Naira Marley: How increasing vilification is making the Marlian President more popular
Before 2018, Azeez Fashola aka Naira Marley, was relatively unknown in the Nigerian music industry until his single ‘Issa goal’ which enjoyed regular airplay during the 2018 FIFA World Cup after it was adopted by Coca-Cola as the local anthem for the tournament brought him fame. Today, he has become one of the most talked about singers in the country and all his activities now attract public attention.
His rise to fame as a controversy magnet started in 2019 when he claimed internet fraudsters aka ‘Yahoo Boys’ are the reason why money circulates to the common man in Nigeria. He further court controversy after taking to Instagram to ask singer Simi (who publicly condemns cybercrime) why she ignored him at a party. ‘Am I a Yahoo Boy?’ he asked Simi. Not long after, he released a single ‘Am I a Yahoo Boy?’ featuring Zlatan Ibile.
Under one week of releasing the song, he was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on his birthday on May 10, 2019 alongside Zlatan Ibile and three others, over the song which many say supports and promotes internet fraud. On his return after spending weeks in Ikoyi prison, his stream-of-controversial commentary veered to another level, one would have expected that the ordeal would slow him down. No! It strengthened him, enlarged his fan base and made him the new face of the ‘street’.
As Tunji Adegbite of Naspire put it “The arrest of Naira Marley by EFCC was what grew and emboldened the Marlian Nation (the moniker his fans call themselves).” To narrate his prison experience, the artiste dropped ‘Soapy’, a song believed to be promoting masturbation, which according to him is rampant in prisons. Shortly after, he released the ‘creed’ of the movement and declared himself Marlian president. He continued to live up to the expectations of his fellow Marlians, releasing songs like ‘Opotoyi,’ ‘Tesumole,’ ‘Mafo,’ ‘Tingasa,’ that reiterate the point that Marlians should not be conformed to moral standards defined by culture, religion, their parents nor the government.
He enjoyed a cult-like following among the Generation Z and many young adults who enjoyed his raw lifestyle, lewd and raunchy lyrics. Like a wildfire, his belief spread among the working class to the university undergraduates and down to the secondary and primary school students. Parents became worried and religious centres started organising special deliverance sessions to ‘cast out’ the Marlian spirit from their children who have started professing the Marlian creed – Marlians don’t have manners, Marlians don’t use belts etc.
“There are perhaps 10 things that can help you spot a Marlian,” Adegbite wrote. “No belt, no underwear, marijuana-smoking, drug-using (e.g. cocaine, codeine and tramadol), frequent clubbing on weekends, dreadlock or scruffy hairstyles, nonchalant attitude to institutions (educational or employment), heightened sexual desire (including masturbation), lack of fear, and of course a Naira Marley fan.”
Motivational speakers were not left out, they started cashing out with special seminars to train parents and guardians on “how to take back your child from the Marlians”. In a poster advertising one of the seminars, participants were charged between N20,000 to N30,000. No doubt Azeez has created another stream of income for the “perspire to aspire” practitioners.
From one controversy to another, it started looking like he deliberately courts controversies that attract backlashes on the internet. His tweets became news contents for bloggers, while his arrest, court trial and controversies made front pages of national newspapers. In one of his many controversial tweets, he said “having big booty is better than having a Master’s degree,” the tweet made the news headline on The Guardian.
In the past three months, from escaping sentence in April after partying with Abdulrasheed Bello aka JJC Skillz during COVID-19 lockdown to travelling to Abuja for a concert despite the inter-state travel ban, Naira Marley has been ripped apart by many Nigerians questioning how he got to Abuja from Lagos.
Initially it was looking like the usual social media banter, until the whole country went absolutely bonkers on him. Many called for his arrest and prosecution.
Gbenga Aruleba, a popular political show anchor on AIT, said Naira Marley “is known more for the very bad things, singing to propagate Yahoo Yahoo singing to propagate Indian hemp, and other vices.” He called on the federal government to ‘tame him’
“Arrest Naira Marley and the organizers of the Jabi Lake concert now,” social commentator, Deji Adeyanju tweeted. “This insensitivity cannot be overlooked.”
Many have also described the Marlian President as a defiant. Whatever wrong they accused him of doing has a place in the Marlians’ creed, so it may not be out of place that the leader of the movement is leading by example.
Condemnable as his actions are, the first thing many of his fans have pointed out are the double standards. A closer observation of events across the country since the lockdown and travel ban were imposed in March suggest that many of Marley’s accusers are under a selective amnesia.
Just a few days after his concert, the Governor of Ondo State Rotimi Akeredolu led 19 members of the State House of Assembly and his Cabinet members to Abuja to pick APC governorship nomination form. A video of the trip and their jubilation in violation of the lockdown order is making the round on the internet without outrage.
The new Chief of Staff to the President Ibrahim Gambari who is said to have been travelling to Lagos every weekend since his appointment and other top echelon of the Buhari’s government are also guilty of whatever crime Naira Marley has committed
Rather than subjecting Naira Marley to vilification that has continued to make him more popular, Adegbite has suggested that brands can use it to make gains and government could also adopt the United Arab Emirates (UAE) approach to tackle the Marlian ‘menace’ as its president looks untamable.
What did UAE do?
Upon sensing that the country faced the likelihood of its young citizens falling for radical Islam, in 2014, UAE leader, – Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) , established the military draft, mandating young Emiratis (18 – 30years) – who are granted free housing, education and health care – to endure a year of boot camp and hard work. The draft also brought together people from different emirates and social classes in a way that rarely happened in the past.
Outcomes of these include the National Service is credited with reducing crime rate by almost 75% in youths, improving their time management abilities, and promoting national identity and good citizenship.
In Nigeria, Adegbite recommended that “the NYSC is a good platform for this, though it requires reforms. Combining its efforts with those of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) will go a long way in turning Marlianism into a positive force. And who else to recruit as an Ambassador but Naira Marley!”
