Mike Dada is the Executive Producer of All Africa Music Award (AFRIMA). In this interview, he talks about the 2017 AFRIMA and more.
You recently unveiled the nominees for the 2017 Afrima Awards, what is special about this year’s nomination?
What is special about this year’s nomination is the rejigging of the jury members that was approved by the Afrima commission. The rejigging is about making sure that the award is more inclusive in terms of countries and regions that have not had representatives.
Why the need to rejig your jury?
Some of the juries had spent three years and the rule of the Afrima charter states that after three years the internal committee can rejig based on assessment, and based on strategy.
What is the key element in Afrima nominations?
The key elements which decides whom becomes winner has to do with the capacity of the song across borders, across regions. Afrima is not a musical competition and award ceremony within a region, but about songs crossing or transcending borders and breaking barriers across the continent. So, if an artiste is popular in his country, it is not enough for that person to get nominated for Afrima. That song or the artiste must be able to travel beyond their base. For this year’s nomination, I think we have more of francophone countries participating and becoming part of the award. Artistes from northern Africa as well are getting more involved. For Afrima, there is only one Africa. There is no northern or southern Africa. So, we have big names submitting their entries this year and they are getting nominated, and I think that is a movement to higher level in terms of growth for the awards.
Will Nigeria be hosting the award this year?
Well, I think that decision can’t be announced now. It will be announced in the next 14 days or thereabout. I know that it is an information that everybody wants to know, but it is something that would be done after consulting with stakeholders if it will hold in Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa or Ghana. The dates have been fixed already and I know that there are venues picked for those four countries. The awards will hold between September 9th and 12th. Our delegates will arrive on the 9th and they depart on the 13th. The award ceremony is on the 12th, so it’s a decision that we will definitely announce before the end of August.
Is it true that the Federal Government of Nigeria has shown interest in hosting for another three years?
It is true. However, I also know that other countries have also shown interest. So, it is a function of many factors such as location, security, transportation, logistics and others put together. We will announce and if it is going to hold in Nigeria, the decision will be taken if it is going to be in Lagos State or elsewhere.
There has been a consistent speculation that Lagos State has interest in hosting Afrima, is this true?
I can’t say no because Lagos State government partnered with Afrima last year. They were the official host and officials of the African Union (AU), came down to meet with the Governor. Don’t forget the fact that the Lagos State governor is a lover of arts and culture. He understands what arts can do for tourism and what tourism can do for the economy of the state. I think that it is in that light and direction that he is a big supporter of Afrima, a big supporter of the continent, a big supporter of arts and music and a big supporter of musicians in the continent.
Having seen the award severally what is the motivation to see it again this year?
I think that is part of the key questions we ask ourselves as organisers. Don’t forget what I do daily is Public Relations and Marketing. So, the question is how do you entice and excite your audience every year to buy the same product. That is the question that we need to answer and I think that fairly enough we have been able to answer that question year-in-year-out bearing in mind that people want to see new things, they want to get excited, they don’t want to get bored and for that not to happen you have to continue to excite them and give them a variety of content and that is what we are going to do at Afrima this year.
You are not being specific about what is in the offing for those coming, why is this?
Part of the excitement is not to be specific, it is to be nebulous. Part of the excitement is to wow you, so there won’t be an element of surprise if I open it up.
The 2015 edition of the award had All Progressive Congress (APC) chieftain Bola Ahmed Tinubu in attendance and a lot of people felt it almost became a political rally, what is your take on this?
There were 34 categories of awards and the 35th one happened to be that given by the AU, not even Afrima to recognize Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a pillar of culture and arts in Africa. What AU was trying to do was to identify someone who could be a rallying point, who could call the attention of Africa particularly the leaders and corporate organisations to support, develop and partner the art and culture industry of the continent. About eight people were shortlisted and the award was given to him. It was one of our recommendations having seen what he had done to support arts, culture and the entertainment industry. He has capacity and you can’t take it away from him as an individually that he has that political wit, he has that corporate capacity to drive support to that sector. Don’t forget that this sector has the capacity to add to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the state, to take people away from the street, and reduce poverty in the continent. We were looking for an individual who was so passionate about this and that was why that happened. The rest of the nominees were for musical, arts and culture.
You have been quoted saying that Afrima is the answer to Africa’s demand for a Grammy, how do you equate the two awards?
Perhaps I was quoted out of context. I think that there is no basis for equation, but there could be basis for comparison and similarities. Grammy has been there, and if we like it or not we are learning from Grammy, we can’t reinvent the wheel, nobody can to that, we are bound to tailor some of the things that we do and we see the Grammy as a pointer towards our achievements. Afrima has its own uniqueness. Fine, it’s a music award like Grammy, however it is a platform to tell our own story from within, tell the story of Africa from within. Ali Baba said in the 2015 edition that many of the things you find in Afrima you can never find in Grammy. You can’t find the display of culture, the originality, the authenticity, the display of culture that you find in Afrima you can’t find it in Grammy because they won’t understand it. The emotions, the camaraderie, the love, the fire that you see among African artistes in that hall on that day or two days before in Afrima Village you can’t find in the Grammy. So, we are not competing to be number one, we are competing to be different because at the end of the day it is the difference that makes the world better and not the similarities.
Let’s talk about the sustainability of the award, how sustainable is it in the next 20 years?
Maybe you should say 100 years because for those of us that started Afrima, the idea is to see it outlives us. I want to have the opportunity of attending if possible the 50th edition of Afrima if God will permit it. It is not a one man show and that is why we brought a lot of professionals, eggheads, personalities and said let us do this. We have a structure, we have an international committee of Afrima, we have a congress, we have a jury which is independent, we have a governing board, we have the production hub and all of these different structures are from different countries Anglophone, Lusophone they are well represented. For me too, I can’t be President forever. We have five years for the President and even at the end of the year; I want to go quickly because it takes away your family time and energy. It is a passionate pursuit. You won’t be able to do anything, but because I can multi task I have been able to cope with my own daily work and the Afrima project. It takes a lot of guts to be able to put it together. So, it is sustainable because it has a succession plan. People send in their CV and at the end of the day they are appointed as Country Directors or Regional Directors. At the end of the day, it is not a one man show.
What lessons have been learnt from running Afrima?
Having worked on so many continental projects and as a project manager myself, one has learnt a lot. However, you can’t say there haven’t been mistakes. We continue to improve because the biggest room is the room to improve. We realise that even if Africa is one continent, it is not with one culture. Before we started we realised that we underestimated Africa not in terms of size, but more in areas of understanding and knowledge. We have put things in place to see our mistakes and improve on them. We have at least two reviews every year. We review our last events, outline our learning outcome and we move on.
The Grammy has remained elusive to Nigerian artistes, what would you ascribe as the cause of this?
The Grammy has been around for a while no doubt. The architects of the award know how it was designed. Don’t forget that it is an American brand and product and first and foremost it is meant for the American people. Over the years, they have continued to expand it to accommodate other continent interested in it. And most of the time they group our music as ‘World Music’. You and I know that at the end of the day there are several genre of music, and sounds are unique. Any music or rhythm they do not understand they group as ‘World Music’ or ‘Popular Music’ and it’s far from that. That is why some of us will continue to push for our own identity, we don’t need any validation from anybody. Femi Kuti’s songs are a global phenomenon, Hugh Masekela, Youssou N’Dour, P-Square of this world, Diamond Platnumz. This are some of the musicians from Africa with over 7,000,000 views. There are big artistes in Africa, but if you don’t tell your story it is that of the others party that will be heard at the end of the day and that is what informed Afrima. Can we tell our own story from our own perspective, the way we see it. Don’t forget that there is a cultural battle across the globe. There is a cultural philosophical battle. Everybody wants their culture to dominate other people’s culture because it has economical values. If you speak like Americans you will begin to wear their clothes, eat their foods and that has economic implications. That means you continue to buy their food, their clothes and their products. For us, Afrima is a movement for African endorsement, for African identity, and that is why the world is bowing for what we have now and our artistes can easily do foreign collaborations.
Tell us about you, who really is Mike Dada?
Mike Dada is a youngman who always wants to add value. I always want to add value and make a point. What value can we add to this world, how can we make a difference, how can we make sure that one leaves this world a better place. That is what it is all about. And I continue to seek knowledge because the more you seek knowledge the more you know that you don’t know anything and that affects how you react and relate. So, I continue to seek knowledge, seek that understanding and ask for wisdom because you don’t seek wisdom. It is always bestowed on you by the element, God himself. That is who I am.
When you are not working what are you doing?
I try to read. I have tried to ask myself how I unwind. If I am not reading I chat with some friends and I have few of them. I also have conversations with myself, I enjoy that a lot.
How do you do that?
I stay calm, remain in my cocoon and have a conversation with myself.
You talked about reading, what kind of books do you read?
I read ideological books maybe because of my background as an activist. When you read ideological books you continue to ask yourself why is our society like this? I read Marketing books, Management books. I love my brand. I also read historical books. Autobiography I try to read sometimes. Those are the books I read.
Having being an activist, is there a possibility that you would do politics in future?
Everybody is a political animal. Everybody is a politician. There is politics everywhere even at home. If you have two or three children, you would love them all, but you would have your preference. So, everybody is a politician and for me I love politics and that is why even in my Public Relation practice there is something called Political Public Relation and Political Marketing. We offer these services in our office and we have gotten briefs from three or four governors that we have managed their campaigns from the beginning to winning elections. We also do Political Public Relations, Government Relations. We want a better society and we have realised that many government or government officials want the same. They want to run it well, make impact contrary to the assumption and perceptions of our people that many government want to come there and eat. I know that many are like that, but many do want to make impact, but they do not have the right concept or people to do it. So, that is why most time it will be nice for professionals in Nigeria to give the right support to government to make it work. If they now say that they don’t want your services then you can return to your table and chair and begin to do any other thing you like. So, everybody is a politician. What is important is that everybody including the followers and leadership have a role to play. Anybody that says he or she doesn’t want to vote, or don’t want to be a part of that political process, they don’t want to be involved in how the state or country is being run is an accomplice to bad society and bad government.
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