The Daily Times Person of the Year 2020: FOLARIN FALANA (FALZ)

Epochal awards are usually given to persons, groups and others who clearly deserve to be conferred with such honours after scrutiny of a lineup of nominees.

In choosing our persons of the year 2020, we at The Daily Times ruthlessly disregarded fear or favour to uphold the truth, patriotism as well as selfless contributions to socio-political progress of our beloved country. 

Above all factors, we were guided by our conscience in choosing Folarin Falana (popularly known as FALZ) and Aisha Yesufu as The Daily Times Persons of the Year 2020 for their fearless and patriotic roles in the recent youth-led national movement and protest for genuine reforms and change, tagged #EndSARS, which began as a revolt against police brutality and other excesses.

FOLARIN FALANA (FALZ)

By Andrew Orolua, Abuja & Mutiat Lawal, Lagos

Folarin Falana, better known by his stage name, Falz, was born on October 27, 1990 in Mushin Local Government Area of Lagos State to renowned lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Femi Falana (SAN) and Mrs. Funmi Falana.

Falz had his basic education at St. Leo’s Catholic Primary School , Ikeja, Lagos and secondary education at Olashore International School, Osun State where he started music as a hobby.  This later turned out to be his second professional career.

Falz is a graduate of the University of Reading, England from where he graduated with an LLB Honors Degree in Law.

He was called to the Bar in 2012 after one year mandatory studies at the Nigerian Law School in Abuja

Falz is now a renowned rapper, songwriter and actor. He discovered his future music career while in secondary school and he seized the opportunity by forming a group called ‘The School Boys’ with his friend.

Though, a certified legal practitioner, Falz has triumphed in his career as a music artist which began in 2009.  However, he became popular after his song ‘Marry Me’ featuring vocals from Poe and Yemi Alade. He describes his style as ashzup music; a fusion of comic lyrics with contemporary hip-hop in a faux Yoruba accent.

Falz made another mark in his chosen field by establishing an Independent record label, the Bahd Guy Records.

In 2011 before he entered the Law School, Falz released a single titled ‘Waz Up Guy’; then came ‘High Class’ and ‘Currency,’ which gained him grounds in the Nigerian music industry.

This young man’s debut album ‘Wazup Guy’ emerged in 2014. His second album ‘Stories That Touch’ was released in 2015. He released ’27’ as his third studio album in 2017.

On January 15, 2019, he released his fourth studio album “Moral Instruction.” Falz was nominated in the Best Collaboration of The Year category at the 2015 Nigeria Entertainment Awards for his chart-topping single ‘Marry Me’. He was also nominated in the Best Rap Act of The Year and Best New Act to Watch categories.

In 2016, Falz won Best Actor in a Comedy Movie/Series at the 2016 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards for his role as Segun in Funke Akindele’s TV series Jenifa’s Diary. He was also voted the winner of the Viewer’s Choice Best New International Act category same year.

In May 2018, Falz released a music video titled ‘This is Nigeria’ which many considered was inspired by Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’. It highlighted Nigerian issues including the pervasive corruption and bribery.

Surprisingly, months later, it was banned by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) who claimed it was a vulgar song. When Falz was asked about this he said: “If they ban this song, then I do not understand them because that song is definitely not a vulgar song.” In his expression of anger and dissatisfaction, Falz sued NBC for N100 million.

No doubt, Falz’s parental upbringing and the fact that he is a certified legal practitioner empowered him as a rapper to dig up lots of human rights breaches in the country that have been overlooked by the government.

In a recent video he shared on his social media platforms, the rapper stated that the last time the country had a functional human right council was on December 7th, 2015 and that since then, there has been none.

Falz also shared a video in which he wrote: “Knowledge is power. It’s time to challenge! It’s time to start holding public servants accountable. They are in office to serve us and not the other way round!! We are now WIDE awake!!! #SARSmustEnd #ReformTheNigeriaPolice,’

The above underscored the neglect which the observance of human rights in the country over the years has suffered, It also shows how the bottled anger among the youths came about as they were subjected to harassments and brutality in the hands of the disband Special Anti -Robbery Squad (SARS).

Falz and another artist, Runtown led the #EndSARS protests in Mushin area of Lagos. Recently, he highlighted the state of decay in the Nigeria Police Force when he appeared as a guest at CNN’s Christiane Amanpour’s show where he talked about the #EndSARS protests in the country.

A courageous man, even at the face of intimidation that trailed the #EndSARS protest, Falz gave an account of what happened in the country from the first day when Nigerian youths decided to come out and demonstrate against police brutality.

“Myself and another artist, Runtown, we had shared on our Twitter handles that we were going to do a walk, a peaceful protest against all forms of police brutality.

“We did that with the hashtag #EndSARS. The hashtag was already in existence. It was a big thing on social media but nobody had gone to do it physically, so we decided to go a step further,” he declared.

From time immemorial efforts to put things right in a complex society like ours have  always faced one challenge or the other,  so we are not surprise that one Kenechukwu Okere filed criminal proceedings against Falz, Sam Adeyemi (senior pastor of Daystar Christian Centre); Kanu Nwankwo (former Nigerian international footballer); Innocent Idibia (singer and songwriter popularly known as 2face); David Adeleke (Afropop singer better known as Davido), Aisha Yesufu and others for promoting the #EndSARS protest.

Falz has paid an emotional tribute to the victims of police brutality with the release of a new music video, “Johnny,” the first single off his last album, Moral Instruction.

While introducing the song, which speaks of the gallant ones extra-judicially killed, Falz wrote: “We will never forget the heroes that have been unlawfully slain. This is for them. For every single Nigerian life snatched away unlawfully, we must make sure we get justice.”

He observed that “almost two years since I released the audio, even more to think that as time passed, the message became more relevant.”

Folarin Falana, popularly called Falz is one of our persons of the year. He is a young man with great visions and hope for our country that is begging to be rescued.