Eedris Abdulkareem Recounts Obasanjo’s Reaction to “Nigeria Jaga Jaga”
Veteran Nigerian singer Eedris Abdulkareem has recounted an incident involving former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his controversial song “Nigeria Jaga Jaga.”
According to him, he once heard that Obasanjo publicly criticized the song during a broadcast, describing it in harsh terms while expressing disapproval of its message.
He said
“I was sleeping one day and I received a call from someone saying, “Put on your TV, Obasanjo is talking about you.” I was like, really? What did I do?
And I was hearing Obasanjo say that he loves songs like “if you push me I will push you”, he loves songs like “he go better”, but there is one st&p!d boy that sang “Nigeria Jagajaga,” it’s his father and his mother that are Jagajaga.
I was so happy that my message got to the President.
Three months later, Obasanjo gathered his governors, and they were going to Europe to look for foreign investors.
My friend, a German ambassador, reached out to me and said, “Eedris, I want you to come and perform at one of the events where your President is coming.” I said, “Great,” and entered Europe too.
It was my time to perform. The MC announced that a talented musician, Eedris Abdulkareem, will be coming on stage. Before I got to the stage, the DJ had started playing my song “Jagajaga.”
At that moment, OBJ didn’t even know it was ‘Jagajaga’. He had started shaking his body and dancing to it. Few minutes later, it dawned on him that the song being played was the same “Nigeria Jagajaga” song he had once r£buk£d.
He said, “Eeeeh,” got ups£t immediately and travelled back to Nigeria without finishing his foreign investors assignment…”
