Shortly after this interview, news of the national grid collapse—for the seventh time this year—broke on the internet. This is happening at the same time undergraduates have been conditioned to be out of school for eight months, with an economy that is nothing to write about. It is impossible to tell Nigeria’s story and not be taken aback by the thoughts of what could have been. As we celebrate our 62 years of freedom, DOWNTOWN’s Kehinde Fagbule had a passionate conversation with someone who has been very vocal about his views on nation-building and everything in between, Folarin Falana, widely referred to as Falz.
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Falz’s work as a renowned activist is recognised by most Nigerians. Having expressed his opinions on how the country should be run one too many times in his music, he has also been at the core of physical activism, agitating for better governance. But his understanding of national politics didn’t come out of thin air—he comes from a household of legal practitioners having lawyers as parents. He spoke about his upbringing by one of the country’s most renowned human rights activists and senior advocates, Femi Falana, and his wife, Funmi Falana. She also happens to be a woman rights lawyer.
“Being born to those sorts of parents eventually had a huge impact on my life. Because growing up, even as far back as primary school, I had people refer to me by my parents’ name like ‘oh this is Falana’s son.’ Then I started to realise that there must be something about my parents; they must be known to a certain degree. So that was when it started to register, and I started to want to be like them. Because I was getting that second-hand acclaim, it was nice.”
The nature of his dad’s job—fighting for the rights of the common Nigerian at a time when the country was moving back and forth between democracy and a military regime—meant that his childhood was probably different from every regular kid.
“They were bang in the middle of it. For me, that was also a surreal experience at the time. When I was a kid, I didn’t really know what was going on. But I knew that my dad would go away for a long period of time. My mum would often tell us that he travelled; it was later on, we realised that he was actually being detained by a couple of different heads of state. I know Babangida and Abacha for sure. He would always be relentless; he wouldn’t stop; he would criticise and speak up against them. For a big period of time, he was Fela’s lawyer. And there would be a lot of cases; I mean, everyone knows how notoriously Fela would speak up in a song and beyond against the government of whatever sort, and popsy would always be there to defend him. It was a crazy time growing up; it’s just that I wasn’t fully aware of the craziness at the time. I started to find out later. There’s this vivid picture of him coming back home to this place we used to live somewhere in Ikeja, and I remember my sister and I ran to him, and he had bought us Ribena; he would always bring stuff back. Obviously, as children, that is enough to not really ask any questions.” -Read more
Falz.
