Aug

22

Discovering 9ice

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My good friend, Akinlabi, told me about 9ice when I went to see him in Ilorin some months ago. For some reasons (perhaps because I am some sort of snub?) I never really listened to it. I guess it is really because of the Gongo aso hype…. Anyway, I was in a friend’s car some weeks ago and he encouraged me to listen to Wedding Day. I immediately saw that there really was something I could like in it and I got him to lend me the CD. I was very not disappointed. Someone said that the tracks on the album all sound similar; I disagree with that, but I could see where that came from. Someone should tell Nigerian music producers that their jobs go beyond just making sure that the CD is recorded….

What I really like about his music is the ease with which he moves from things like - in Gongo aso for instance - ‘no be beanz talk’ to eni ba foju ana woku ebora a bo laso’, from everyday street talk to Yoruba - Akinlabi says Ogbomosho - folkloric tradition. And where does one get these lyrics these days?

Kelebe kelebe lo ma ma se bi tanwijin
Ife a gbokan re so bi eni to sinwin
Ko si oun t’Obi re maa so to ma wo e leti. (Wedding Day)

How many people even know what tanwinjin is?

I hope you get my drift. Check him out when you get the opportunity.

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Aug

22

The State of Nigerian Banks

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From The Economist:

Though banking standards have certainly risen a lot in recent years, they still lag behind those of America and the European Union, particularly in terms of transparency. In April, United Bank for Africa, one of the country’s biggest, fell foul of American regulators who served the bank with a $15m fine for ignoring anti-money-laundering regulations despite several warnings. “There’s no resemblance at all between operating in Britain or America and operating in Nigeria,” says Fola Fagbule, a research analyst with Afrinvest. “It’s light years apart, and it’s an issue [the banks] need to address”. Read in full.

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