Nigerians have reacted to the Saturday night tirade from the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN) against veteran Nigerian rapper, Eedris Abdulkareem.
In a lengthy thread, Keyamo had berated Abdulkareem for calling him out in his new song, ‘Jaga Jaga Reloaded’, after previously secretly lobbying to have a bite from the national cake and, at the same time, join the campaign train of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) which Keyamo directed in 2018.

The senior advocate also accused Abdulkareem of begging for a loan to pay his hotel bills, cater for his sick mum and sick child; a bill summed up to around N3 million.

In the Twitter spat, Keyamo said the veteran rapper’s new song “where he waxed the following lyrics, “where Festus Keyamo sef? He don dey chop with cabal o” as a “poor attempt at blackmail.”

However, Nigerians on Twitter have risen to the ‘Oko Asewo’ singer’s defence. They demanded that Keyamo responds to the issues such as, nepotism, bad governance, police brutality, others the rapper raised in his song instead of maligning him.

A tweep, one @mrfestusogun, towed the same line the presidency did in its defence of Isa Ali Pantami, the embattled Minister of Communications and Digital Economy of Nigeria, saying the singer was young when he sought Keyamo’s help.

He said: “Eedris Abdulkareem was a young man who didn’t know what he was doing then. This is 2021, he’s grown up and matured. Those receipts no longer represent his views. Can you now address the societal issues he raised in the new song?”

However, one user, @O_ssaio opined that “If Keyamo had accused Eedris of his journey from begging to blackmailing, you all would have been asking for receipts. Man sent receipts ahead and you are now showing faux morality… hypocrites!”

@OgbeniDipo also echoed a similar opinion and by United that the minister was wrong to display the rapper’s phone numbers in the screenshots he uploaded online.

“Just listed to Eedris Abdulkareem’s jaga jaga reloaded. He passed some good messages. Restructuring. Stop police brutality. Stop nepotism. #EndSars. Good PR from Festus Keyamo. Many of us wouldn’t have bothered streaming the song. Festus Keyamo has ignored a lot of the things he criticised in the past but he is within his rights to fire back at Eedris Abdulkareem with receipts. Minus the phone number that was showing.”

In the minister’s defence, popular influencer, @Omojuwa said “When you send the sort of text that dude sent to Festus Keyamo, you don’t then go ahead to treat them like he tried to treat Keyamo in that song/video. He specifically targeted Keyamo. I can’t blame someone for firing at someone who fired at them first! KNDF pretence!”

Another user, @Letter_to_Jack Good wrote: “in Eedris Abdulkareem’s defence, he was a young man in 2018 when he begged to be recruited into the Buhari campaign team, he has grown a lot since then and he has recanted this begging. He is now is a Reformed Social Justice Warrior.”

But @AyoOyalowo argued that Eedris “is the architect of his own destruction. Many on here may be too young to remember when Star Larger beer, the largest showbiz promoters then, brought 50 cents to Nigeria. This same useless Eedris scattered the show by trying to kill 50cents on a plane ride… I Therefore have no pity for him. He is a grown man in body who never found it appropriate to also grow in his mind. His failure today is a direct reflection of how lived his life. As you lay your bed, so you lie on it.”

This is just as @ayosogunro commended Eedris for taking “true courage to speak the truth even when you know they have your receipts. There are people like Eedris who have collected from or hoping to collect from Buhari’s govt and will never see anything bad or speak up when needed to do so.”

However, @kokomatic said that “Eedris Abdulkareem lost it the day he challenged 50Cent on that plane. Some called it boldness but it was a total stupidity. Obasanjo and Nigerian breweries ended his career. If you know you know.”

@MellowGlow berated the minister by saying that “It is rather disappointing that a SAN, and a serving member of the current administration would stoop this low. You can do better!!!”

However, @joyceanzah defended Keyamo by saying that the rapper deserved what he got. She wrote: “Interesting comment. Some people think they have monopoly of anyhowness. Know this, we all can be anyhow. If you go below the belt, some of us can go even lower! This expose is exactly what the likes of Eedris needs, it may teach him to quit being a hypocrite.”