Music News | 25 September 2008 12:53 CET

Cold War In Nigeria's Fuji Genre Takes A New Dimension

By Alayande Dayo

The cold war going on in Nigeria's Fuji music genre is no longer news to us all but there seem to be a new dimension to the gist.

According to a source in the industry, some top fuji artistes like Sir Shina Akanni, and Alhaji Shefiu Alao, are now poised for a showdown with the Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister over what they described as 'over celebration and super imposition of the new King of Music,' Alhaji Saheed Osupa a.k.a Saridon P, on the rest of them.

We gathered that grievance of Akanni a.k.a Scorpido stems from the facts that he feels abandoned and neglected by the fuji icon after he was crowned Aare Omo Aare meaning 'the Heir apparent' many years back. Akanni condemned the 'act' of Ayinde Barrister a.k.a Alhaji Agba in its totality describing it as an insult of the highest of order. We gathered that he (Akanni) is not warming to release a bombshell to counter Alhaji Agba's action.

Akanni seem not to be the only aggrieved person as Ogun state based fuji musician Sheffiu Alao a.k.a Omo Oko thundered that its not possible for any musician to crown a fellow musician.

“It is as if Baba is only using veto power on us, but nobody amongst us has the right to proclaim any fuji artiste king because we are all birds of a feather. It is an insult imposing Saheed on us”.

Contacting the president of FUMAN Alhaji Saka Ayinde Lateef a.k.a Orobo, the Awori born fuji artiste said “ at present, we have resolved everything. When we had the story, we called for a meeting and we all met at Mosun Hotel, Alagbado. At the end of the meeting, we all sang song of peace, joy, and unity which our association stands for. Both Alhaji Shina Akanni and Alhaji Sheffiu Alao were in attendance. We appealed to them and they agreed to sheath their swords. As of now, there is no war in our house but we can't rule out the likelihood of some marketers wanting to play fast game.”

Despite all these clarifications, an insider revealed that the last has not been heard on this issue. Saying he learnt that likes of Pasuma Alabi, Sule Alao, Safejo Ajani, are likely to join force with both Shina and Sheffiu soon

The current battle is described as the mother of all battles.

Other sites The Nigerian Voice