A Benson Idonije memoir
appointed Minister of Health by military President Ibrahim Babangida. As minister, he transformed Nigeria’s health care delivery system for which he received acclaim and was made a director of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Fela’s younger brother, Beko, born in 1940, was also a physician and former Secretary-general of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). He was a strong opponent of military rule. Later, he became chairman of Campaign for Democracy (CD). For his democratic views he was imprisoned during the regimes of Muhammadu
Buhari, Babangida, Ernest Shonekan and Sani Abacha. He was framed with involvement in a plot to overthrow the military government and was slammed with a 15-year jail term. He was only released in 1998 after a change of government.
All of Fela’s siblings have died. But their pedigree is awesome. Not many Nigerians living or dead have documentary records of their lineage dating back to 1850 like them. Fela studied classical music at Trinity College of Music in London. He married Remilekun Taylor in 1961. He had three children: Yeni, Femi and Sola. He returned to Nigeria with his family in 1963. He gained employment as music producer at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in 1964 and launched his band the Koola Lobitos in 1965. He played at the yearly Havanah Dance Festival, organised by the Sigma Club, University of Ibadan, in 1965.
Fela resigned from NBC to manage the Koola Lobitos full time in 1968. Thereafter, he devoted his life to music. But in February 1976, Kalakuta Republic, his Agege Motor
Road commune was burnt down by soldiers. In April of the same year, he changed his name from Ransome-kuti to Anikulapo Kuti. He sang it loud and clear that religions not indigenous to Africa should be discarded. He established a shrine and appointed priests in order to worship God in the African way. He married 27 wives and kept them in his commune to rubbish the western culture Nigerians have adopted without questions.
In his last days, considering his type of music you would think Fela was on drugs but no. Later, bad companions led him into sex, women and marijuana. He eventually succumbed to HIV/AIDS. While Idonije was a bachelor, his apartment became Fela’s slaughter slab. He sometimes had three different women a day. Which is why Idonije’s book is a best seller. There is no greater testimony to the success of Fela than Disfelasef.
Idonije studied communication engineering at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. He joined Radionigeria in 1957, later becoming a presenter of famous programmes. The high pint of his career in broadcasting was his transfer to the training school, where for eight years, he became principal lecturer in programme production. After he retired in 1992, he wrote two authoritative art columns about Nigerian highlife music and world’s jazz music for Theguardian, Nigeria – ‘Evergreen’ and ‘All That Jazz.’ Now 82 years old, Pa Idonije still writes.