IZONEBI’S SEASON OF DEGRADATION
BY EKANPOU ENEWARIDIDEKE
The cycle in the life of man is cosmically decreed. In the cosmically decreed cycle of life composed of consciousness driven by social existence(as Karl Marx would say) there are behaviourally earned demarcated phases of praiseworthiness, blameworthiness, elevation and humiliation. It appears the behaviourally earned phase of blameworthiness and humiliation has just come full circle for King Alfred Izonebi like the arrival of a full moon in the sky.
King Alfred Izonebi is that notable king in the Niger Delta distinguished by educational exposure, decorum, civility, approachability, sociability and quotable political, social, cultural and philosophical statements – a king always focused on his goals without any streak of envy and covetousness in thoughts and in actions. In the hyper-critical thoughts of some people King Izonebi is the king who ostentatiously parades ‘irredentist’ and ‘annexational’ proclivities beyond his known kingdom of rulership.
Within the limits of predictability it remains a fact that the irredentist and annexational proclivities often displayed by King Izonebi will have him humiliated someday.This predictable day of radiations of humiliation has just come and gone, leaving King Alfred Izonebi brutally bruised as the first Niger Delta King to be publicly humiliated without defence from his trusted subjects.
It is an inseparable component of the thinking of many Niger Deltans that King Izonebi is an object – an object which, when phenomenologically surveyed, produces various vibrations and radiations.When these vibrations and radiations are concretised through critical individual sieves, they become irredentist and annexational inclinations of Izonebi which should be reciprocally rewarded with corresponding humiliation as it was on that day, but critically looked at again with an objective lens, all these perspectives become mere creations of morally diseased minds weighted to stop the meteoric rise of a music star in a given plane of existence – which is an impossibility.
In the journey of phenomenologically produced vibrations and radiations centred on King Izonebi – vibrations and radiations situated within individually coloured lenses of self-serving interpretations – they condense into the mould of a man consciously working to be the foremost musician after King Robert Ebizimor, or one who already sees, projects and positions himself as the foremost highlife musician after the death of King Ebizimor.Invidious thoughts armed with legs and hands by idle men to occupy idle spaces!
Everywhere, like the waters of the ocean, is the humiliation of King Alfred Izonebi. The social media is boiling, burning and buzzing with this sudden reduction of the fast growing personality of this King called Izonebi who had long stubbornly refused to limit his governance to his kingdom alone.Rather obtrusively, King Izonebi spreads his governance and rulership to even kingdoms he has little or no historical, cultural, social, political and economic alliances or affiliations with, though there is an intangible link carrying the character of an undercurrent that snakes through every available fissure in those so-called kingdoms. It is this intangible link, this alliance and unsolicited natural bond which is King Izonebi’s motivation and empowerment to govern kingdoms without solicitation, and it is this seemingly obtrusive quality that provokes other kingdoms daily, landing him ‘Pataru’ in this recent phase of blameworthiness and degradation.
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The day deliberately marked down to humiliate King Izonebi in cahoots with all the kingdoms long infuriated by his obtrusive governance style came recently as evilly planned. King Izonebi from Bayelsa and Delta States was that once fledgling young Ijaw highlife musician who grew up under the apprenticeship of King Dr. Robert Ebizimor from 1992 till 31 July 2014 when King Ebizimor suddenly journeyed away from the earth.
Painstakingly created by King Dr. Robert Ebizimor who futurologically saw Izonebi as a music king based on his already evolving mastery of instrumentation and vocalisation, Izonebi’s songs become a dominant spellbinding force in the music listening world after the death of King Dr. Robert Ebizimor his inimitable music father. Izonebi’s mesmerising stage performances also enjoy visibility and spellbinding dominance among music listeners much like his thematically meaningful and contemporary songs weighted with the political, social, cultural, historical and philosophical rhythms of the present time.
From the wowed enthusiastic music listeners and aficionados come amazing encores for Izonebi’s songs and inspiring stage performances, apparently creating a semblance that king Izonebi is the only highlife musician in the Ijaw music industry after King Dr. Ebizimor’s death though there are other Ijaw musicians creating their own waves and crests in the ocean of music.
Encores for King Izonebi’s songs and stage performances come from every part of the world producing the predominant vibration that he is the one arrogantly and obtrusively pushing or propelling himself to prominence, dominance and visibility in the music world whereas it is his songs that carry the full weight of this detected asigned arrogance and obtrusiveness without the artiste being aware of this diseased perspective. To many this dominance in songs and stage performances is a product of Izonebi’s calculated arrogance though his behaviour does not embody this arrogance and obtrusiveness associated with his musical visibility – a musical visibility foregrounded by King Izonebi’s God-given excellent compositional skill and unbeatable stage performances rather than calculated arrogance and obtrusiveness.
King Izonebi daily commands or attracts attribution of arrogance and obtrusiveness as a result of his apparent hegemonisation or monopolization of the Ijaw music space derived from his hit songs and amazing stage performances.As an emanation from the arrogance and obtrusiveness often invidiously attributed to King Izonebi based on his very popular songs and remarkable stage performances, he had long been pencilled down deservingly as a targeted object of public humiliation by his enemies and detractors. Many individuals and kingdoms in the music world had long felt overshadowed, slighted, infantilised, degraded and indignified by Izonebi’s excellence-driven visibiity in the music world right from a very young age – a very young age raging everywhere like harmattan fire.
July 30 2023 was chosen as the day to humiliate King Alfred Izonebi who had long governed radiantly with arrogance in music and stage performance. The whole world came crashing down on King Izonebi. King Izonebi felt drenched heavily by tears of humiliation. It was on the eve of the 9th remembrance anniversary of King Dr Robert Ebizimor at Sagbama town in Bayelsa State – a day conceptually created for King Izonebi to remember King Dr. Ebizimor musically. He mounted the stage and allowed the hit songs of his music Grand Master, King Dr. Ebizimor, and his own mesmerising stage performance to descend furiously on the audience like a heavy rain, ‘cutting’ the people bedraggled like JP Clark’s bedraggled ‘owls’ and ‘bats’ on the iroko tree too heavily drenched to fly off the tree in ‘Night Rain’. King Izonebi was at his best as he was determined to tell the world musically how much respect he had for King Dr. Robert Ebizimor, the music genius even though everyone knew the Grand Master of Ijaw music was no more on earth.
Gaily away telling his music story mesmerisingly on the stage King Izonebi did not know a sword of humiliation was hanging by, waiting to cut him into pieces.
Ambassador Dr. Hon. Odogu Charles Akpofini, a Ph.D holder, is the reputable president of King Dr. Robert Ebizimor Fans Club in Sagbama town.He walked up to the performance stage with grace and dignity after hours of uninterrupted remarkable music fireworks from King Izonebi and unceremoniously halted the music fireworks of King Izonebi’s creation. Contrarily, everybody applauded Dr. Akpofini’s disruptive action because it was very much in line with the planned humiliation of King Izonebi who was only taken unawares at that moment.
Rather indecorously, Dr. Akpofini took the microphone from King Izonebi and gave a brief speech, holding a crown. After the brief speech which was a highlight of Izonebi’s accomplishments in his music career and notable stage performances, he ceremoniously placed a crown on King Izonebi’s head and announced that King Alfred Izonebi had been honorifically decorated with Doctor of Ijaw Music in recognition of his thematically striking songs and remarkable stage performances. The wowed crowd came out in their thousands like ants filing out of the hollow of Eyanyan tree in Ndorobou Forest and congratulated Izonebi on his honorific elevation; it was an appreciatory coup planned against King Izonebi. King Dr. Alfred Izonebi was too surprised for words because he never anticipated it. It was a pleasant shocker that immediately produced tears of being honorifically appreciated by his own Ijaw people. Izonebi felt ambushed and humiliated.
The humiliation of King Dr. Alfred Izonebi on the 30th of July 2023 was a master plan of King Dr. Robert Ebizimor Fans Club led by Dr. Hon. Akpofini but uproariously hailed by the entire crowd that came out to watch him on the stage. For King Dr. Alfred Izonebi, a graduate of Theatre Arts from the Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State, humiliated for his thematically striking songs and stage performances, the meditation is for a ceaseless stream of humiliation to cascade upon him from the North, West, East and South of this wide wide world so that phenomenological interpretation of the Izonebi personality as an object critically engaged by different people would produce the right vibrations and radiations, not that pathological obtrusive hunt for space-hegemonisation in the Ijaw music space wrongly attributed to him with a heavy bag of baseless envy and fear of being overshadowed musically. Congratulations to Dr. King Alfred Izonebi, the philosophically situated ambushed and humiliated highlife Ijaw musician from Ndorobou and Oyanbou Forests!
Enewaridideke writes from Akparemogbene, Delta State
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