MI Reveals Why Artistes Didn’t Donate Funds For OJB’s Medical Operation

He indirectly rapped about this
matter in one of the songs off his
new album “Human being”, and
he’s making reference to the matter
again.
Arguably the best rapper in Nigeria,
MI Abaga has revealed why artistes
didn’t donate for OJB’s kidney
complications.
MI said the fear of being ridiculed
made many artistes not to give cash
to the producer.
In his words: –
“First of all, I have the utmost
respect for Nomoreloss as a human
being.
He was definitely one of the people
that had a platform that put us on.
He is always showing me love,
always giving me good advice.
“I haven’t seen him since, and I
dread seeing him because, I can
imagine that for that one comment,
he’ll be disappointed. ‘Yo M.I, why
didn’t you reach out to me.
“But this what happened; OJB was
sick and people were trying to raise
money.
I all of a sudden went 0-100 broke,
like instantly. All of a sudden there
was letters going out, ‘like this
person didn’t contribute, why would
you ask a publicist (to write a letter),
and it became a big thing.
What caught me was the fact that
Nomoreloss who was a fellow
artiste, and he’s writing letters
saying, ‘Why won’t artiste come out,
why won’t D’banj speak out and say
he didn’t donate this money?”
“Everybody was confused, every
artiste was confused, so one or two
things started happening. A certain
artiste told me that he went and
contributed the little money that he
had, and by the time he got home, it
was put in the broadcast, ‘this is
how much you gave’.”
And it was embarrassing because
somebody else is giving N5 million,
and you have your little N100,000.
“Already, everybody was in that
N100,000 category, of which there
was maybe 20, 30 people.
Automatically it’s like ‘Yo, I’m gonna
keep my N100,000, I’m not trying to
be embarrassed. On the second
hand, you have artistes, like myself,
who were just confused, if we were
to go, what would have happened,
what would we see, because it had
become a media thing.
OJB later got the help he needed
when the Governor of Rivers State,
Rotimi Amaechi, funded the surgery.
M.I Abaga recognizes that, but
believes that more discretion and
understanding should have been
applied by Nomoreloss.
“At the end of the day, Nomoreloss
can hold his head high because OJB
did get help. But the comment in the
song came from the fact that I
remember reading back to back
articles and people were just
insulting 2face (Idibia); this guy gave
you all the music and you couldn’t
even even help him. People didn’t
know at the time, 2face’s Dad who
had later gone on to pass away from
kidney complications was in India
undergoing the same thing.
“I was privy to one moment when
they needed money right there and
then, and 2face was caught between
Lagos and Abuja, he was trying to
get money for people to send. It was
rough for some people.
People had issues every day, you
know Iyanya lost most of his family
in one year, but we never see that
side. What we see is what you
should be able to do based on our
perception of who you are.
“At least not from a fellow artiste. A
fellow artiste should understand,
and thankfully it didn’t become
controversial. That’s the truth of
what I wanted to say in the
moment.”