My friend and I were discussing an earlier post on the power of music when she asked me why I wanted Nigerian musical artists and entertainers to consider deeply the story of the dismembering of the yet-warm body of Journalist Jamal Khashoggi shortly after he was murdered (read post here.) I said I wished they would produce more songs with real power; songs that will restrain rather than enable. Songs that could have made the forensic doctor change his mind about the task he was given by those who had taken Khashoggi captive

In the midst of all the disturbing news about domestic violence and sexual abuse of minors and under-aged children, I wish we would have music that will stop predators in their tracks! Music that do something to those instincts when they are activated and push their hosts into overdrive. Do we not need such music? Of course, we need them in English language and in our various languages. Music of real power. The kind of music the philosopher, Andrew Fletcher, must have had in mind when he declared many years ago, ‘Let me write the songs of a country, I don’t care who writes its laws.’ Music with beat and reflection. Music with dance and contemplation. Music to save the children from predators. Music to save predators from themselves. Give us such music or leave the stage trying.

Also, do we not need music that will open a new window in the imagination of those contemplating suicide. Surely, the depth of such musical production is not beyond us! Herein lies the power of late Aaliyah’s song, Try Again. How long has it been since she died? Yet this song always resonates with many who know it.

The power of trying again is not necessarily the possibilities of encountering a better outcome. It is the training the exercise gives to us. This training enables the formation of confidence, which was ebbing away before the commencement of the exercise.