Controversial Following a petition against his nomination by social media users, Nigerian artist Ibrahim Olawale, also known as Brymo, has broken his silence on his loss at the All-Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA.
Recall that the artist, who was opposed to Peter Obi’s bid for the Labour Party nomination, came under criticism for saying that the drive for Biafra would make an Igbo presidency a “pipe dream.”
As long as there (are) talks by prominent people from Igboland about Biafra, an Igbo presidency will be a pipe dream, he tweeted.
Unperturbed with the heavy backlashes his tweets stirred, Brymo had in another tweet blurted out against Igbos:
Fck The Ndi Igbo !! .. To Hll With It!!
Angered by the singer’s constant anti-Igbo comments, a man identified as Charles Ogundele launched the petition against Brymo, urging Nigerians to sign the petition in order to prevent the singer from winning the AFRIMA in 2023.
Brymo’s disqualification would send a clear message that overt ethnic discrimination would not be tolerated, according to the petition, which had over 47,000 signatures from Nigerians.
Brymo later expressed regret for his comments, but the organizers chose not to disqualify him, and Mali-based Iba One won the prizes in his place.
Prior to the petition for his disqualification being submitted, Brymo said in an interview with Cable that he was looking forward to receiving the honor.
He argued that a multitude of things contributed to him not winning the prize, not the Southeast fracas.
Before his work was nominated, Brymo announced his retirement from music; as a result, he is no longer eligible for the prizes.
He said;
I think, months before, I’d announced that I was no longer a musician and that I was instead a sonic artist. It meant I was no longer eligible for awards that musicians get.
However, AFRIMA nominated my work ‘Esan’, so I forgot all that and looked forward to the event. But in truth, I’m no longer a singer so I didn’t want it.
There’s a songwriting category but they shouldn’t nominate sonic artists. I was looking forward to it anyway, and then something happened. I got into trouble talking about Biafra leaving and staying.
So, I stayed out of AFRIMA and didn’t attack the award afterward. Not winning had nothing to do with southeast fracas. Everything only just came together.