Fela Was Viewed An Enemy Of The Government : Baba Ani

Baba Ani was a close pal of the king of afro
music, Fela.
Baba Ani his view of Fela "Oh yes! In fact, I in
particular, tried to advise him so
many times. I would always
discuss with him. But you see,
when somebody is on earth for a
mission, there is nothing you
would say to divert his attention
from that mission. To me, Fela
was sent here to do certain
things and he did all he could
before he left the world. Friends
advised him and they also
deserted him when they couldn't
cope with him."
He was so pained when the
government invaded Fela's home
"God! I felt very bad. I was very
angry. I never thought that a
good government would have
gone to that extent of doing
such to a fellow citizen even with
all the civilisation and
independence the country had
got then. Although Fela was
counted an enemy of the
government, to us and the
masses and even people outside
the country, he was an eye-
opener. He was a revolutionary.
He was just doing a job to open
the eyes and minds of the people
to watch what was happening
around us so we could be up
and doing and do something to
better our lot. I felt very bad
about it but there was nothing I
could do. Who I be?"
He revealed "When you see
somebody created to do things
others cannot do, it is usually
difficult to convince such a
person when he/she takes a
stand. When you know the man
you are dealing with, you don't
even bother to appeal to him.
Whatever financial benefit he
could have got from the event
did not appeal to him. Since we
had stayed together for a long
time, there was no way part of
his traits and way of life and
ideology would not rub off on us.
We also shunned the rosy life.
And actually, if you want to be on
the side of the people, you
cannot expect to live a rosy life.
This is the only house I have got.
If we had followed the
government and collecting
contracts from the government, I
probably would have owned
more than 10 houses. You would
have found so many cars in my
compound. We shunned such
luxury because we wanted to be
on the side of the people and
damn the consequences of doing
that."