Global Rise of Afrobeats showcases Nigeria’s Culture, Creative Excellence – Obi Asika

Let’s go down memory lane. At a time when Afrobeats hadn’t become a major global sound, you founded Storm 360 record label in 1991, which originally signed Junior and Pretty, then from 2005 made artistes like Naeto-C, Ikechukwu, Sasha P, General Pype, GT Guitarman, Sauce Kid, DJ Neptune, YQ, Jazzman Olofin household names. What was that journey like for you?

The funny thing is that we didn’t do these things for accolades or awards then, we were just doing them because it hadn’t been done and needed to be done. I’m very proud of the work I’ve done over the years. Those who know understand what it means. I must have put over 200 Nigerian artistes on (DStv) Channel O in 2006, at a time when NTA and local stations would not play or support our artistes. Many of them had so much to give but if we didn’t give them life, what would they be doing? P-Square, TuFace, Mo’ Hits (D-Banj and Don Jazzy), I put them on MTV. I wasn’t just doing Storm. I was pushing the whole Nigerian movement. And that’s always been my way of doing things. I brought Big Brother here in 2005, Dragons Den Nigeria, The Apprentice Africa in 2008, I did Vodacom Icons in Ghana, Nigeria 1999 U-20 FIFA World Cup, and the 2000 Africa Cup of Nations hosted by Nigeria/Ghana as the tournament producer. Everything we’ve done, we did it first. Sometimes when you do it first, you don’t make all the money. The guys coming behind you make the money, which is fine; that’s life. But what we did was that we established it was possible. In all of the above, I never worked alone or acted alone, but I was intentional about the collective actions we could take. Tola Odunsi, who is today one of Nigeria’s top executive producers and directors in the TV and film industries, was the key executive running Storm Records and helping me to drive that agenda of collaboration.

I was in Johannesburg with Kenny Ogungbe and D-1 (Dayo Adeneye) at the Channel O Music Awards in maybe 2004 and the only Nigerian nominated then was Tony Tetuila (with My Car single). I remember telling my late friend Ayanda, who was the general manager at Channel O, that “we’re coming.” The next time I was there in 2006, Nigerians were nominated in 16 out of 19 categories and won all of them. From that time till now it’s been a clean sweep. Today, if there are five African artistes nominated in an awards category, all five could be Nigerians. You couldn’t have predicted that. It’s not our birthright. But somebody had to envision it and think it was possible.

I was doing these things, not based on my label or personal affiliations, my engagement was based on if you were Nigerian or black. It doesn’t mean I won’t collaborate with you if you’re white. But my priority was clear: it was Nigerian first, and it has stayed that way most of my life and I have also built collaboration with the global black community forever. I’m very proud of that work, proud of the artistes and what they’ve achieved. I remember Naeto-C & Ikechukwu when they won the MTV Base awards for the first time, I felt incredibly emotional. Then Darey and Sasha P. We’re blessed with so much talent in this country, and I’ve always been blessed to be able to recognize talent and know how to motivate and connect them, whether in sports, music, production, filmmaking, etc. Even now I still see my nephew (Asa Asika). He’s winning every day, with Davido and their whole crew. Asa and Bizzle met at a table in my office. They are like my sons, and they are the plug. There’s my other nephew, Obiora, who’s in London, co-founder of Afro Nation (in partnership with Smade), and is Wizkid’s agent at United Talent Agency. I cannot be but proud. What we’re trying to do is keep building the future. People put a limit on what they think is possible. But I believe everything is ours. If we step up as Nigerians, we tend to dominate. When we focus, we win. We’ve done a lot. We have to be prayerful and thankful for that so we can do more and expand the ecosystem for all.

Do you think Nigeria is losing grip of Afrobeats, with other countries copying it and learning its music culture?

No, not at all. Nigerians are able to flip everything everywhere. Nigerians are not shy. If I see 100 black people, I can tell the Nigerian from 100 yards. So, you can’t lose the Nigerian. If you can’t lose Nigerian, you can’t lose Afrobeats. It’s like losing moin-moin, dodo (fried plantain) or Jollof Rice. It’s not possible. We always have to stay global and remember that it is our strongest local assets that made us global. If someone is copying your stuff, that’s a salute to you and your culture. It doesn’t take anything away from us. The white boy in Texas cannot be Obi Asika. He could do his own version of Obi, good luck to him. That’s the way the world is.

We haven’t even reached our destination yet, but the journey has definitely begun. We’re still coming, and Afrobeats should be given its props. Afrobeats is massive, doing billions of streams and inspiring millions to dream. The influence of Afrobeats culture is enormous. The social power and influence of Nigerians with 2 billion followers on social media is enormous. Have we fully aggregated that power for our best benefit? Maybe not. There’s no script or no rule book to this thing. It’s not an exam, it’s life. You win, you lose, you make mistakes. I think Nigerians should not be so hard on themselves or on Nigeria. We’re doing pretty well in the cultural and creative spaces, albeit with limited government support and this is what we are working on—ramping up massively through our capacity building programme, the Creative Leap Accelerator Programme, CLAP. If you look at the arts, music, literature, fashion, food, architecture, technology, and Nollywood, we’re making global impact in all of them. Nigerians are special, and everywhere, leading in different sectors, making moves, making money and reframing what it means to be a Nigerian.

As DG of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), how much do you think the agency and NAFEST can promote unity in diversity in Nigeria?

I think we can do better by translating our culture and showing people that we’re pretty much all the same. If you check out all Nigerians, the mitochondrial DNA is probably 98% for all of us. We’re identical. One of the things I say about culture is that it’s all about the narrative; how you tell the story. Superficial coverage doesn’t tell you the story—you need to dive deep to uncover those hidden gems. But when you dig deep, you begin to get the actual story. And when you get the story, you will now see that the differences are very limited, between the North, East, West, and South. Some people want to sit there and talk about our differences all day, but I look for the similarities and connections. And the connections are cultural, they’re lifestyle-driven and they are key to our contemporary and ancient heritage.

You’ve been involved in or pioneered programmes in the creative sector. Now, you’re the DG of a national agency. With your pedigree, do you think you’ve come full circle in this role?

It’s a privilege to serve my country. That’s how I was raised. That’s what I feel and know. I don’t take it for granted. I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t even look for it. In fact, I said no several times in the past. But sometimes you can’t run away from your destiny. I believe I’m supposed to be here at this time, in this place and position for a reason. If the only thing I do is to open up the space to give Nigerians more self-confidence about themselves and who they are, what they represent and what they mean to this world, and in doing that, open up the legion of possibilities that exist for our people; then I’ve done my job. That’s my ambition: to open up the space for everybody.

Which programme in NAFEST 2024 stands out for you the most?

Every programme is special. We’re partnering with Windsor Gallery, Abuja, to host exhibitions around our theme: “Connected Culture.” Eight galleries, different locations, conversations and panels, but one theme. The Arts Village next to Abuja Continental is where 80% of our programming will happen, where we’ll have our competitive series, the Dance-Off, Sing-Off, Jollof Wars, the Dambe, wrestling. Those will be exciting. That’s a lot of entertainment and competition – in a friendly way. Then we have the other elements, the opening and closing party/ceremony. We want to make the festival more relevant for younger Nigerians, for them to want to participate and really enjoy their culture. That’s what we’re hoping to achieve this year. On Saturday, November 23, we’ll have the command performance at the Arts Village with the presentation of the play, ‘Ibe Ji Mma‘, which is again about the hidden connections between our people. On Tuesday, November 26, we have the literary panel at Roving Heights Bookstore. Then, the NAFEST Colloquium and the INAC Creative Economy Townhalls holds Friday, November 29 at the Yar ’Adua Centre.

Gen Z may not know much about the rich history behind your surname. Can you summarize this and how your parents’ influence shaped you?

I’m blessed. My (late) father, Ukpabi Asika, was the bravest man I know. He made choices that I’m not sure I would have made. He was braver than most. He was prepared to stand on principle. He was one of the few people that if he had not come along, I wonder where Nigeria would be. He was vilified and called all sorts of names for the decisions he made, but in the fullness of time and in his own lifetime most of those people thanked him for his service. My father told me a long time ago that leadership is not about popularity contests, but about obligation and responsibility. And he felt his obligation and responsibility was to his people, who he loved deeply, the Igbo people and the Nigerian people.

My father accepted an appointment from former head of state General Yakubu Gowon as Administrator of the East Central State during the Civil War, which, in a way, put him directly in conflict with his own people. When he took that appointment, his entire family, his wife’s family, was in the East, inside Biafra. He had returned to Nigeria in August ‘67 from Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, he had left Nigeria in June 1966, from Ibadan, to take my mother, to the University of Dar es Salaam, where she was working for the next one year. He was based in Lusaka with the ANC between 1966/67 so he had already left Nigeria. He didn’t have to come back (to Nigeria). He could have gone back to America to live his life and become an academic, which was his original plan. He had just come back from the US in December 1965/66, anyway. But in just under nine months, everything changed. There was the first coup, and then a countercoup. Then he left. He knew Ibadan wasn’t safe. He took his wife and travelled to East Africa. He didn’t want to go to the East of Nigeria because he felt there was a possibility of a civil war coming. He didn’t want to be on either side. In his mind, he was, as he said it himself, “I was born a Nigerian. I have lived my life as a Nigerian. I have little doubt I will die a Nigerian.” His words were true.

Since I arrived at the Council, I have learned that the NAFEST was launched in 1970 by General Gowon as a platform to heal the country post civil war. The first edition was won by East Central State when my father was the State administrator. So, this is a full circle moment for me, and if my late parents were alive, they would be immensely proud. At the end of the Nigerian Civil War, my father applied soft power at its highest level, with the State officially backing and funding Enugu Rangers, driving arts and culture, investing massively in education and making Enugu one of the most vibrant black cultural cities in the world. He hosted Fela Kuti at Government House, he hired the radical black panther activist Obi Egbuna to lead the East Central State Writers’ Workshop, which birthed the New Masquerade TV Show, among others, and also hosted one of the first major Nigerian movie premieres by Ola Balogun. He also took the talented men of the Biafran Technical Directorate and created the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) at Enugu and PRODA and placed them there and at Nsukka. The core output of this was that as East Central State rebuilt the East, they primarily used their indigenous capacity. Therefore, I grew up seeing our people do amazing things and also seeing arts and culture as central to self-knowledge and confidence. It has been amazing to see that connection of my father’s work with the East Central State. It was big for me on a personal level.

How did your father promote national unity, despite his Igbo roots, during the Nigerian Civil War?

Firstly, I don’t want to say anything that might sound casual about the circumstances at that time, but I do want to be positive about the opportunities that lie ahead, and that there are reasons to be hopeful simply as the sun rises every day. My father led the rebuilding of the East, he rebuilt relationships and bridges for all Igbos all over Nigeria, working to secure land and properties and winning that everywhere, except in Port Harcourt. My father did more than advocate for unity, he fought for it and ensured Igbos reclaimed all the spaces they had left in Nigeria. He rebuilt those bridges and worked to put them back in the federal civil service, judiciary, high level government positions, the armed forces and corporate Nigeria. He devised a plan, executed it to perfection and didn’t even take the credit. It’s all detailed and documented.

My mother, Chinyere Edith Asika, as one of her many skills, had a master’s degree in computer science and data management from UCLA in 1964 and kept all the records. I still have them. She was also an academic scholar from a young age and was one of the first sets at Queens College (6th Form) Lagos. My mother was a revolutionary leader and after the war, she established what was regarded then as the largest woman-led development movement. She was deeply involved in the rehabilitation of the East and the Igbos, and a development expert who spent her life fighting for Nigeria. She was also a major collector of Nigerian art, antiquities, fabrics and more, building a collection over 50 years totalling over 3,000 pieces; some of which are at the Iba Ajie, my innovation and cultural hub at Onitsha, a sacred place for me as my parents are laid to rest there. She is my inspiration for much of the work I have done in the cultural and creative spaces. And with parents like ours you read widely and learned to discuss widely as they respected and extolled all our cultures, not only the Igbo culture; I grew to learn to respect the vast cultures of Nigeria from a young age.

Coming from the private sector, who or what convinced you to take on the DG role in a government agency now?

The Minister (of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy), Hannatu Musa Musawa, convinced me after I’d kept saying no. But after a while, I couldn’t dodge anymore. Many thanks and respect to her; it’s easy to say these things, but she supported me all the way through. A lot of times you work in places, and with people, then it becomes like a conflict of ego and so on. I have nothing but great things to say about her. I’m thankful that she brought me in because I would have regretted it if I didn’t do it. I feel like it’s something I can do. We were doing this stuff every day for the last 30 years, promoting Nigeria, pushing Nigerian talents, embedding them, talking to brands and platforms. So why not do it officially?

Earlier you mentioned the Nigeria Everywhere project, in collaboration with the minister. What are other projects in the works?

Destination 2030 is the global soft power brand for Nigeria. Nigeria Everywhere, Nigeria Limitless, Nigeria Unstoppable. I love that stuff. It speaks to who we are.  I also have a number of projects I’m working on. One of them is a digital platform called Origins, which we expect all the states and traditional leaders to key into. It seeks to aggregate all of Nigeria’s history and cultural expressions, and we are bridging academia, traditional rulers, the general public and our global diaspora into one space. It is also about connecting the global black diaspora – where perhaps 60% are of Nigerian descent – to one platform as well, which is an exciting prospect.

Then, there is CLAP, the Creative Leap Accelerator Programme, which is the capacity building platform of the Council (NCAC), which is the implementing agency driving that. We have our own platform called ICE – Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship, which feeds into CLAP. Origins as well feeds into CLAP. Together, with ICE, we’ve created a network of almost 600 physical locations in the whole of Nigeria, in collaboration with Innovation Support Network (ISN) Hubs and the Committee of Vice Chancellors, and others. These locations give us the opportunity to take the digital stuff and extend it to physical at scale because there’s so much talent all over Nigeria.

How would these projects support local creative talents across all facets?

That’s what CLAP does. The programme is going to upskill 2 million people by 2027; and with that, they could work anywhere, both here and abroad because they would have honed skills and got certifications across a number of disciplines. Origins is a social commerce play. Our content is golden, and our stories are endless; but sometimes hidden, so we’re bringing everything to the fore. Origins is a place for us to meet, discuss, argue, cry, heal, whatever we want to do. For me, the most important thing is, how do you impact the people? This could be through capacity building and storytelling. Let’s be intentional about our storytelling as a nation. In Nigeria, we have more languages than tribes, maybe over 500 languages. But the most important thing is the Nigeria tribe, the biggest of all our tribes. Anywhere you go in the world, you can identify a Nigerian, no matter the region he comes from, he’s still clearly Nigerian. And that is the key for us. That’s why we are so special and stand apart, and we win when others don’t expect us to win. It’s the DNA: that Naija DNA. You can hate it, but you can’t do anything about it.

After NAFEST, what are the other plans you have in the future as DG of NCAC?

We have a number of projects in the pipeline, such as the Arts Village in Abuja. We want to build our permanent site by adding a 4,000-capacity performance venue powered by private sector partners. We also want to do a number of other projects, in fashion, music industry, etc. So, over the course of next year, we want to engage as widely as possible in the 49 or so sectors that we represent and are supposed to supervise.

You talked about bringing the Big Brother show to Nigeria in 2005. Some people say it has lost its shine and place in cultural value. What’s your view?

We just did the first edition then. But I think it’s still the number one TV show in Africa. So, I don’t know how it has lost its shine. I’m not here to moralize to anybody. If you’re an adult, watch the show. If you’re not an adult, don’t watch the show. But the funny thing is I don’t really watch these shows, I just make them. But I would say this, anybody who’s trying to use an entertainment reality TV show for their moral compass maybe needs to get a day job. Big Brother has had a massive impact in Nigeria. It has stayed connected and always been on point in terms of relevance.

What makes Big Brother is the energy between the housemates. That energy cannot be faked. It happens and it comes because there are real people in real situations in real life. And there are always real reactions. When you get those four things lined up, everybody is going to be on a similar page, not necessarily the same page. The show has not necessarily lost its aura. You could see sometimes that they feel a bit jaded; rest it for a year or two and then bring it back, because that’s television. The human eye gets tired of seeing the same thing. But if you ask MultiChoice and the other people involved, they’ll tell you it has consistently been their biggest performer for the last 20 years.

You’ve been a Liverpool supporter since 1977. Can they win the English Premier League again this time with Arne Slot as coach?

Yes, that’s 47 years now. So, we’ve suffered for many years as lifelong fans. It’ll be tough this season, but it’s not impossible (to win the league). I think we have a stronger squad than last season. Liverpool is very well positioned this time.

What Nigerian football team do you support?

Enugu Rangers. I still support them till today. My father helped create and enable the team, and I will never forget those days of going with my dad to the stadium to watch Christian Chukwu, Emmanuel Okala and others, those are lifetime memories.

You’ve been everywhere around the world, but you’re still proudly Nigerian. How did growing up in the UK shape you?

Even though I grew up in the UK after I left Ekulu Primary School, Enugu, my parents were bringing me back to Nigeria every single holiday. They were very intentional about keeping us connected to Nigeria. My mother, till the day she died, was still talking about Nigeria, and what we needed to do to fix the country. My father said the same thing but in a different way. Though he didn’t have the same hyper energy as my mother, he had that overwhelming sense of depth and intelligence, content, and focus that you had to pay attention to.

I’m blessed for the parents I had, for my siblings – my sisters whom I love dearly, and the way we were raised, with arts, literature, culture, music, and love. These are the things that have guided our lives. Both my sisters are writers. It wouldn’t have happened if not for the way we were raised. I’ve been an entrepreneur in the arts and culture space for forever. I was throwing parties as a teenager, in nightclubs, when I was 14 or 15. I’m 56 now and not as young as I was before. But in all, I realise that I’m blessed.

How do you create time for your wife and kids, despite your busy schedules?

Okay, I need to step up and improve on my work and family balance for sure. Marriage is a big deal. It’s about respect and mutual appreciation. If you have someone that’s in your corner for you, it means everything. Marriage is not a cakewalk. I’m not an expert in marriage per se, but I’d say that it’s important to be real to yourself and to your partner. You just keep trying to do better every day. There’s no exam, but if you can laugh at least once a day, you’re doing well. I am grateful for the love and affection I receive from my family, and it is enough to sustain me.

Despite the talents and creativity in Nigeria, many, especially young Nigerians, feel disillusioned about its socioeconomic issues. What’s your advice to them?

Tomorrow is another day. Stay hopeful. Stay positive. Believe in yourself. Believe in your talent. We are coming. And we will support you. When I was young, we didn’t have what we see today, we were not an emerging global force across so many sectors, today we are, and I think it’s the best time to be a young Nigerian. The fact is our global influence is felt every day and that continues to create opportunities for all our people, we clearly have a lot of work to do to fully grasp and engage these opportunities and we hope to do that in a meaningful way.