Worries Over Tinubu’s Alleged Involvement In Fela’s Show In Lagos

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As the crew of the Fela! Musical continues to throng into the country to stage the first ever show in honour of the Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, 14 years after his death.
With the Crew already in town to reconstruct the Expo hall of Eko Hotel to look like the Broadway theatre in New York.
And the preparation of the Fela! Musical in Nigeria continues to gather momentum in the country, rumours have started escalating over the original sponsor of the multi-million dollar budget show. Many are of the opinion that the former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the financier of the show.
Unconfirmed sources disclosed to us that Tinubu has been secretly funding the show and he is said to have pumped over N20 million naira from his pocket to enable the organizers bring the show to Nigeria.
Reasons for his participation is yet unknown, but pundits claim that Tinubu’s involvement in the project is political motivated.
We were also told that Tinubu is doing this secretly so that it won’t backlash on him if the show doesn’t meet up with people’s expectation.
It could be recall that, the former Lagos governor has also engaged himself in a similar controversial situation sometimes back, when he was named as the patron of KORA awards.
The KORA awards was scheduled to hold in Nigeria last year but couldn’t hold due to the controversies surrounding it and its executive producer- Ernest Adjovi-Esade.
The award had been consistently held in South-Africa for many years before the organizers decided to move the awards ceremony to West- Africa and the country that readily came to their mind was Nigeria. They were received by the Cross-River State government to stage the award in Calabar as parts of the plans to further promote the state as a tourist centre.
The whole arrangement went loose when Tinubu was appointed the patron of the award and Ernest Adjovi had a change in plan to hold the award in Lagos.
However, it later backfired when the governor of Cross River State, Liyel Imoke cried foul and asked for a court redress and sued Ernest Adjovi-Esade.
The Cross river state sued Mr Adjovi for breach of contract and the case is yet to be decided.
The award was later moved to Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso.
Though, neither Tinubu nor any of his aides has come out publicly to confirm their involvement with the producers of the Fela show, people has been clamouring that the involvement of Tinubu in such a project of Fela! magnitude might possibly have a negative effect on the show just like the KORA awards last year.
The lengthy journey of Fela! Musical in Lagos will begin on April 14 with a concert version of the show by the original cast of FELA! at the African Shrine. The cast insists on paying homage to the subject of this award-winning musical, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and to his family at Fela’s spiritual home, the New Africa Shrine.
Lagos’ FELA! experience will be wrapped up with a farewell party hosted by Quintessentially on April 26, 2011.
FELA!, an original Broadway musical produced by Shawn ‘JayZ’ Carter and Will Smith and directed by Bill T. Jones tells the true story of the legendary Nigerian musician whose soulful Afrobeat rhythms and cutting lyrics ignited the spirit of empowerment and cultural awareness in a generation.