By Emeka Okafor
Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has explained reasons why popular singer turned activist, Eedris Abdulkareem, went after him and attempt to disparaged him in his new song ‘jagajaga reloaded’.
Keyamo, also an activist lawyer before venturing into politics, said the ‘Jagajaga’ crooner came after him after failed attempts to extort money from him and members of then Buhari Campaign Organisation during the 2019 presidential election won by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) revealed that prior to the elections, Abdulkareem, sort repeated to be part of the President Buhari campaign team where he acted as the Director of Strategic Communications for Buhari Campaign Organisation.
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The minister’s revelation came a week after Abdulkareem, in his new song, ‘jagajaga reloaded’ accused the Uvwie-born activist of abandoning activism, saying “where Festus Keyamo sef? He don dey chop with cabal o.”
But Keyamo, who released graphic of text messages the musician sent to him where he begged to join the Buhari campaign team, accused the musician of endorsing the then PDP candidate in the election, Atiku Abubarkar, when he could not extort money from him.
“Eedris Abdulkareem just released a song, ‘jagajaga reloaded’, where he waxed the following lyrics, “where Festus Keyamo sef? He don dey chop with cabal o”. I laughed out so loud and even danced to the rhythm too. But there’s a small story behind this poor attempt at blackmail
“In 2018, when I was named the Director of Strategic Communications for Buhari Campaign Organisation Eedris waxed a song in support of Buhari & wanted to join us, albeit for a fee. He then made desperate efforts to see me through text messages from his phone no. 07019691772.
“When I finally met with him, I listened to the songs, but told him I had no budget for such or any for that matter. I explained that my job was voluntary. It was the same thing I told so many other so-called activists-by-day-and-hustlers-at-night who secretly approached me.
“He then switched to the fact that he wanted a loan to pay for his hotel bills to the tune of N1.3 m & to cater for his ‘sick mum’. That was already running into more than N3m. However, one govt functionary called me to say he told him another story that his child was sick.
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“He begged me to introduce him to Malami (AGF), Amaechi & the SGF and to paint a good ‘PR’ for him. He pledged that he was with us in the campaign with his whole ‘body and soul’. But at this point, I knew he was a desperate hustler who could embarrass me, so I ghosted him.
“Shortly after this episode when he could not penetrate the system to get the money he so desperately wanted, he then endorsed Atiku and called Buhari a ‘fraudster’… But we decided to ignore his weak voice of opposition.
“After our victory, he went berserk and joined every protest against the same Buhari whom he wanted to serve with his whole ‘body and soul’, but needed money to do so. He has been mentioning my name specifically at occasions as if I am the cause of all his troubles in life.
“Now, the latest is the ‘jagajaga reloaded’ that he has waxed to vent his frustrations at not getting into the system. His reference to me as ‘chopping’ reminds me of the gaffe of then Minister Sunday Afolabi who infamously said Bola Ige was invited to Govt to ‘come and chop’!”, Keyamo wrote.
He added that he sees his appointment by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari as a honour to serve his country and to meaningfully contribute to the development of Nigeria.
According to him, “I wish to assure Eedris and any who think being in Govt is tantamount to ‘chopping’, that for some of us (I can’t speak for others) it is just an honour to serve our country and an attempt to move from armchair criticism to a real participant in order to make a difference.
“Finally, we can all sit back and enjoy the ‘jagajaga reloaded’. One of the objectives of the song is to call me out since I ghosted him for attempted extortion – he has now succeeded. Another objective is to help promote the song by my reaction – that he has also achieved!”
