Byron preaches peace, love at concert
In a chat with newsmen after the show, Byron, singer of the popular Alafia song talked about his album and his philosophy. Why the concert and launch in June? The concert in June is an opportunity for three things majorly- I was born in June, so I turned 53 in June; this concert is also […]
In a chat with newsmen after the show, Byron, singer of the popular Alafia song talked about his album and his philosophy.
Why the concert and launch in June?
The concert in June is an opportunity for three things majorly- I was born in June, so I turned 53 in June; this concert is also coinciding with when I completed the collection of songs and wanted to launch it and it coincided with when I and a few others registered the Victoria Modupe Oke Foundation. It was also registered in June. The NGO is in honour of my mother who is an activist and champion on gender equality. Today is a celebration of a couple of things and I wanted to entertain my friends.
The songs
On the CD, we have 11 tracks. You Deregulation, Made in Nigeria, Parigobtoyigboto, Pleased to meet You, Rain in London Town, Natural high, S.O.N, The Beautiful City of Lagos, Alafia and so forth.
The message
The message in my music is simple. It says there is hope in Nigeria. I believe in Nigeria and I believe in the future of Nigeria. I believe that whatever we set our minds to achieve, we will achieve it. God fantastically created this country. To appreciate Nigeria, look at our vast natural resources. That is God’s gift to us and that is the way God sees us.
I have a message that runs through my veins. There is the need for us to be more humane to ourselves and be sensitive to the things that matter. The greatest resource any nation has is human beings. Human beings are the raw materials for greatness. It is not in what you have in your pockets. The human mind is powerful. Mine is to promote humanity and the human mind particularly in Nigeria. As far as I am concerned, Nigeria is the best kept secret.
Music genre
I call it tropical music. It is music that is played around the equators. It’s got a little bit of Jazz, it’s got High Life, it’s got Afro Beat, it’s got Calypso, it’s got a lot of things so it is a blend.
We all borrow music from each other. I admire Fela Kuti in terms of his creativity and his message.
It took several years for me to put the collections together because I have a job I do. I just took my time to release this album. I am a lawyer and right now I work for an International Development Agency.
On the philosophy of Alafia track
The wordings are simple. Everybody is looking for anwers to the challenges that face us today. But how many can face tomorrow following today’s problems? In Nigeria you have 70 million poor people. 70 million that can’t spend N100 comfortably in a day. These people can’t say about tomorrow. Meanwhile if you lose a day, you can’t bring back the day.
Development cannot happen if we don’t stop this selfish politicking. We must stop playing politics with children, we must stop playing politics with education, and we must stop playing politics with everything that concerns our future. There must be a time when politics would be at the back door.
What value do we attribute to human lives?
To me the value of one weakest Nigerian is more than all the oil that we have in the soil. The oil can’t create one human being. If we can appreciate human live, we would begin to get things right.
Message to youths
You don’t run faster than your time so you don’t die before your time. The second message is that discover your talent.
Music career
I started music when I was 7. My first album was in 1980. This is about my 4th album. I get inspirations from daily things. I play the guitar as well.
On why current musicians don’t do life performances
How many schools teach music? How many of them read music? How many of them can play any organ? Why do you blame them? Just understand with the new age musicians. We are in the computer age. Life is dynamic. Everything changes. They can’t all be like us in this age.