“Peter Tosh’s music is recipe against failing Nigerian democracy” -Osagie Obayuwana, CDHR’s President

Nigerian politicians and the public have been urged to imbibe and enable the values of Peter Tosh, as the needed remedy to the stagnation of its democracy and political governance, which had deprived and dispirited her people, so much so that the country is now widely regarded as a failing state.

The call was made by Dr Osagie Obayuwana, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of Edo State, during the 2021 version of the anniversary marking the killing of Peter Tosh, a Pan-Africanist and Reggae musician, whose inspirational musical renditions and activities continued to serve as redemption from poor political governance and societal ills.

While addressing a teeming fans of the late megastar, who congregated at the annual event, in Benin City, the state capital, Dr Obayuwana, a frontline lawyer and human rights activist, who currently serves as National President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Nigeria’s foremost civil society body, postulated that Nigeria’s failing polity, if treated with the elixir of Peter Tosh’s edifying agitation for a free human existence, would solve the deep-seated problems of poor governance and followership, confronting Nigeria, nay Africa.

“Powerful songs of Peter Tosh like ‘Equal Rights and Justice’, Down ‘Oppression’, ‘Stand Up For Your Rights” and Bob Marley’s ‘War’ and others are liberation songs for the emancipation of our people”, the human rights crusader said.

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Obayuwana, while leading the “congregation” in chants and dance to the revolutionary songs by Peter Tosh, and Bob Marley, also a late Jamaican reggae legend, condemned the prevailing state of Nigeria, where “Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping for ransoms, ‘Fulani domination and cow-colonisation’ beset the country, with vociferous agitation for restructuring and dissolution of the country.

“African countries and black Africans can’t be set free if Nigerians continued to be under the yoke of imperialism and internal oppressors”; he further said.

Comrade Tony Erha, a journalist, activist and performing artiste, while speaking as a guest on the occasion, reminisced that the inculcation of the revolutionary ideologies of great musical acts like Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Nigeria’s Sonny Okosun and Fela Anikulapo Kuti, by the African people had led to the “collapse of Apartheid in South Africa and the manacles of misrules in Africa.”

He, however, called for the rejuvenation of the same culture of agitation, as an escapade from the doldrums that currently beset the Nigerian public.

The life and emancipative work of Tosh were ruminated upon by Erha, who was his friend and one of those who organised his visit to Nigeria in 1983.

“Peter Tosh was an illustrious son of Africa, as his visit to Nigeria in 1983, was a tonic and turning point for him and the struggles for Africa’s liberation.

“This was often expressed by Tosh himself, who also stayed days in Benin City, Uromi and Ibore – Irrua, the hometown of Sonny Okosun, the late exponent of Izziddi Music, who brought him to Nigeria.”

Erha, a one-time Media Manager to Sonny Okosun and former Secretary to the Performing Musicians/Employers’ Association (PMAN), Bendel State chapter, from 1986 to 1987, recollected that Peter Tosh cherished Nigerian food, fruits and drinks, adding that he took suckers of a typical Nigerian banana to plant in Jamaica.

He also observed that he loved to wear the Nigerian “agbada” clothes that became his special wears as stage costumes.

The remembrance events of Peter Tosh and Bob Marley are annually organised by Senior Kings Ogbebor (SKO), a resident Dee Jay, artistes manager and television/radio presenter, who anchors ‘Reggae Rendezvous’, a popular programme on the Edo Broadcasting Service (EBS) FM Radio. Supported by Dr Obayuwana, Chief Patrick Osagie Eholor (Ultimate Equals), some lecturers of the University of Benin and some notable Edo artistes, the annual event features Reggae music and dance, lectures and Pan-African revolutionary ideals.

Peter Tosh OM was a famous reggae musician, along with Bob Marley and Bunning Wailer, who all formed the Jamaica pioneering band, the Wailer, after which he further successfully established himself as a solo performer and promoter of Rastafari.

Born on 19th September, 1944 in the Grange Hills of Jamaica, he was murdered in an invasion of his house in Kingston, Jamaica on September 11, 1987.

He was born Winston Hubert Mcintosh, married and had children, while his soul-rendering music is a radicalized momentum for classless living.