Minister of state for labour and employment Festus Keyamo has accused singer Eedris Abdulkareem of double standards, releasing evidence to show that he desperately sought to join the Buhari administration in 2018.
Eedris recently dropped ‘Jaga Jaga Reloaded’ the remake of his 2003 hit song ‘Jaga Jaga’ which caused a stir during the Obasanjo administration.
In the new song, Eedris dropped a line about Mr Keyamo, saying, “Where Festus Keyamo sef? He don dey chop with cabal o.”
Keyamo, however, in a Twitter thread on Saturday night went full throttle in events which preceded the release of the song.
He accused Eedris of becoming an activist overnight against the Buhari administration simply because he couldn’t get into the “system”.
“Eedris Abdulkareem just released a song, ‘jagajaga reloaded’, where he waxed the following lyrics, “where Festus Keyamo sef? He don dey chop with cabal o”. I laughed out so loud and even danced to the rhythm too. But there’s a small story behind this poor attempt at blackmail to @fkeyamo,” he wrote.
“In 2018, when I was named the Director of Strategic Communications for Buhari Campaign Organisation Eedris waxed a song in support of Buhari & wanted to join us, albeit for a fee. He then made desperate efforts to see me through text messages from his phone no. 07019691772.
“When I finally met with him, 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. It was the same thing I told so many other so-called activists-by-day-and-hustlers-at-night who secretly approached me.
“He then switched to the fact that he wanted a loan to pay for his hotel bills to the tune of N1.3 m & to cater for his ‘sick mum’. That was already running into more than N3m. However, one govt functionary called me to say he told him another story that his child was sick.
“He begged me to introduce him to Malami (AGF), Amaechi & the SGF and to paint a good ‘PR’ for him. He 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 and called Buhari a ‘fraudster’. See one of the links here… https://m.guardian.ng/life/eedris-abdulkareem-calls-president-buhari-a-successful-fraudster/. But we decided to ignore his weak voice of opposition.
“After our victory, he went berserk and joined every protests against the same Buhari whom he wanted to serve with his whole ‘body and soul’, but needed money to do so. He has been mentioning my name specifically at occasions as if I am the cause of all his troubles in life.”
Keyamo said Eedris’ reference to him as ‘chopping’ reminds him of the gaffe of “then minister Sunday Afolabi who infamously said Bola Ige was invited to Govt to ‘come and chop!’”
He added that being part of government, to him, was an honour to serve and actively make a change.
“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 him for attempted extortion – he has now succeeded. Another objective is to help promote the song by my reaction – that he has also achieved!” he said.
Eedris had in 2019 released the first remake of the song which he titled ‘Jaga Jaga 2’.
