Legendary Nigerian singer Eedris Abdulkareem alleges that anonymous individuals attempted to bribe him with N200 million after the ban of his latest song ‘Tell Your Papa’.
In the song released on Monday, the rapper criticised President Bola Tinubu’s government’s economic policies.
He slammed Tinubu for making “too many empty promises,” which he dismissed as “balablu grammar”.
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) would later ban Nigerian radio and television stations from airing the song.
NBC argued that ‘Tell Your Papa’ violated public decency standards on broadcast platforms.
In an Instagram post on Friday, Abdulkareem narrated a phone conversation with someone who initially claimed to be an “honourable” and later identified himself as a senator.
Eedris Abdulkareem said the caller offered him N200 million, which he refused to accept.
“He told me he is an honourable. The [person] told me, ‘I was in a meeting yesterday with Seyi and this government, they’re trying to call you and bribe you, don’t listen to them. We are going to be sponsoring you underground,’”
he said.
“I said, ‘Who told you that I need anything?’. As I heard his voice, I know say this one na send wey dem send am. I said I’m not interested. He said ‘We’ll give you N200 million. Don’t even listen to them, we’ll sponsor you underground’.”
ALSO READ: VeryDarkMan Vows to Sponsor Eedris Abdulkareem’s Music Video “Tell Your Papa”
The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) had earlier condemned the ban of Abdulkareem’s song.
Controversial activist, VeryDarkMan, has vowed to sponsor the video shoot of Eedris Abdulkareem’s new protest song, “Tell Your Papa”.
The Federal Government, through the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, banned the song on Thursday, describing it as inappropriate and offensive.
In a twist of fate, the ban brought significant attention to the song, which was largely unnoticed before the ban.
Reacting, VDM criticised the federal government for banning the song from Nigerian radio and television, arguing that what the singer said in the song was true.