“Islamic Musicians’ Association of Nigeria (ISMAN) Is Now Registered In America"

*ISMAN National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Bello Reveals

*As 20^th Anniversary Celebration Holds On 30^th 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 20^th year of the existence of their association and in a bid to make the 20^th anniversary a memorable one, leaders of the respected association have set machineries in motion to have an event to mark it come Sunday, 30^th 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 20^th anniversary celebration, can you tell us more about it please?

Yeah, 30^th 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 20^th 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 20^th 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.