The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has accused Veteran musician, Eedris Abdulkareem of blackmailing him following his release of the song ‘Jagajaga reloaded.’
One of the lyrics in the song was “Where is Festus Keyamo ? He don dey chop with cabal o”.
Responding, Keyamo took to his Twitter page, revealing that Eedris had begged for money and was desperate in 2018 to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign.
His tweets read: “Abdulkareem just released a song, ‘jagajaga reloaded’, where he waxed the following lyrics, “where Festus Keyamo sef? He don dey chop with cabal oh”. I laughed out so loud and even danced to the rhythm too. But there is 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 wrote a song in support of Buhari and wanted to join us, albeit for a fee. He then made desperate efforts to see me through text messages from his phone number.
“When I finally met with Eedris, 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 and that was the same thing I told so many other so-called activists-by-day-and-hustlers-at-night who secretly approached me then.
“He begged me to introduce him to Malami (AGF), Amaechi and the SGF and to paint a good ‘PR’ for him. Eedris 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 Abubakar and called Buhari a ‘fraudster’.
According to Keyamo, Eedris has been criticizing him and the government since then.
“After APC victory, Eedris went berserk and joined every protest against the same Buhari whom he wanted to serve with his ‘body and soul’, but needed money to do so.
“Eedris has been mentioning my name specifically at occasions as if I am the cause of his troubles in life.
“Now, the latest is the ‘jagajaga reloaded’ that he has used 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 government to ‘come and chop’!
Keyamo went ahead to advise critics of Buhari government who think he is in power to ‘chop’.
According to him, his appointment is an honour to serve Nigeria to make a difference.
“I wish to assure Eedris and anyone who thinks being in government is tantamount to ‘chopping’, that for some of us (I can’t speak for others) it is just an honour to serve Nigeria 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 Eedris for attempted extortion which he has now succeeded.
“Another objective is to help him promote the song by my reaction which he has also achieved,” Keyamo wrote.
