WAZOBIA FM

                                                 

Magic hypnotizes! Seeing creativity being displayed by someone is like watching African pear (Ube) roasting on a coal fire on a rainy day while dusk comes, tiptoeing into an eastern Nigerian village. It’s a thing of beauty to see its shiny skin swell and soften under the romancing fingers of the flames. Its luscious surface then bursts and the fruit’s natural oil oozes from its cracked epidermis with a sizzling symphony, the soundtrack of gastronomic fantasies. Out of that beautiful ulcer emerges the purplish green flesh that makes one’s palate water agonizingly in delicious anticipation of combining it with fresh farm corn roasted in its tasseled skin. This is way better than any fare the cooks of Olympus could ever offer.

To be the witness of great workmanship leaves you more emotionally satiated than a Lagosian that has just gorged on “Agege” loaves combined with Ewa Agoyin (soft beans topped with the peppered sauce recipe of the Togolese and Beninoise) and washed down by vats of pure water.

I am not really one for listening to the radio, actually I could go for years without listening to one but my wife does and heavily subscribes to Wazobia FM. She loves the station so much that if it were a dude, I would have gone about perpetually green like the “Changeling”. Truth is anytime I get to listen to this station (thanks to her), I am usually enthralled. “Yaw” (his repartee usually has more panache than the riposte of the most accomplished Musketeer) and his crew, from Mayowa (her linguistic abilities spreads sweetness across my soul like marmalade on sweet bread), Diplomatic OPJ (his caustic wit is a balm that massages the rigours out of the cramps of a hectic day) to Uzo (someone said once that he would like to have her laughter as the ring tone for his phone) are absolutely WORLDCLASS!!! Their shows are pure magic. They are like magicians bringing out different coloured bunnies from the hat of their speech centres faster than the eyes can follow or ears in this case. They could make a Roman marble statue laugh more than a hyena on laughing gas. They are veritable masters of their game, spider artists weaving silken golden threads with their artistry from their office in Victoria Island to the hearts of Lagos’ citizenry. People call in, in bucketfuls absolutely bewitched. This gifted group leave a distinctive taste in your mouth like caviar on crackers! They are that good!

The above contributed to why I was absolutely stunned last week when I learnt that Wazobia FM, the most indigenous radio station in Lagos is owned by a Lebanese. That really got me thinking.

Of course from biblical times it has been shown that the Lebanese are great business people with an eye for opportunities (Laban, Jacob’s father-in-law is said to be their father, so it’s not a surprise they have such sharp business acumen). Also it is known that Africans are not one for seeing and exploiting opportunities. But life is about learning. The British brought football and are no force to be reckoned with in the soccer world anymore because other nations now play the game more beautifully.

It took foreigners to bring our natural resources to light, diamonds, oil, platinum, name it. Nigeria’s oil was discovered by them and yet we still have to ship this oil to them for processing. Almost all the best brands in this country are owned by other nationalities, from gadgets, supermarkets and healthcare is fast joining the list. Shoprite and DSTV are South African, Peak is Dutch and LG is South Korean. In my post “a sunflower in the wilderness” I wrote that despite the thousands of radiographers and radiologist in this nation, it had to take Indians to start up about the best and affordable diagnostic center in Lagos (MECURE) and right in the heart of the most dreaded part of the metropolis. Africa has tried indigenization over the years and failed abysmally. Some great brands ended up being buried.

At the inception of it all, God initial words to man was for him to have dominion. The word dominion also means take charge. Taking charge means being responsible for the resources that God has blessed the earth with, to make things work, to bring abundance out of our world, to process the things God has made to another level of refinement.

God went ahead to make Eden and placed man in it to control the environment, and to have access to all the fruits in the garden apart from the forbidden one. We are entitled to the fruits only when you are in charge. It is of course not surprising that Africa is still carrying bowls of supplication begging for alms from both God and first world countries even though it is buried up to its eyeballs in rich materials. When you are not in charge, you can’t have the fruits and even if you do get, it will be at the mercy of the person controlling the orchard. Most times the fruit you even get will be off not juicy and shiny. This is why the owners of DSTV smile to the bank while we make do under the burden of the heavy subscriptions they subject us to. This is because they took charge of the air space and have exerted their dominion there. The opening chapter of the Holy Tome actually tells us to exert our influence in the air on the ground and underwater. We need a reawakening!

That is why we need the very first words God spoke to man to ring in our consciousness like the gongs of Big Ben rousing a groggy London at dawn……..

BE FRUITFUL, MULTIPLY, REPLENISH THE WORLD, SUBDUE IT AND HAVE DOMINION (TAKE CHARGE)!