Opinion: That Dr Izonebi Alfred on the Global Lane, By Enewaridideke Ekanpou

By: Enewaridideke Ekanpou

Thoughts journeying poetically today like Jp Clark in ‘The casualties’ I must say that the Ijaw highlife musicians are not only those who are dead; the Ijaw highlife musicians also include those who are still alive.The Ijaw highlife musicians are not only those who use ultra-modern musical instruments; neither are they only those who use percussion instruments such as ‘opuozi’ drums and ‘ekraiye’ sticks that depend on the skillfulness of percussionists. The Ijaw highlife musicians are many; the iconic Izonebi Alfred is one of the Ijaw highlife musicians. As an Ijaw highlife artiste he is clearly located by his undistracted philosophical dedication to his music career and consequently enjoys visibility and radiance in the Ijaw music industry however the number of Ijaw highlife musicians. To borrow a metaphorically cast philosophical statement from Barrister Soja Smooth in his song, ‘Born Singer’, ‘ the stars are very many in the sky but it strikes a difference when the moon appears in all her splendour and radiance’.

Gathered here today is a surging crowd responsive to the cultural, philosophical, social, educational, traditional, religious and mystical rhythms and echoes of JKing Dr Izonebi Alfred”s songs and stunning stage performances – the musically gifted Alfred differently addressed as music king by music lovers and critics as an offshoot of critical analysis of his music.

For the surging crowd gathered here and beyond it is a strongly held position that Dr Izonebi Alfred is the digitally rooted exceptional Ijaw highlife musician whose meteoric rise to music stardom is enabled by thematically rich compositional excellence and indefinable stunning stage performances – magical stage performances reinforced by his theatrical experience and exposure traceable to his immersion in the waters of Theatre Arts at the Niger Delta University, Amassoma, Bayelsa State. Through compositional dexterity mapped in his numerous songs and captivating stage performances, Alfred has deployed music to project and promote the Ijaw culture beyond the shores of Nigeria. In Izonebi Alfred’s songs one can clearly behold a positively and historically charged stirring image of Ndoro and Torugbene communities alongside their tourist potentials which are echoes of an aspect of Alfred’s music career devoted to the promotion of the communities from which he emerged biologically and historically.

Undeniably, Ndoro in both Delta and Bayelsa States and Torugbene in Delta and Bayelsa States are the biological claimants of Izonebi Alfred as his umbilical cord was interred there, though Oyangbene in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State also has an indisputable historical claim over the magically talented musician with an endless stream of songs. As historically chronicled, product of a marital union between Alfred Gbayena and Kehinde Tou, Izonebi Alfred is paternally from Ndoro and maternally from Torugbene in Bayelsa and Delta States.

Historical chronicles reveal that Izonebi was first spotted as a musician inside a mosquito net in a raffia palm tree-tapping forest in Ndoro town by his father Alfred Gbayena who caught him singing Bestman Doupere’s song ‘Ofurogha’. His graduation from the self-made music apprenticeship in the forest took him to the mosquito Music Band co-ordinated solely by his own father Alfred Gbayena who occasionally created avenues for the band to entertain people as a broader step towards mastery and perfection of his music talent compared to the initial forest apprenticeship. Alfred Gbayena was equally a highly gifted musician in his heydays, though without any recorded music album to his credit because his music talent was only showcased as a kind of entertainment during informal gatherings in the town.

Izonebi Alfred’s music journey took him to King Dr Robert Ebizimor after his graduation from the Mosquito Music Band in Ndoro that thrives on hand-made traditional musical instruments of ‘tinitini’ and ‘ekraiyogbolo’ sticks. Alfred found his roots in the king Robert Ebizimor’s music family in 1991 but was not engaged as a full-fledged member of the band until King Robert Ebizimor paved the way for him to finish his primary school at Community Primary School 2, Sagbama, in 1993 and Community Secondary School in Sagbama in 1999 since he was already in primary five at Community Primary School, Toru-Ndoro, from 1985 to 1991 when he journeyed to the family of King Ebizimor. Having finished his primary and secondary education under the financial sponsorship of King Robert Ebizimor, Izonebi Alfred proceeded to the Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State where he studied Theatre Arts and graduated in 2008 with a B.A degree in Theatre Arts and did his NYSC in 2011.

Historically, in 1991 King Ebizimor formally requested to take Izonebi away from Alfred Gbayena having seen Aguiyi-Ironsi performed amazingly in the company of the Mosquito Music Band. However, Alfred’s debut performance on the stage was in 1992 at the age of 12 when late King Robert Ebizimor gave him an opportunity to entertain music lovers with the seminal song ‘Duamabou’ – a song that eventually launched Izonebi Alfred into the music world as a young man brimful of healthy promises as a legendary musician on waiting wings. These were the healthy promises King Robert Ebizimor foresaw like Nostradamus and named him IZONEBI which was a change from his biological name AGUIYI-IRONSI given to him at birth by his parents. Besides occasional stage appearances with King Ebizimor, Izonebi Alfred was fully engaged as a member of Robert Ebizimor and his Izon Brothers Band after his graduation and NYSC service – a period during which Alfred’s music talent and skill had been sufficiently honed to entertain music lovers and enthusiasts.

Izonebi Alfred, a fourth child in a family of eight children, was born in the rural community of Ndoro on 20 May 1979 where he lived majorly in the forest as the son of a palm wine tapper, physiotherapist and trado-medical practitioner but he has metaphorically become the ‘okinikini’ snake viewed against the background of his digitally mastered and culturally rooted music that thematically and instrumentally stirs all music lovers like a gentle evening breeze that blows towards the sea shore from the ocean when one is seated on the concrete jetty at Burutu waterside in Delta State in a mood of relaxation.

It is well-known to everyone that when the Okinikini snake outgrows a river, it migrates to a bigger river and gets comfortably submerged in pursuit of its life journey of maritime hunting for existence. Metaphorically, Izonebi Alfred has musically outgrown the Ndoro river and moved to the global stage where he has begun to globalise the Ijaw culture in all its strands with the enablement from his digitally rooted and sophisticated music career that thematically and instrumentally gospels the Ijaw culture on the social media. Alfred’s music vision is globally rooted beyond the world of Ndoro, Torugbene, Oyangbene and Sagbama.

Happily married with children, Alfred is a phenomenally talented and humble young man whose approach to his music career is philosophically and ideologically based and situated. His music career carries echoes of a flawlessly prepared survey plan in the geography of music. As a musician he sees music revivalism movement as an ideological one which enables him to revive the traditional old songs of Birifou, Ball-ere Meslore, Kuro-endi, Binta Ezekiel Ebenaghan, Bekedoumo Okoloba and others. He also sees the immortalisation of late King Robert Ebizimor, Bestman Doupere, Hon. Teiyeibo Agbeotu, Field Marshal Echo Toikumo, Professor IK Belemu and many others as a philosophical commitment; and this is reflected and mapped in his songs that musically chronicle and immortalise these departed Ijaw music legends.

There is something ideological about how Alfred pursues his music career. For Izonebi Alfred, to awaken Nigerians politically to the ideals of good governance, to awaken Nigerians culturally to the acceptable ethos and treasured values in the society, to awaken Nigerians developmentally in relation to the available resources of development, is an ideological task as reflected in his songs that condemn and satirise misgovernance and promote culture as an element that moves society forward on a geometric scale. In all songs of Alfred one can identify a visible presence of a skillfully mastered attempt to revive dying traditional Ijaw songs coupled with consistent promotion and immortalization of departed Ijaw music legends like King Robert Ebizimor and others too many to enumerate.

Beyond his universally applauded compositional maturity, dexterity and stunning stage performances, Alfred is a sociable and approachable person who maintains healthy relationships with people without being snobbish and discriminatory – an attitude that reveals itself in his borderless philanthropy and financial assistance to people in a noiseless and voiceless manner distinguished from the radiant self-exhibitionism of the biblical Pharisees.

Izonebi Alfred snakes through the minds of Ijaw people as a phenomenally unbeatable music philanthropist in the Ijaw music industry as reflected in his songs philanthropically deployed to promote and immortalise late Ijaw music legends without expressed solicitation from the families of the deceased. Socially and musically, Alfred is a practitioner of borderless philanthropy both on stage and off stage.

Nobody argues that Izonebi is compositionally a grandmaster, giant, guru, legend, in music and on stage performances. Perhaps it is these qualities late King Dr Robert Ebizimor saw and crowned Izonebi Alfred a king in Ijaw music after him – an intellectual extension of which was done by King Robert Ebizimor Fans Club of Sagbama that decorated Alfred a Doctor of Philosophy in Ijaw music.

Above all these ennoblements, Alfred is a genius of gratitude. As a genius of gratitude, Alfred appreciates anything somebody does for him however small, particularly what King Robert Ebizimor did for him musically and educationally while alive. In gratitude to King Ebizimor for his good deeds to Alfred, music lovers can hardly identify a song of Izonebi Alfred that does not mention Ebizimor either in appreciatory or immortal tone. As a genius of gratitude, Izonebi Alfred had long declared that he would musically appreciate King Ebizimor until his last breath deserted him at the ripe age. Alfred’s very debut song entitled, ‘Pere Kenide’ (Pere Keride), carries roots of gratitude reflective of appreciation of King Ebizimor’s role of musical adoption and mentorship of him when he journeyed into the music family of King Robert Ebizimor in 1991.

Premised on unsolicited accolades and critical evaluation from people across the world, Alfred is a prodigy of musical composition and stage performances. An exceptionally talented iconic artiste he is right from the mosquito net and Mosquito Music band days to this day, with very healthy relationships with people across all borders of life, a producer of over 174 music albums, it surprises no one that Izonebi Alfred is the home of awards of recognition of over fifty in number from different people and organizations which cannot be accommodated here in full details. However, for League of Friends (Niger Delta University Graduates), he was decorated Honourable on the 29th of August 2010; for National Association of Odimodi Students, he was given award of appreciation on 29 December 2013; in 2017 he was given Bayelsa Musical Artiste Award (Owigiri); from Kpooka Media, he was given international merit award; from Boloubo Ogbo I of Izonebi-ebe he was given merit award for intellectual and creative work on 27 December 2018; from Sagbama Federated Communities he was given the best philosophical Izon Musical Entertainment Award on 12 September 2018; from National Union of Kpakiama Students he was given Award of Excellence for his contribution to the growth and development of the union and Ijaw nation in general; from Aleibiri Unity Carnival he was given award as the Exceptional Pillar of sport/cultural development in Ekelga, Bayelsa State on 5 January 2022; from Ndoro Federated Communities he was given award as the Numoun Pere I of Abayai kingdom on 6 January 2022; from Strength of an African Women Foundation he was given Female Gender and Development Award on 12 February 2023; from Bayelsa Musical Artiste award he was named Artiste of the year (Owigiri) in 2021; from Sagbama communitity he was awarded the Numu Pere I of Agbedi-Owei for his consistent promotion of Izon rich cultural heritage through Owigri Music; from College of Education, he was named as the owner of the most innovative and Creative Music Band on 28 December 2022 and as the Musical Re-inventor of Izon lost values and culture.

It is particularly interesting to pinpoint that having skillfully told enduring cultural stories with his digitally rooted music career, Izonebi Alfred has become a global figure whose songs explore themes that are universal in appeal. This thematic globalization underscores his metaphorisation as the ‘okinikini’ snake of the Ijaw music industry. Having outgrown both the Ndoro river and the Ijaw music industry, Izonebi Alfred has gone global with his music career because his songs and electrifying stage performances have projected him beyond the shores of Nigeria through digitalization.

We must feel obliged to note as a final note that for an Ndoro-born young man to globalise the Ijaw culture through music, for an iconic highlife musician who has also taken it upon himself the task to mentor budding Ijaw musicians as a component of his ideological drive to globalise the Ijaw culture through music and dazzling stage performances, Izonebi Alfred deserves all the ennobling celebrations in the world – even beyond the celebration of his music career, book, ultra-modern music studio and event centre. On his ideologically and philosophically situated music career that has today earned him celebratory ennoblement from Ijaw people and beyond, congratulations to JKing Dr Izonebi Alfred!

Ekanpou writes from Akparemogbene, Delta State