…My 11 albums produced without standing band, earned zero royalty
The history of Islamic music in Nigeria cannot be written without a chapter for Abdul-Wahab Ademola Olalere Falowo. The Da’awah activist, a retired Deputy Registrar of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) gave a glimpse into his pioneering effort in using music for the propagation of Islam, in this interview with Razaq Bamidele.
Can you please give us the background of how the journey started?
My name is Abdul-Wahab Ademola Olalere Falowo, a native of Ilobu in the Irepodun Local Government Area of Osun State. I was born in 1951 to Muhammad Raji Alabi and Simbiat Abeke Falowo, my parents.
My father was an expert talking drummer and farmer before he embraced Islam. My maternal grandfather was a famous talking drummer and president of Talking Drummers (Aare-Ilu) of my town – Ilobu.
My father was a talking drum apprentice under my maternal grandfather, who gave his daughter (my mum) in marriage to my dad. Hence beating talking drum had been in my blood since infancy. I didn’t learn it from anyone. I just imbibed the art of beating talking drum naturally.
What level of education did you attain?
I had my early Qur’anic education at Ilobu, between 1953 and 1961 under the following Alfas: the late Pa Alhaji Uthman Atanda Ajitapa; the late Alhaji Faasaasi Olayiwola Sadiq and Alhaji Jimoh Bakare Omotoso Alurin, also late. I was in a Quranic school in my early years. I was not allowed to attend primary school by my father.
When some people saw my potentials, they persuaded my father to allow me to attend formal school. So, I had my primary education at Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School, Erin-Osun.
I was admitted into Primary 3 in April 1962, promoted to Primary 4 in 1963. I was given a double promotion to Primary 6 in 1964.
That was how I completed my primary school education in three years in 1964. I only spent three years in the primary school because when I started in 1962, I was already a grown-up boy.
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At the Quranic school, some boys who had already started the free Awolowo primary school would join us for Quranic lessons after closing from school. And from their school slates, I was able to learn how to read alphabets and numerical figures. That was how I was able to catch up with them through double promotions.
After my primary school, I went back to Arabic school at Madrasatul Asriyyah – The Modern School of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Arikalam, Owo-Ope, Osogbo – 1965 to 1968.
I was at the University of Ibadan for a one-year certificate course in Arabic and Islamic Studies (passed with distinction) between 1969 and 1970. Subsequently, I attended the University of Ilorin where I obtained B.A. (Hons.) Arabic Language and Literature – 1977 – 1980.
What inspired you to go into music?
I had the talent since when I was at the Quranic school where I used to lead in rendering Islamic songs. I attended Alhaji Imam Ajisafe Arabic Modern School, Owope, Osogbo, Osun State. I completed the entire Qur’an in 1961 and by 1962, I had started studying the meaning. And when we had ceremonies like Maoludi Nabiyy, I would lead my other colleagues in Islamic songs to entertain the guests.
So, when I started attending activities of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) like the Islamic Vacation Course (IVC), National Islamic Conference and others in 1969 at the University of Ibadan, I had become popular and people had started knowing me.
One day, during an MSSN Area Unit event in Ilorin, Alhaji A.B. Sallah, a presenter at the Radio Kwara, came to complain that even on Fridays, there was no Islamic music to play on air. He challenged us to produce Islamic songs, at least, for Friday entertainment on air.
So, an arrangement was made and we went to the Radio Kwara studio to compose a 30-minute song with musical instruments, which Alhaji Sallah started to use on-air on Friday mornings. That was just it, as people bombarded him with requests on where they could get the record to buy.
But Alhaji Sallah told them it was not an album but a song composed by the MSSN. It was against that mounting pressure that an idea of waxing a record came up. That was one of the factors that led to the production of Islamic album.
However, there was another bigger factor too for Islamic record. The current Chairman, Oyo State Muslim Community, Alhaji Kunle Sanni was also in Kwara State Polytechnic. It was he that the late Olori Odo Musulumi of Nigeria (Leader of Muslim Youth of Nigeria), Alhaji Yisa Yagboyaju, a philanthropist, challenged us to do something to correct the derogatory name, Imole, given to Muslims by the public. He tasked Kunle Sanni, a known vanguard of the MSSN to go and wax a record to correct the impression that Muslims practice a hard/difficult religion.
Encouraged by the Radio Kwara success, within a few days, I came up with the popular song, ’E ma pe Musulumi loni mole, Eni ba pe Musulumi lo ni mole, ina meje ni yoo wo to ba dorun.’ (Do not refer to Muslims as adherents of a difficult religion. Anybody who calls Muslims adherents of a difficult religion, he would enter seven hellfires in the hereafter).
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But when rendered on an occasion, where Professor Ismail Balogun and AbdulQadir Ori’re, the then Grand Khadi of Kwara State were present, they said I should change the ’seven hellfires’ angle to something mild. Within a few seconds, I had changed it to, ’Ko kewu ko beere, alaimokan ni.’ (He who refers to Muslims as adherents of a difficult religion is not learned, he is ignorant) and it was endorsed instantly.
An album in those days used to run for 15/18 minutes each side and our song could not fill up an album and we needed more songs to add to the Radio Kwara song to make it up.
Having succeeded in getting enough songs for an album, the next task was looking for promoters. Luckily, we got Ogo Oluwa Kiitan Recording Studio at Osogbo. As we were talking to the engineer, who appeared not familiar with Islamic music, I can’t remember his name. (But the owner of the company was one late Chief Joseph Afolabi), Amusa Igbalaye, who had been promoting Modiu (Eulogy of Prophet Muhammad) took interest and came to see us at Ilorin. And that was how we recorded Kwara Volume 1 in 1979, as our first album.
I had a total of 11 albums to my credit. Three volumes – Kwara Volumes 1, 2 and 3, for Kwara MSSN; two other albums followed in quick succession from the MSSN of Government Teachers’ College, Ikorodu, Lagos State, where I did my national youth service primary assignment 1980/1981.
The Principal of the School, Alhaji Razaq Sholaja, a strong Muslim and former National President of the MSSN had a pastor as deputy. The deputy principal had established a Fellowship in the school and they waxed a Christian record.
Ikorodu Volume 1 was waxed while I was still serving in the school. To invite me to serve in the school then, Alhaji Sholaja accompanied a renowned Omupo, Kwara State-born but Lagos-based cleric, Sheikh Lawal Otolorin, to Ilorin to observe Jumat Prayer. After the prayer, Sheikh Lawal said his visit was to persuade me to do the national youth service in Lagos.
Nurudeen Alowonle, from Ikorodu, a music promoter, needed Volume 2 for Ikorodu MSSN and I was conscripted from Ijebu Ode where I was teaching at the Ogun State College of Education.
For the production of the Ikorodu Volume 2, I was coming to Ikorodu from Ijebu Ode (for rehearsal with my ex-students). The Ikorodu second volume was entitled, ’Ipe Anabi la n pe yin e jade wa…’ (It is Prophet Muhammad’s call we are inviting you to, so come out to listen…)
What pioneering role did you play in Islamic music in Nigeria?
When it comes to the Islamic songs with musical instruments, I stand to be corrected, I am the pioneer of the Islamic songs with musical instruments with emphasis. I admit that Islamic songs, whether recorded or not preceded my effort.
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There were the Ansar-Ud-Deen all-female singers before mine but without musical instruments. They produced ’Alahuma soli wa sallim ala…’ (Oh God, shower your blessings on the prophet…). I remember that that preceded my own maiden album but it was without musical instruments.
Did you have a band?
I never had a standing band. In my first album, I was directing the chorus and beating the square myself. Whenever an occasion arose to wax an album, I would just gather my children, former students and others and that was it.
Sometimes, when I got an inspiration, I would write it down, call on my children and any available guys around and use chairs and the centre table in my living room, as drums and musical instruments.
How lucrative was it?
Oh, I was not doing it for money. It was solely for Islamic propagation. And that was why I never collected a single kobo from any promoter or from anybody as royalty. After the pioneering effort at the Kwara MSSN, It was the MSSN of Muslim Teachers’ Training College, Oru-Ijebu that released another album to follow us. All others like MSSN, Oyo Area Unit A, Lagos Area Unit and some other Islamic Organizations, such as YOUMBAS Anjaena, NIBROSIS, etc, also followed.
My other albums were released years later when I had been working in WAEC. The albums were released under my personal group, known as Sawtul Hikmah Al-Islamiyyah – The Voice of Islamic Wisdom. My last release ’Alakida E Rora Se’ was released in 2001, in which I admonished some fundamentalists to exercise restraint.
There are lots of evidence that I pioneered Islamic songs with musical instruments before others later followed suit. Remember, during the Bola Ige administration in Oyo State, he banned the MSSN in schools and that brought about the springing up of several Islamic musicians.
All the promoters that recorded my works, Tawakalitu, Igbalaye, Alowonle, Iyanda records and others, none of them gave me money. I didn’t bother because my initial plan was not to make money through it. We had a message to pass and there was an avenue to pass it and we passed it through the avenue. And we thank God for that.
That reminds me. In addition to the promoters mentioned, I also recorded for one Alhaji Amobi Opeyemi Records and one Almiskin Records that released my last album. It is worthy of mention that most of those promoters are no longer in that business. Some of them have even passed on. Alhaji Amusa Igbalaye of Igbalaye Records, Osogbo; Alhaji Chief Nurudeen Alowonle Ikorodu of Alowonle Sound Studio and Alhaji Amodu Ode Records, Lagos are now deceased. Alhaji Sulayman Oyegbemi, Tawakalitu Records, Oshodi, Lagos and Almiskin are no longer in the business.
How would you compare Islamic singers of your time and now?
Islamic singers today want to make money and not solely to propagate Islam as we did. All of them have commercialised Islamic music. They engage in praise-singing to make money. Out of my 11 albums, it was only in one that I mentioned my name and that was when I was said to have converted to Christianity. I never praised myself or anybody.
Did you convert to Christianity?
No, it was a lie. I was not in the country when the rumour started circulating that I had converted to Christianity. Actually, there was a G. O. Falowo, a native of Ofa in Kwara State, who was a pastor.
He studied Islamic Studies at the University of Ibadan. And because he was into crusading and knowing that I was not in the country then, he started to impersonate me. That was around 1987/88. The rumour was still on when I arrived and I first went to the Radio Kwara to grant an interview, debunking the rumour that, the Falowo in question was not me. I then backed the interview up with an album recorded by Tawakalitu Records.
So, that was the only record in which I mentioned my name. What I am driving at is that praise-singing for money is the reason our so-called Islamic singers today wax records every time. They wax records for Ramadan, for Ileya, for marriage, for birthday and so on. However, I am not saying that what they are doing is wrong or that there is no benefit in it because there is still sense even in what some of them are dishing out. That is why I would not condemn what they are doing outright.
I am still a member of their Board of Trustees (BoT), and we are trying as much as possible to correct the way they dress, how they appear on stage and their stage conduct and the way male/female singers intermingle on stage.
How do you handle overtures from women?
It was not easy to escape women temptations. But one thing I want you to flash your mind back to is that, though I was singing, I was at the same time the Chief Imam of the University of Ilorin Muslim Community. That would bring the consciousness of whom and what I represented into me. So, I would be extra careful. Remember, I was from the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Chief Imam and several times President of the MSSN, Chairman MSSN Ilorin Area Unit, and so on. I admit there were temptations but I thank God I scaled through without blemish.
Is music Islamic?
Those saying music is un-Islamic are quoting their quranic references half-way and out of context. They would not complete the verses because of their ulterior motives. The first Hadith of An-Nawawy has said that “Actions would be judged according to intentions.” Our own intention for singing was pure Da’awah and it worked perfectly.
That was what we desired and we achieved it by the grace of God. We were able to curb the exodus of Muslim youths to Christianity then. We achieved it unless someone wants to be mischievous.
How is life in retirement?
I retired as a Deputy Registrar of the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) in 2011 after 29 years in service. However, I am still active in propagating Islam.
