Nigerian rapper and activist Eedris Abdulkareem has said his controversial new song Tell Your Papa is not a personal attack on Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu, but a direct response to the younger Tinubu’s public praise of his father.
In March 2025, during an event in Yola, Adamawa State, Seyi Tinubu declared President Tinubu “the greatest president in the history of Nigeria,” a remark that sparked public debate and inspired Abdulkareem's latest release.
Appearing on Channels Television’s Rubbin’ Minds on Sunday, April 13, Abdulkareem said the song was meant to call on Seyi Tinubu to urge his father to address Nigeria’s worsening economic and security crisis.
“Nigerian youths are just asking for basics: electricity, security, enabling economic environment, job creation and not palliatives,” Abdulkareem said. “So, why should I attack Seyi Tinubu personally? If Seyi Tinubu never talked about it, I wouldn’t have recorded a song like that. So, I am replying to the video that he made. If he had kept quiet, I wouldn’t have said anything. I am inspired by Seyi Tinubu to record that song.”
He reiterated that the track was not motivated by malice, but by a desire to respond to what he described as tone-deaf praise in the face of national hardship. “I was inspired by Seyi Tinubu to record the song. I saw a video where he was campaigning for his father and he was defending his father, saying ‘My father is the best president, my father is the greatest president, they are coming for my father…’ He (Seyi) repeated it like six times. But for Seyi, I differ because it looks more perfect when you are silent than when you speak. I would advise Seyi to hand over the microphone to the MC next time. He lacks the charisma and purpose to express himself, telling the truth about the true economic situation in Nigeria under his father’s government.”
Abdulkareem stressed that President Tinubu may be a good father to his son, but not to Nigerian citizens. “He (Tinubu) has empowered Seyi as his son but Nigerian youths don’t have jobs talkless of food to eat. The Nigerian youths can’t travel by road so I ask Seyi Tinubu to travel by road without his security. Let him feel the pains of ordinary citizens. Tinubu is the best father to Seyi, but he is the worst president of Nigeria. Nigerian youths don’t have jobs and are talkless of food to eat. Let Seyi travel by road without security — let him feel what Nigerians are going through.”
The song Tell Your Papa was subsequently banned by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), which deemed it “inappropriate” for broadcast. The move triggered criticism from free speech advocates, including Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, who condemned the ban as censorship and a threat to democratic expression.
Abdulkareem reacted by drawing parallels to the ban of his 2004 hit Nigeria Jaga Jaga during the Obasanjo administration. “Twenty-four years later, Jaga Jaga is still relevant,” he said. “That says a lot.”
This is not the first time the rapper has used music to critique government policies and leadership. In 2024, he released Emi Lo Kan, a song targeting both President Tinubu and Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, addressing issues such as economic hardship, hunger, and alleged marginalisation of the Igbo ethnic group.
In 2018, he also released Letter to Mr Obasanjo, calling the former president “Nigeria’s problem.” That same year, NBC fined Jay FM 101.9 in Jos ₦100,000 and banned politically charged songs like Falz’s This is Nigeria, Wande Coal’s Iskaba, and Olamide’s See Mary, See Jesus.
Reacting on Instagram to the latest ban, Abdulkareem wrote: “It’s obvious that in Nigeria, truth and constructive criticism is always deemed a big crime by the government. This administration, led by President Bola Tinubu, is going on record as one of the most insensitive, vindictive, and grossly maleficent ever.”
He continued: “In just under two years of Tinubu’s presidency, the results are frighteningly abysmal. This is a fact known to all Nigerians, regardless of religion, tribe, or political affiliation — except for a few happy slaves grovelling for crumbs from their paymaster’s table.”
Quoting the late Uthman Dan-Fodio, Abdulkareem concluded: “The conscience is an open wound; only the truth can heal it. Aluta continua.”
