Righteousman Erhabor is one of the longest-active reggae gospel artistes in the country today. With over 3 decades in the industry, the CEO of Praise International, is more than an artiste. Not many Nigerian artistes add glitz to the glamour of gospel music like Righteousman. ORJI ONYEKWERE ran into him at the recently-concluded COSON Week.
What’s your impression of COSON’S National Day of Prayer?
I think COSON is always ahead of the game. This is a progressive movement and a progressive beginning starting with God and starting with prayer. There’s something we know in the kingdom business with the short form, ‘PUSH’…Pryse Until Something Happens. That’s why we are here today. The spelling of my praise is Pryse and that means prayer and music. That’s what we are doing today.
I know things are difficult in Nigeria and a lot of people are frustrated, people are going through depression, a lot of people are bothered and it’s as if nothing is working for them. We just want to assure them that Nigeria is a great land though we have bad leaders. We should not cage our minds to what we are seeing, we should open our minds to God for help. Because when you look at everywhere you see nothing happening and you have to look up to God because he is the author and finisher of our life. Everything we have been doing is by faith, His grace and mercy.
Nigeria will get there because we have a great land. We have billionaires. Look at what’s happening today with music especially afro beat, Nigeria’s name has been written on the global map. Before it used to be corruption, corruption, but look at what these young boys are doing on a global level in afro beat music. Today, people can relate with us from across the world, the USA and others.
Many years ago, it used to be 95 per cent of western music on our airwaves and 5 percent of Nigerian music but the table has turned today. It’s now 5 per cent of foreign music and 95 per cent of Nigerian music. It will still happen through consistency prayer and hard work believing in your country, this is your place of birth.
Don’t condemn your country because nowhere is easy, look at USA, Russia and other countries. No where is easy. There’s no war here though there’s spiritual warfare very strong one but we will get there. Nigeria is getting there.
But the musicians are not speaking up like the days of Fela, Sonny Okosun even Majek Fashek…
There’s something we call change which is constant. If you try something and it’s not working, what do you do? If everyone begins to sing the same kind of song that people sang many years ago, I don’t think Nigeria will be in that world map. If all we sing today is about corruption, I don’t think you will know who is called Rema, Davido, Whiz Kid or Burnaboy.
Some of them in their music they have it. I am a conscious artiste, many years like 40 years ago. I have done a lot of conscious songs but Nigerians don’t appreciate what we do because we live in a society where we are suffering and smiling. Where a bottle of beer can make you praise the next president even when you know he is bringing suffering to you. Those young boys are wiser than us. We only have musicians that are smart but wise. We have a lot of elders that are very smart people but they are not wise with little minds. They’re not seeing the future that’s why when they go, their children will sell their property.
A lot of these young boys know that if they go to that line, they will not be called for events and they will not make money. Everybody is not called to be an activist even the time of Fela, we had just few musicians we can count that were doing the conscious songs. Fela, Sony Okosun and at a time Sony Okosun changed and went into gospel.
There are some people still doing it. I did a song you know featuring 60 artistes. Go and check how many years I did that song and the number of views. While somebody will come and sing ‘bumbum’, they are the ones making the money endorsement and everything.
Over the years we’ve had different genres of music, from reggae to dancehall, ragga and now afro beat. Do you think another genre would soon come out?
Over the years, we have had different kinds of music, we have experienced pop, reggae, ragga and the likes. The music we have today is still the same music, but with different content and style. It’s the same music; people have not changed. New people come, they bring one or two together amampiano and afro beat, they put it together it’s the same music
It’s the same music they have not changed anything. The only thing that has changed is content and quality. Today what’s happening, for you to get Burna Boy, do you how many members are in his band? You see someone like Burna boy carrying a 30 man band, there’s money. Today we cannot afford that.
Do you feel jealous?
I am so excited because they’re my children. They’re the age mates of my children. It’s like football, the football played by some of these players years ago is different from the football played today and the money they make. Though, I am still enjoying myself.
Tell us about your new work…
I have a brand-new work called, 247 that featured Buchi. The video will be dropping very soon though we’re still pushing the audio. It’s a brand-new song that’s heavy on all digital platforms. It’s available for downloads and sharing. Support the Righteousman 247 Righteousman and Buchi.
Aside that, we have a project that has been on for two years called Gospel Reggae Dance with Righteousman. We take the gospel everywhere; market, prisons etc through reggae music as a tool. So, many things we are working on. And our movies too, we have the Righteous Nations TV coming your way. We do a lot of skits, comedy and all that.
Are you doing any big-time movie or documentary?
For now, we are doing short plays. We do things that will just catch your attention, we don’t want to bore people with a lot of things. But we are going into full time later to have series of movies. That will be next year, not this year because we have a lot of things we are working on
How are you adjusting to the new tempo of music?
I am a complete musician. My life everything, even the music is confused how this man how far this man has gone all these years. What has kept me going is because I have always seen myself as an up-and-coming artiste because I believe that the day you arrive is the end of your journey. I am still on transit. I am still an upcoming and can adjust. Music is like fashion new sets of dress come and you wear them.
