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Babafemi Ojudu
Ace journalist and former presidential aide, Senator Babafemi Ojudu has knocked Grammy winner, Wizkid for claiming he is bigger than music icon, Fela.
Wizkid made the assertion in a post on his Instagram Stories on Tuesday following a disagreement with Fela’s son, Seun Kuti.
Seun Kuti had berated Wizkid’s fans, popularly known as Wizkid FC, for comparing the Ojuelegba crooner to Fela.
Reacting, Wizkid said, “Fela fight for freedom this Dey fight fc!! I big pass your papa, wetin you wan do? @bigbirdkuti I’m Big Wiz everyday bigger than your papa!! Wetin u one do”
But in a lengthy post on Facebook on Wednesday, Ojudu vehemently disputed the claim.
Ojudu, who did not mention Wizkid by name, said the artiste could not measure up to Fela even in ten lifetimes.
He said, “Is it true that a Nigerian youngster said he is greater than Fela? I sincerely hope he was misquoted.
“Even if he were to live ten lifetimes, his art and his life could not measure up to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
“Is it in art? Is it in music? Is it in activism, courage, or originality?”
“Fela was not just a musician; he was a movement, a conscience, a revolution in human form.
“His music gave birth to Afrobeat, a genre now studied in universities across the world, sampled by global superstars, and performed on the world’s greatest stages. From Lagos to London, New York to Berlin, Fela’s sound reshaped global music and African identity.”
Ojudu highlighted Fela’s unwavering stand against military dictatorship, noting that the music icon was fearless and unapologetic in his resistance to oppression.
According to him, Fela used his music as a weapon against injustice, corruption, colonial mentality, and state violence.
“For this, he was arrested over 200 times, brutalised, imprisoned, tortured, exiled, and silenced—yet never broken.
“His mother was murdered by the state. His house, the Kalakuta Republic, was burned to the ground. His property was seized. He was flogged, beaten, and jailed from Alagbon to Panti, hounded by police and soldiers alike. Yet, after every assault, Fela returned with sharper lyrics, deeper rhythms, and more defiant truth.
“For any young person—musician or not—to compare himself to Fela, he must first walk the corridors of Nigerian jailhouses: Lagos, Maiduguri, Benin. He must endure police cells and military tribunals. He must lose everything, go into exile, and still return with his creative spirit intact,” the former presidential aide said.
Ojudu further pointed out the music icon’s prowess as a multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, philosopher, and cultural theorist.
“He could play virtually every instrument in his band, wrote complex compositions lasting 15 to 30 minutes, and fused jazz, highlife, funk, Yoruba rhythms, and political poetry into something entirely original—something timeless,” Ojudu stated.
He enthused that Fela is honoured globally as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century; a cultural icon whose life inspired Broadway productions, documentaries, books, and academic studies; a symbol of African resistance and intellectual freedom; and a voice for the oppressed, long after his death.
“Fela did not chase acceptance. The world came to him.
“So, whoever this fellow is—if he indeed made such a claim—should simply be ignored.
“He may be one of those who would flee the country the moment the police knock once on his car window in Ojuelegba,” Ojudu added. (The Sun)