I found this interesting piece on BBC and decided to share for those who remember Fela's music.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8530372.stm
In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Sola Odunfa considers whether Fela Kuti's song Suffering and Smiling still rings true for Nigerians.
You have to live in Nigeria to get a feel of what it really means and takes to be resident here.
Reading media reports or watching TV does not and cannot convey a vivid picture of the suffering the people are undergoing.
The late music icon Fela Anikulapo-Kuti said that Nigerians were Suffering and Smiling.
They laughed and danced to the throbbing Afrobeat rhythm.
That was more than a decade ago.
Hot airAre Nigerians still suffering? YES.
Smiling? Definitely NO.
We have not had light for three days now and our generator has broken down
Sola Odunfa's sister
Even the parasitic politicians in the capital, Abuja, can no longer afford to smile, at least not outside their homes.
I phoned my younger sister on the outskirts of Lagos just before I sat down to this letter. Normally the question "How are you?" would elicit the response: "Thank you, we are managing."
But times have changed.
"Bros," my sister said bluntly, "things cannot be worse-o! God will punish all those people who have brought this suffering on us. They and their children will not..."
I interrupted: "Ah sister, curses? You cannot do that. Have you forgotten that we are in Lent?"
Nigerians are sick and tired of fuel and power shortages
"Bros," she retorted, "I could not sleep last night and the night before. At about two o'clock my daughter came into my room. You know she needs to sleep well at night to be able to leave for work by six in the morning, but when she came into my room sweat was streaming from her neck. I too was fanning myself with a magazine.
"We have not had light for three days now and our generator has broken down. The air from outside is hot.
"Bros, I must confess to you that for about five minutes last night my daughter and I were competing for curses on this useless government."
Working lateIf only she knew that there was no electricity in my area all through last month, not to mention the nationwide fuel scarcity which grounded our generators.
Ice-cold water has become a luxury for the man in the street And when power was, mercifully, restored it came intermittently for only one week.
Now we have electricity for one or two hours every other day. Meanwhile the average temperature daily is approaching the thirties with high humidity.
Ice-cold water has become a luxury for the man in the street. People are sweating both indoors and outdoors day and night. In Lagos many more residents sleep outdoors now.
An electric fan here is a non-functional piece of furniture in homes. Office workers who have the privilege stay late at work, not because they want to increase productivity but to enjoy the air conditioning.
Even they too are complaining loudly and are raining curses on those they believe are making life more difficult for
them.
Lying prostrateWho is not cursing in Nigeria today?
Tens of thousands of young graduates are currently being released into the saturated labour market at the end of the compulsory one-year national youth service.
Nigeria is the eighth largest oil exporter but cannot supply its people with power. They are told at their passing-out parade to seek self-employment because there are no jobs for them out there.
Self-employment without capital or experience? They will end up in the army of unemployed youths roaming the streets.
Curses, curses everywhere and by everybody.
Honestly I do not know who the targets of those curses are. Nigeria as a nation is lying prostrate.
Wasted curses?If we are to believe media reports President Umar Yar'Adua too is lying prostrate in Saudi Arabia where no-one, except his closest family members, has been allowed to see him since 23 November last year.
The terrible twins called Suffering and Cursing are not in a hurry to leave. They say the Nigerian leader is under the care of the Saudi king's personal security guards and no-one may see him without their permission. So, the man seems to be impotent - curses on him are wasted.
Luck has re-designated the vice-president as Acting President Jonathan. The office was thrust on him without any effort on his part.
Nigerians will be unfair to direct their curses at him at this time. However once he has served long enough to take responsibility for the state of the nation, campaigns will be in high gear for the next presidential election.
The one-time fisherman's parents knew one or two things when they christened him, Goodluck!
In spite of all that, the curses cannot be mere hot air.
On Ash Wednesday last week, a warning rang out in churches around the country: "Those who steal and they who defraud others, God will judge."
The congregations responded: "Amen, Lord have mercy upon us."
Verily, verily I say unto you, the terrible twins called Suffering and Cursing are not in a hurry to leave Nigeria.
