you could to enhance our national identity and consciousness. But count me out because your unerring passion for our country lingers in my memory, hence the compelling urge in conveying this message to you.

Forever, even if many Nigerians have forsaken you, believe you me Nigeria will continue to remember and glorify you, recapping your stimulating words such as, ” I know a lot about my country.” Nobody can fault you for your deliberate pomposity in the monopoly of your unbridled affection for Nigeria. I am referring to your calculated style of personalizing Nigeria to remodel your deepening emotions as you were able to romantically idolize Nigeria via the adoption of ‘ my beloved country’.

By the time your creative and outstanding enactment was making a breakthrough, I was very young then that I could not adequately perceive it beyond a mere musical fun. I didn’t know that there would be a problematic time like this to refer to your song as a motivation to renew our love for Nigeria and provide solace to the delicate heart and reconstruct the country, departing away from its ruining experiences. Indeed, this is the right time to revive this insightful song for sober reflections vis-a-vis our current upheavals.

Writing this memo to you confers me bulky sensation to cheer up your magnifying project that is capable of rehabilitating our national mess. Your eminent anthem is not only meant to capture allegiance, your factual and potent axiom and infatuation for Nigeria, but it also possesses the power to heal the fatal wound of our decadence in terms of regional agitation, because we are heading nowhere other than Nigeria as a country without nation. Yes, tell anyone that Nigeria is just a country without having a nation and this is a dangerous trend of our existence.

In recasting our national spirit, the lyrics are proportionally equated to soothe our troubled minds, sustaining deep romance of our country that we will be ready to deal with all our challenges. I still like your lyrical adaptation of ‘ working together is the key’ which is a comprehensive reaction to our current regional and ethic agitation in some parts of the country. And by the lyrical composition that ‘ I know we have a great potential to do more than just survive,’ you ignite the spontaneous flame of jingoism that empowers our political will to attain its maximum level.

Without hesitation therefore, I am cajoling all of us to bring back to life the Funmi Adams’ captivating song to re-echo that bridging theme of all time for the sake of Nigeria’s survival. And I believe that the broadcast media are in a better position to accomplish this national task by allotting a little time regularly for the display of your indelible performance. It is indeed an elergy for all times and will be of tremendous results to the very young who are still unaware about it. In fact, the significance of your impressive ballad is greater than all the Nollywood and Kannywood movies in the prevailing uncertainty in the country.

While your three stanza poem is vastly nationalistic in value, the duo film industry is never bothered to address our national crisis. Most of their themes are centered on other material gains as the ultimate objective. As your concern for Nigeria is not a fraudulent type, let us lift your song once more to promote nationalism to counter excessive materialism. For instance, to observe the next Independence day, this song should be played through the appropriate means of communication to rejuvenate our ailing national spirit.

Remember the famous adage postulated by the British author Edward Bulwer- Lytton in 1839 that the pen is more powerful than the sword. It simply means that written word is more effective tool for communication and of course the genesis of your song was the pen. It is this power that is romantically reflected in your communication and that is why this writer is also deploying the instrumental pen to recapture what you marvelously did for Nigeria through entertainment.

However, it daunts me that many Nigerians have forgotten this fascinating and moving song; many amongst the very young don’t know it. Despite its years of launching, I still believe that your song is not archaic to be discarded at this trying period. Not only that, it will bestow on the growing children the euphoria for staunchness to defeat our trouble makers at the psychological level.

At this dark period our time therefore, Nigeria recalls you, eliciting for the extension and popularisation of your memo of unity in diversity, the best offered by a Nigerian artist. It is needful to culturalise it to dominate our broadcast and social media so that your intricating points should be resuscitated to conquer the reactionary elements within and outside Nigeria.

It is very likely that you are not tired after retirement. I do hope that you are doing well. You may wish to give us another patriotic exhibition through a similar mobilizing channel. Albeit age may not be in your favor, nevertheless, the significant message will definitely be the same and you will be able to score the goal for the second time: Instilling Patriotism in the Hearts of Nigerians. Esteemed regards to your family members.