MINNA CITY CHORALE AND ORCHESTRA SOCIETY

How do you define “civilisation?” Well, contrary to the principle of relativity in physics, it would seem that the idea of “civilisation” is an idea of absoluteness, and this is where the world of today finds itself in abysmal mess because the conceptualisation of “civilisation” is warped, thus we have strife, terror, hunger, pestilence, etc., to show for pursuits of “civilisation” as savages define it. I have drawn an informal “scale-of-civilisation” (known to me and me alone as the schedule of “Refined-Cultured-Sophisticated,” R-C-S, by which I judge on a scale of one to 10 how I perceive the other person’s “tastes and actions,” with “open defecation habits” not even qualified to have the unity assigned value, naturally). It is Sunday 28th November 2021 and my former student here at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Stephen Harrison (music director), invited me over once again for a scheduled two-hour performance by the Minna City Chorale and Orchestra Society, an event I have come to tag in my mind, “an evening of savouring civilisation in the midst of adversity.” The anchor of the evening, Akin Agbejule (isn’t this compere one heck of a speaker of the English Language? Minna got talents, uh?), unknowingly taught me a brief lesson in musicology when he remarked in passing that what was the Minna Chorale Society now has a catchy appendage, the “Orchestra Society” and that explained the presence of a cello on stage plus the “big brother of cello,” a man-sized cello-esque giant called “double bass” if I heard right (the thought-consciousness “orchestra pit” briefly flashed through my mind). At the end of any session of this Society I have attended, I always come away with the feeling that Nigerians “aren’t yet enjoying life, even the ‘big men’” but, with the right re-set buttons pushed down, we can do “merriment” and be “merry people” though we should spare a thought for Leah Sharibu and those hapless Nigerians sharing her fate this moment. I always feel rotten that I could not do anything to assist this Society spread its wings, so to say, but it was “sweet music to my ears” when the Minna patron of this Society, Pastor Yerima El-Samaila (was he not the one my late best friend, Samuel Ekpeyong, recalled as Pastor Samande of the Faith Foundation Church in the early 1990s?) mentioned that Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s veep, is a keen and avid “fan” of this Society. Now, eh eh, I said it, I knew it in my heart, the one who can appreciate the productions of this Society is a “sophisticated dude.” Good news there by Pastor El-Samaila, plus the announcement that the veep’s 2021 “Christmassing” involves a performance by this Society by mid-December at Abuja. Oh, boy! Now, those “re-set buttons” are being pushed down so folks outside Minna may also be “merry” especially since “’tis the season to be merry, la la la la la la la la la.” Yeah, if one judges Minna town by its “culturisation or ‘life’ or happenings,” it’d be a surprise that a high-cultured orchestra group can be domiciled in Minna. But, thank God for Christianity and the grits that determined Christians possess to nurture and sustain “lively ideals” (like education, gospel music, folk music, entertainment, hospitality businesses, etc.) in the face of near-impossible odds. The Minna City Chorale and Orchestra Society is matured now to be a global travelling band, bringing succour, à la Africa free-spirited enthusiasm, to troubled souls around the world. My hunch about this Society’s great potential and sophistication has been vindicated by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. The humble beginnings of this Society and the “humble-humblity” of Minna town was the reason for that nagging, “uh, really?” thing at the back of my mind. Sunday Adole Jonah, Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State