In 1976 Mohammed announced a decree making it illegal for anyone to bring false accusations of corruption or mismanagement against government officials. In 1977 the federal government bought 60 percent of the equity of two of Nigeria’s largest newspapers, The Daily Times and The New Nigerian. Television and radio were already mostly state-owned. Public figures criticized military regimes at their own peril.
One of the most famous critics of the Nigerian government during the 1970s and 1980s was Fela ‘‘Anikulapo’’ Kuti, the son of famed political activist Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti. Fela had emerged in the early 1970s as the leading performer of a new style of popular music known as Afrobeat, which was a fusion of Yoruba musical styles with American jazz and funk music. Through his music Fela became an international attraction, and through his opposition to the military government he became a national hero to many Nigerians. Eccentric by nature, Fela practiced polygamy, taking twenty-seven wives, and was politically influenced by the Black Power movement in the United States. In Nigeria he founded the Kalakuta Republic, a commune that he declared independent from the government of Nigeria and from where he composed many songs criticizing the corruption and violence of Nigeria’s military regimes. For his actions he earned the ire of the Obasanjo government, which raided the Kalakuta commune with as many as 1,000 soldiers in 1978.