Dear You.

1. Wizkid owes us an apology. But will the apology come? Victor Osimhen never offered that apology verbally. He did it with actions. Once he scored that goal against Algeria, we took it as an apology.

2. Victor Osimhen is a national treasure in his own right. Same with Wizkid. However, Fela Anikulapokuti isn’t just another national treasure. He is more than that. And as such, I understand why a certain set of Nigerians aren’t taking the shade at him lightly. Saying he is better than Fela is a context thing. The context is within that space of trigger and provocation. Even Wizkid knows the truth.

3. Fela did what supermen could do. To be a Superman, you really must be willing to lose your life. Fela selflessly did things without thinking of himself and his family. He was heroic by choice and would rather subject himself to beatings, imprisonment, and torture from the government than be bothered about himself and his family. Most of us are restricted by the thought of jail and family denial. We think of our family and restrain ourselves. But Fela was ruthlessly committed to the truth regardless.

4. That’s why we celebrate people like Martin Luther King Jr. and others like Bob Marley. Aside from the fact that they were geniuses in their fields, they were as selfless as they were freedom fighters. And this came at the cost of their lives, their happiness, their own freedom, and more.

5. You won’t understand these things unless you understand. So we can talk from now until the end of time and you still won’t get it, all depending on your level of ignorance and exposure to knowledge, not because you are Gen Z.

6. Seun Kuti went overboard. Seun Kuti overflogged it. But in the scale of things, who is Seun Kuti? Perhaps the best Seun deserved was silence. After five days of barking, Seun decided to touch Wizkid where it would hurt. And his dark moves earned or provoked the dark sides of Wizkid, and that’s what brought us to this point—a point that sees us exposed to the disrespect of the Abami Eda.

7. Some of you don’t understand what these fan bases represent in the lives of these artistes. Music fan bases are powerful, loud, and highly efficient. They have a direct effect on streaming numbers, social media engagement, street presence, concert turnout, and media influence. Communications directors, marketing execs, brand endorsement officers, and brand managers dish out money to artistes based on the strength of these fan bases.

8. It’s a global thing. Just as we have Wizkid FC (for Wizkid), 30BG (for Davido), Outsiders (for Burna Boy), Baddo Movement (for Olamide), and Ravers (for Rema) in Nigeria, that’s how we have Swifties (for Taylor Swift), Barbz (for Nicki Minaj), BeyHive (for Beyoncé), Beliebers (for Justin Bieber), Rihanna Navy, and so on.

9. When Seun Kuti called Wizkid FC a Ghost FC and also made pointers to their insignificance in comments that compared them to 30BG and the Outsiders, saying the other two fan bases can fill up a stadium but Wizkid FC can’t, he was reaching for Wizkid’s financial scrotum. He finally grabbed the scrotum and yanked it when he said Wizkid wasn’t going to defend Wizkid FC because they are worthless or headless. If Wizkid didn’t say anything, he stood the chance of losing that fan base. The anger of being provoked to talk is what led to Wizkid saying, “I better pass your papa.” And there, he spoke the minds of almost all the Wizkid FC fan base. While they respect Fela, they sure have made up their minds on who their GOAT is.

10. All these were never necessary. Seun wanted the importance of Fela to be debated and discussed in the gutters. He took the debate to the gutters, and that’s why we are all seeing gutter talks from all quarters. “I better pass your papa” and most of the things Wizkid said were gutter talks. He went into the gutters to answer Seun Kuti. And there in the gutters, there’s only one language—gutter talks! So I don’t blame Wizkid. I just want him to apologise, now that we all have agreed that Seun Kuti is a gutter kid.

Your Gutter Talk Spotter

Ediale

#ForTheCulture

PS: Don’t be disturbed. Don’t be surprised if Wizkid might have already apologised or ironed things out with the other Kutis that are not in the gutter. And in all you do today, if you don’t know, take a moment to ask questions, read a book, or research history to know more about the legacies of the heroic deeds of Fela Anikulapokuti.