4th April, 2014
Funsho Arogundade
Recently, Nigerian music superstar, D’Banj and multiple Grammy award nominee, Femi Kuti, led 18 other African stars to unveil one of the continent’s biggest musical collaborations ever: ‘Cocoa Na Chocolate’ in support of ONE Foundation’s new campaign to boost investment in agriculture.
The new song was launched at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, while some of the featured acts who spoke about their collaborative effort.
Speaking on the effort, D’Banj, who is ONE ambassador, said as African musicians, agriculture is the single most important cause they could champion together and expressed happiness that the artistes are doing it with ONE voice.
“Here in Nigeria alone, while 70 per cent of Nigerians depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, the federal agriculture budget has been trending downwards, and is now at just 1.47 per cent. This is a serious concern, especially because Nigeria spends billions of Naira importing food every year.
“Through this song, we are calling on youths to go online and join ONE.org, to get more involved in agriculture, and to ask our governments to step up and improve agricultural investments, so that the youths can have a better chance of succeeding in it,” said the Kokomaster.
Dr. Sipho S. Moyo, Executive Director, ONE.org Africa, said the participating artistes are role models who connect with African youths.
“Their voices, in support of African agriculture, are sending a powerful message to the young generation that it is time for African leaders to scale up public investments in agriculture and ensure policy interventions are targeted to benefit small holder farmers who provide 80 per cent of the food we eat on the continent,” Moyo noted.
She added that the song is available for download for free at www.ONE.org after signing the ‘Do Agric’ petition that tells African leaders to invest in our farmers, our food, and our future.
African stars that featured in the theme song for the campaign include Omawumi, Kunle Ayo and Dontom from Nigeria; Diamond and A.Y from Tanzania, Judith Sephuma and Vusi Nova from South Africa and Dama do Bling from Mozambique.
Others are Bufallo Souljah (Zimbabwe), Fally Ipupa (DRC), Victoria Kimani, Juliani and Liz Ogumbo (Kenya), Nancy G (Swaziland), Rachid Taha (Algeria), Tiken Jah Fakoly (Cote d’Ivoire) and Wax Dey (Cameroon).