*ISMAN National Publicity Secretary,
Bolaji Bello Reveals
*As 20th Anniversary
Celebration Holds On 30th October, 2016
Members of the Islamic Musicians’
Association of Nigeria (ISMAN) are currently in a celebrative mood and the
reason for that is simple. 2016 marks the 20th year of the existence
of their association and in a bid to make the 20th anniversary a
memorable one, leaders of the respected association have set machineries in
motion to have an event to mark it come Sunday, 30th October, 2016,
at Time Square Event Centre, Ajao Road, Ikeja, Lagos. And in this interview
with SAHEED OJUBANIRE, their National Publicity Secretary cum Chairman,
Planning Committee, ISMAN at 20 celebration, Alhaji Bolaji Bello, spoke
eloquently about the origin of ISMAN, the ups and downs it has gone through, why
it is now registered in America, the division within, the shape the anniversary
celebration would take and some other relevant issues. Please read on:
Q: For the purpose of this interview,
can we have your full name?
My name is Alhaji Abdul-Rafiu Bolaji
Bello.
Q: You are the National Publicity
Secretary for Islamic Musicians’ Association of Nigeria (ISMAN) and the
association in planning its 20th anniversary celebration, can you
tell us more about it please?
Yeah, 30th of October,
2016, is a day to come together to celebrate with friends, with members and
give glory to God. ISMAN was founded in 1998 by late Islamic comparative
lecturer, Ustaz Abdul-Lateef Adebowale and since then it’s been full of ups and
downs and glory be to God today we are fully on ground in about 15 states in
Nigeria. We are now fully registered in America and our registration in UK is ongoing,
and we are also processing our registration in Canada and Ireland. So, on the
day of the 20th anniversary we want to celebrate our members, we
want to honour some of them. The immediate past president of ISMAN, Alhaji
Abdul-Wasiu As-Sideeq is one of the awardees. Another Islamic scholar who is
the first Islamic artiste to wax a record, Alhaji Abdul-Wahab Falowo is also
going to be honoured too. And we are also honouring our first president of
ISMAN, Fadhilat Sheikh Abdullahi Gbade Akinbode who is now the National
Missioner of NASFAT, we want to honour him too, we are giving him an award too.
Also Alhaji Waheed Ariyo who also happened to be one of our ex presidents too,
he is late now, we want to give him a posthumous award too, and some other
personalities who have been there for us, supported us; we want to honour them,
we want to celebrate them and we want to say thank you to them.
Q: Now let’s talk more about the
association called ISMAN, what does it take to be a member? Or is just being an
Islamic artiste all it takes?
Well, what the constitution says is,
first and foremost, you must be a Muslim, a practicing Muslim. You are either a
singer, an Islamic song composer, Islamic music producer, arranger or so. In
other words, so far what you are doing in the entertainment industry is purely
Islamic, you are welcome. Those are the calibre of people that constitute
membership of ISMAN. Once you are willing to be part of us after falling into
the categories of people mentioned is to come to us, by a form, belong to a
zone; you know, we have so many zones especially, in Lagos State where we have
close to 65/67 zones. So, you need to belong to a zone. Assuming you live in
Agege now, you’ll go to Agege Zone, collect your form, your Zonal Chairman will
sign it and then you’ll bring it to the state level. And that is it.
Q: Can you state one or two of the
benefits of being a member of ISMAN?
There are so many things that one
stands to gain from being a member of any association. When you decide to
belong to an association, you want to relate, you want to mix; you know, you
can’t just be an island and be on your own. You have to mix with people, you
have to be in a group and you would be able to forge ahead. Meanwhile, to be
more specific, some of the things you stand to gain as a member of ISMAN is
that as our member, you can’t be cheated unless we don’t hear about it because
we have our lawyers who are ready to take up your case if you are being cheated
by a promoter of whatever. In ISMAN we don’t take in criminals and we don’t
want you to become a criminal, because if you are a criminal, we won’t stand by
you. But if someone is trying to cheat you and we know you are on the right
course, we will definitely support you, we will stand by you and we will fight
to the finish. That is part of the benefits. Another thing is that we try to
lecture you on how to go about it; so many artistes are being cheated and don’t
even know what and what to be done. So, we try to lecture you and tell you this
is how it should be done so that you don’t fall into problem if you carry us
along. Another thing is that, as I talk to you, we already have 50 hectares of
land somewhere in Ikorodu which we procured for members. We call it ISMAN
Estate and the purpose of the estate is for members, you know, diligent members
who are struggling to have a house of their own or a land of their own. We have
made it easier for them because they can start paying in bits; I have 2
thousand naira today, I have 5 thousand naira tomorrow, we are encouraging them
to pay in bits, so that at the end of the day they have a land of their own and
they can be able to build a house of their own. You know when you have a land
of your own, your problem is half solved. And another thing is that, like I
told you earlier, ISMAN is now fully registered in America and we are still
processing our registration in UK and Canada, so we want to encourage members
because as from next year now, we would start taking our members across the
globe for exposure which is what most people in the entertainment industry
need. Those are the benefits you will get and apart from that we are also
working with an insurance company, you know health is very, very important, so
if there is any problem, accident wise
or whatever, or loss of life, your family will have something to fall back on.
So those are the areas we are working on so that members would have course to
rejoice.
Q: Of recent, there seems to influx
of artiste from other genres of music, especially, Fuji artistes into Islamic
music production and theatre arts practitioners are also streaming in, what
would you say is the attraction for them? And do you think it is a positive
development?
Well, there is this Yoruba adage that
says: “ aso igba ni an da fun igba” (You move with the times). Those people are
trying to kind of do collabo with us because they believe Islamic music is now
in vogue. People are listening to us, you know, in every home and they want to
relate with us. And one thing I want you to know is this; most of them are
Muslims, 90/99% of those people you are referring to are Muslims. They are
Alhajis and some of them are even the brains behind some of the Islamic
artistes you see around, they support them financially, underground. They are
like brothers to them; they are like sisters to them. They mix and relate with
them very well. They have been pillars of support to them, So, courtesy demands
that when they need our service, we support them too. They come to us, they
tell us this is what they want and we oblige them. And I don’t think there is
nothing wrong in that. What matters most is what comes out of what they are
saying. The collabo; what does it talk about? Is it Fuji music? Is it Fuji
collabo? Is it an Islamic music collabo? When you listen to it you’ll know that
the message is Islamic because the Fuji artistes always come to our level when
they come to us. The message is always there and that is exactly what we are
after. We can’t run away from ourselves. We are all in the entertainment
industry.
Q: Before now, we used to have just
ISMAN as the only association for Islamic artistes but lately, there has been a
splinter group, a development which is not too good for the association. So,
are there efforts being made towards bringing the house back as one?
We are already making moves on that.
About one and a half months ago, we called a meeting, you know, just to reach
out to the other guys. Because as far as we are concerned, we don’t think there
is any other association for Islamic artistes apart from ISMAN that represents
the interest of Islamic music, okay? Agreed, some people fell out with the
association and they left. It is bound to happen. It happens everywhere. But we
have been trying to talk to them, you know, to ask them to come back to the
association because there is only one Gospel Musician’s Association of Nigeria
(GOMAN), there is one Fuji Musicians’ Association of Nigeria (FUMAN), why must
we have division in ISMAN? ISMAN should be one. And that is what we have been
telling them and most of them have started to see reasons. We have told them to
go back home, talk to themselves and get back to us. And I believe very soon, a
large number of them would return to ISMAN. We have been on that and there is
progress.
Q: Can you give us some of the names
of the top executive members of ISMAN as currently constituted?
Yeah, the president of the
association is Alhaji Mumeen Damilola (Esinogbamilaye), the first vice
president is based in Oshogbo, you know, we zoned it to Osun State, we call him
Aran Nfe Alujona, the second vice president is Bani Adam in Kaduna, Our
National Secretary is Honourable Abdul-Fatai Tijani, and our National Public
Relations Officer (PRO) is my humble self, Alhaji Bolaji Bello, our second PRO
is Imotola Onisuru and we have our National Treasurer, Alhaji Alli Okiki, our Financial
Secretary is Alhaji Nuraen Akintunde, we also have our National Ameera,
that is the Women’s Leader, who is Saidat Fateemoh Jafariyah, our Naiba Ameera
is Mujeedat Damilola Lawal and some other people. But the national missioner is
zoned to Shaki town, Oyo State. So, those are the positions.
Q: Who are some of the personalities
expected at the 20th anniversary celebration?
We are expecting to artistes within
ISMAN and Islamic fold generally because charity as they say, begins at home.
The lecturers for the day are Baba Imam Offa, Sheikh Muyideen Imam Offa and
Fadhilat Sheikh Uthman Sanni, Sannu Shehu from Ilorin, those are the two
scholars that are coming to give us lectures. And apart from that, our star
artistes are there: Ere Asalatu, Saoty Arewa, Ameenat Omotayebi, Rukayat Gawat,
Mujeedat Damilola Lawal, Alhaji Wasiu Kayode As-Sideeq, my humble self, Bolaji
Bello and the rest are all going to there. And then from outside Islamic music
we are expecting Alhaji Wasiu Alabi Pasuma who has been a source of joy to us,
he has been our pillar of support right from the beginning, he is coming. We
are also expecting Alhaji Abass Akande, who has also been very supportive. I
even want to tell you that this gentleman gave us musical instruments that are
worth #200,000.00 (two hundred thousand naira) when we were discussing with him
and we were talking about getting musical instruments because we want to use
concert instruments which would cost us about #200,000.00 and he said we should
not worry that he would pay for it. So, that is to show how close we are to
these guys, most of them are very supportive. Apart from that, we are expecting
our patron, K1 De Ultimate, we are expecting Adewale Ayuba. We actually want
Adewale Ayuba to come so that he can disabuse the minds of our Muslim brothers
that if you are no more a Muslim that does not make you an enemy of Islam. And
we are expecting other Fuji music stars like Alhaji Sefiu Alao, Alhaji Saheed
Osupa, Alhaji Sule Alao Malaika, Alhaji Taye Currency, Alhaji Muri Thunder and
the rest of them.
Q: Finally, as the spokesman for
ISMAN, what is your message to teeming fans of Islamic music on behalf of the
association?
Yeah, I want to tell them that we are
working seriously on their complaints. There are certain things they have been
complaining about: too much drama, you know, why is Islamic music turning into
drama or something? And that is why I said earlier that “aso igba ni an da
fungba”, it is what people are requesting for, it is the new vogue. And
everybody wants to be relevant. But we are trying to work on their complaints.
We would give them the best and we won’t disappoint them. And I want to tell
them that if they have any complaint about any of our members, they should please
reach out to the National Secretariat. We are on website on www.ismannational.org, facebook page is on ISMAN National On Top. So, they can reach out to us
via those media.
