Veteran rapper Eedris Abdulkareem has clarified that his latest track, Tell Your Papa, is not a personal attack on Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu, but a response to comments he made praising his father.
Seyi had described President Tinubu as “Nigeria’s best-ever president” during a visit to Yola in March 2025. Abdulkareem said this statement inspired his new song.
“If Seyi Tinubu never talked about it, I wouldn’t have recorded a song like that,” Abdulkareem said on Channels TV’s Rubbin’ Minds.
“I am replying to the video that he made. If he had kept quiet, I wouldn’t have said anything.”
The track, which criticizes the government’s handling of the economy and security, has since been banned by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), sparking backlash from Nigerians including Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, who condemned it as censorship.
Abdulkareem stood by his message: “Nigerian youths are just asking for basics: electricity, security, enabling economic environment, job creation and not palliatives.”
He also pointed out that Tinubu may be a great father to Seyi, “but Nigerian youths don’t have jobs talkless of food to eat.” He challenged Seyi to travel by road without security to understand the struggles of ordinary Nigerians.
