POP/ROCK - Jan. 23, 1990

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You: The U.S. government’s new song “Wait for Me” may not be on the pop charts yet, but people all over Nigeria are singing along: “Dis tin them call love / na serious affair / make you think well / before you gree,” the song says in pidgin English. Translation: “This thing they call love is a serious affair. Think well before you agree.” That’s the population control message the Agency for International Development is trying to get across all over the Third World, where the agency is sponsoring similar songs in languages from West African pidgin to Philippine Tagalog. The Nigerian hit was recorded by King Sunny Ade, known in West Africa for a style called ju-ju , and Onyeku Onwenu. Ade has three wives and 12 children.