Veteran gospel act and current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Gospel Musician Association of Nigeria (GOMAN) and two-term former president of the association, Evangelist Funmi Aragbaye, is a woman whose music resonates with current happenings in today’s society. In this interview with YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE, the former retired civil servant with experience in Ondo and Oyo States, speaks on life’s lessons, recognising mandate and why women should be alive to their responsibilities.
At 70, what major experience will you say life has taught you?
Life has taught me who human beings are, especially in Nigeria of today. I have learnt that there is nobody you should trust. Before, I used to be even too trusting and people tell me that I am too trusting, whatever you tell me, I believe but today life has taught me never to trust anybody completely. In fact, I used to advise people that ‘don’t even trust me’ despite the fact that without praising myself, people know that I am a woman of integrity.. Despite that, I always advise that people should leave the human aspect; that aspect that says people will always be people, any day, anytime, anywhere, especially in Nigeria today where times are really, really hard.
Some years back, one of your songs was about women taking over; will you say the situation is still the same today? In your assessment, will you say women have actually tapped into their potentials?
At the time, it was my observation that women were reaching the heights in their chosen fields; we were having more and more women at the top of their career. If you remember what the video looked like, you will remember that I used the likes of Professor Bolanle Awe as the first female professor of mathematics, Chief Folake Solanke, the first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria; people like Maria Makeba and I also used a couple of first ladies at that time; so my observation at that time was what motivated that song that women are now moving forward and politically, they were being appointed to head one organisation or the other. And throughout that period, women were doing well. But now, that statistics have dropped, even when you say, give us the opportunity, they mess it up. Look at the case of Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former Minister of Petroleum; look at the allegation of corruption and alleged amount of money and she has not come back to clear that allegation. When you see people like that, you feel discouraged. Women are not known to behave like that; in those days, women were upright but now, there seems to be a drop in the number of women being put in positions and getting to the peak. I think the drop is due to the poor performance of women in recent times and the kind of politicians we have today; they do not appoint people on merit but due to political patronage. Things would have been better if the right people are chosen and things are done right.
What do you think is responsible for the moral decadence in today’s society, especially among youths?
I will tell you that such type of behaviour, the changes that we are noticing now, are as a result of the environment that we belong to today which shouldn’t be the case. People don’t care anymore; the upbringing of ladies today and even the boys is different from when we were growing up. I have said it in virtually all my interviews that my mother was a terrific disciplinarian. Once you are punished on something, the method of punishment will sink into your brain. Except you have a mental problem or you can no longer control your brain or yourself, you will never do such a thing again. Our parents in those days were disciplinarians and they looked after us, especially the female ones. But these days, nobody cares anymore. So the upbringings is not right, the attitude, the training are not there.
The mothers are not even leading by example. They are not showing the right path to tread. So everybody does what they like; when the father goes this way, the mother goes that way and the daughter goes another way too. Time is really hard in Nigeria now and the more it continues, the more you have this moral decadence in every area of our lives now. That’s the inspiration behind the song where I sang “God save Nigeria, God save Nigeria, since independence, we’re still in darkness…”
Before now, gospel music ministers to the soul but today, that seems not to be the case and it is difficult to separate gospel from secular, why is this?
Most of our musicians, we call them artists these days; they are entertainers. But I will always tell you the truth, I will always stay with the truth and I will always lead by example.
Most people are entertainers, they are not gospel ministers. There is a difference between gospel musician and gospel ministers. When you want to minister, you will pray, you will preach, you will criticise the ills of the societies. You can write songs from any topic, anywhere, anytime. If I’m in the bathroom, even the experience inside the bathroom gives me inspiration to write. As we are here, if you want to compose a short something on anything, watching video like this alone is enough to give you inspiration. That is different from somebody who wants to make money and be popular. My mandate is different; the Lord told me “you are going to be heard all over the world,” but it took me a long time before I answered the divine call. I always say there are calls and there are divine calls. Whoever is having the divine call, the bible says by their fruits, we shall know them. If you are divinely called, the glory of God will radiate in your life, in what you are doing, in your songs, in your composition, in your concert. Holy Spirit will guide you. You will always seek the face of the Lord before going to record. You don’t just go to the studio and start to say what you like secular musicians are doing. My idea is always different from theirs.
As the chairman of the Board of Trustees and two-term former president of the Gospel Musician Association of Nigeria (GOMAN), will you say there is in-house procedure for internal disciplinary actions to ensure members don’t misbehave?
To that question, I will say yes. But these people that are misbehaving, those that are doing entertainment and all the rest, they are not members of the association. And that is because there is nowhere in Nigeria’s constitution where it is stated that you must belong to the association, I mean the profession you belong to, that’s the irony of it. And even those who are there are doing the same thing. They said I am too tough, that I will say, “don’t do this, don’t do that,” but I am not bothered because I will always lead by example. Whatever is not good that the Bible says you shouldn’t do, I will not do it. If I had been messing up, messing around, you would have been hearing it on the pages of newspaper; that is why on my birthday, people like Baba Obasanjo, Daddy Adeboye could testify that my record has no blemish.
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