 You're welcome back to the breakfast on Plus TV Africa and the conversation is all about Felakuti, Nigeria's king of Afro beats forever in our minds, forever in the history of African music and just how much he shaped music in Africa and Nigeria especially. But when it came to the rock and roll, sadly enough, he didn't make that list. You know, fans had been encouraged to vote, you know, and vote for whoever they thought would make it. But it seems, you know, the instructions were not clear enough because Nigerians thought that even though, you know, Felakuti had made it to, you know, the top five, he was automatically going to get an induction into the Hall of Fame. But that didn't happen. Sadly, other people, you know, got inducted like Jay-Z who did not make it into the top five, you know, so Nigerians are not very pleased about that. But the issue here is the good thing, like his son has said, is that it doesn't matter whether he actually made it into the Hall of Fame or not, that the name Felak, you know, is forever etched in gold in music in Nigeria. And I really here to speak about this is Ajib Bola Ibaru, an intellectual property lawyer who joins us via Zoom. Good morning. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. So Nigerians are not very excited that Felak did not make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And they're saying, you know, if fans vote, didn't count, why were they asked to vote? So what do you think about that? Well, the emotions of the Nigerians who voted are very valid. But the process works in two separate ways. There's a popular vote, which is the ones Nigerians participated in. Then there's also a separate ballot which has about 1000 people who are musicians, artists, and in the music industry. And that vote apparently carries more weight in determining who gets into the Rock Hall of Fame. So the popular vote is important because it tells everyone that this is what the people feel. But there's also the separate ballot. And this voting mechanism is quite popular and used in the Academy Awards, in the Grammy Awards. So you have this event happening regularly where an artist who has an obvious impact and legacy in the real world has tens of thousands of votes. In this situation, Felak has second highest just behind 10 or 10. But that individual still does not get in. So it's just two separate mechanisms that are being used. If we use only the votes of the fans, obviously Felam will get in. But once we take into consideration that there's a second voting system that also decides who's going to get into the ballot, then I think we'll understand the decision that the Rock Hall of Fame makes. All right. Let's talk about diversity, you know, with the, you know, like you mentioned about a thousand artists who take part in the second voting system. Now, do you think that that might, you know, have its own flaws, you know, with the diversity of musicians in that space that may have not, you know, seen Felam as phenomenal enough to make it this year? Well, on diversity, I do not think it's a question of perhaps Felam being a black man from Africa. I would say this on the question of diversity. What we're really looking at is the music market, the voting mechanism, and the people who are going to vote. For example, I can assure you that out of the 1000 people who make up this kind of academy, most of them are not really from the African continent. So it's not a question of them not understanding the sound and understanding the beat. And also concerning diversity, they have been making specific attempts to improve the number of black people, the number of women, and the number of minorities who are getting into the Rock and Wall Hall of Fame. They are improving on their diversity. But I would stress more that it's about them not understanding the sound, about the voting academy not having enough music industry professionals from this region who are able to advocate that this sound has a specific effect and has done certain things all over the world. They are just not as informed as they would be if they were from this market. So talking about Felam, I want to concentrate on his music, his sound and his impact. How would you quantify just how much Felam meant for not just music in Nigeria, but his advocacy for political issues in the country? I will be frank with you. Felam is probably on God's teeters when we were talking about music legends. And he's been there since he started his work back in the 70s and 80s, especially in the international community. On the issue of him being focusing on the socio-economic issues of the Nigerian state and all of that, in his own words he explained it clearly that, look, music in general is for enjoyment, is for entertainment, it's for love, is to express the human experience. That is if your basic needs are met. But because of the country and the environment that you are from, your music has to be about struggle, about improving the quality of life of the people that you support and the people who support the music, which is one of the reasons why people generally have the, it's almost a godlike reverence for the work that Felam has done because he had significant influence in the international community as an artist and he decided and he chose to use that influence to push the quality of life of the individual citizen here in Nigeria and to the best of his ability and the limits of his intelligence and creativity. He spoke the truth to power as best as he could and for as long as he could. But more to the point, he lived it in his own personal life. So we are talking about people on godlike stages in the music industry business, you are talking about Felam, you are talking about Bob Marley, they are generally in the same category. Even till today, they are essentially legends, especially when you leave the country. Yes, Bob Marley, Felam, Lucky Dube, there's so many of them. But now I want to speak about the relevance really of the rock and roll of fame. How relevant should it be for us here in Nigeria and for Nigerian artists and then do you think that we maybe should develop our own hall of fame that is able to shed more light and focus a lot more on sounds from Africa instead of relying on awards and hall of fame from Europe and from America? Okay, I will take the second part first on whether we should develop our own award systems and not depend on foreign economy validation. I think it's a tricky question because participating in foreign programs like this generally suggests to think that your local structures have gotten to the point when they are able to equal or even surpass the foreign programs. That is what it generally suggests. But there's also the question of validation. Now that validation is really a reflection of the geopolitical balance and economic strength of the economies in the world, the first world and the global side. So that validation is always going to be tricky to shake off unless you've developed your local economy to the point where it can actually replicate those systems and surpass them because it's not enough to talk about your individuality as an African and as having a deep diverse ancient cultural heritage. You also have to have the financial and economic infrastructure to be able to promote it as it should be. That's what I would say on the issue of we looking for validation. I think the solution is obviously yes, we should establish our systems, we should establish our own cultural positions and on this note I would like to suggest the example of the South Koreans. They've done phenomenally well and have paid off their internal infrastructure to the point where they can actually compete on an equal footing with what is currently the global standard primary, what comes from the West. And I'll give two quick examples. First of all, the Korean pop group BTS is funded by the record company Big Hit which has bought Justin Bieber's holding company that also has Ariana Grande. This is a South Korean company actually buying out a major American company with two of the biggest stars in the world today. They did not do that only by their South Korean heritage. They did that by the infrastructure they've been able to build. For example, having the fastest broadband in the world today. So I think it's more important for us to focus on building those structures which will be a foundation on which we can push obviously rich diverse and ancient African music and heritage. All right. Just to wrap up who would also say prayers up for Sound Sultan, our own you know one of our own legends here who use reports say you know might be you're dealing with throat cancer. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. Good to hear from you and of course thank you for having me. Thank you. Looking forward to more of these conversations. Good morning. All right, that's where we wrap up. Yes, this beautiful first day morning of May 13th 2021. Catch up on all the conversation here on social media at plus TV Africa and do follow our new YouTube channel at plus TV Africa Lifestyle. I am Annette Felixine. Thank you for watching and bye bye. And I am Osaugi Ogboa. The news comes up at 9 a.m. Stay with us. Bye for now.