The death of mohbad: unveiling the dark secrets in the music industry

I sat down and thought since the incident of the death of popular Nigerian afrobeat singer Oladimeji Promise Aloba popularly known as Mohbad Imole happened last Tuesday what has gone wrong in Nigeria's music industry. I can't stop exclaiming ha! Each time I remembered the awful and unfortunate incident. When did our music industry turn into a cult gathering? When did they start initiating young boys and girls into co-fraternities through music? How did it turn this bad? These are the questions I've been asking myself repeatedly.

Music is food for the soul, it is medicine for the depressed and we celebrate our singers for sharing their talents with us through their songs not knowing there is more to what we see. The Nigerian music industry is no longer safe, parents are now thinking twice before supporting their wards going into the industry. Why are we experiencing this sudden change? During the days of our fathers such as King Sunny Ade, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (K1 the Ultimate) Orlando Owoh, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and the likes, things weren't this bad.

During the olden days, they did have issues with one another but not to the extent of claiming one another's life which is very extreme. Mohbad is a struggling Nigerian youth who tries to survive with his talent in the street of Ikorodu in Lagos State before coming into the limelight through the help of his boss Azeez Fashola known as Naira Marley, a popular Nigerian singer into his record label known as "the marlians record". Naira Marley as he is fondly called saw a great talent in Mohbad and decided to help him, with joy, the naive young man decided to join the record label knowing it would be a rise to stardom for him.

During his first year in the record label, he was having a good time as there wasn't any problem between the boy and his boss. New talents were also signed to the record label and this made the label grow faster until things began to go wrong. At a point, Naira Marley stopped promoting Mohbad claiming he had a mental illness with no proof and this became a source of concern for the young man as his career was in jeopardy while another signee named "Zinoleesky" was enjoying all the attention from the boss (Naira Marley). I as a person thought Mohbad's contract with the record label had expired not knowing they had internal issues.

The young man "Mohbad" continues to stir through the storm waiting for his promotion which seems never to come as he is being denied all his royalties and other benefits. He couldn't do anything of his own unless the record label helped out, like getting a car or house which is not right. After waiting for a long time and having no positive changes, he decided to leave the record label which I think is the best decision to make but unfortunately, it turned out to be his ticket to death. After this decision, he suffered lots of harassment from the record label which became unbearable for him to the extent of writing a petition to the police. His petition wasn't attended to and I believe there was an insider to the record label among the police.

With little help coming from his colleagues who knew he was being harassed, he had been voicing out through the lyrics of his songs but as usual, we the listeners couldn't decode what he meant as we only danced to the beats and rhythm of the song forgetting the lyrics. The young man was depressed to the point of wanting to commit suicide but got saved by his wife and friend. He continued living with the wickedness being shown to him by his former boss and his associate known as "Samlarry" who went to attack him with a cutlass in a location where the young man was shooting his music video.

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He tried countless times to make his voice heard but people weren't paying enough attention. Sadly, the young man was murdered last week Tuesday in a very unjust manner. His best friend snitched on him and one of his loved signees in his former record label "Zinoleesky" sold him out to death. The major reason why he was killed is not known yet but according to his last confession in the hospital before his death, he said he was given something to drink by NDLEA (Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency) who came to arrest him at home. To me, it was a setup to take his life because according to the late singer, he started feeling uneasy after drinking the water given to him.

This made him rushed to the hospital, and at the hospital, another trap was waiting for him. He was injected by a nurse who seemed to be nowhere to be found, and immediately he died, he was buried with no delay. To worsen the case, it was reported that the casket bought for him didn't fit, and his neck had to be broken before he could fit into the casket. I was imagining the great torture exerted on him even at death. The videos released before his death made us understand that he was asked to take an oath to preserve the secrets of his record label as his boss is a drug lord. Every signee is taken to a secret place to take an oath of allegiance as they initiate the young talents into a cult. Anyone who disagrees will either run mad or pay dearly with his life just as Mohbad did.

It was said that three of the signees of the marlins record label suffered from insanity because they refused to take the oath. Their lives were ruined and their careers ended abruptly. Many of the parents of the victims are now opening up concerning their wards who have gone astray with this record label. The death of Mohbad opened the eyes of everyone in the country to see the dark sides of our so-called Afrobeat artists. This young man struggled to stay alive but he was conquered, we can only pray for his soul to rest in peace and hope justice is served by apprehending everyone involved in his death as he survived by a wife and a 5-month-old son.

To those who are closer to him, he is said to be a humble, jovial, and respectful young man who doesn't deserve to be treated the way he was treated. I would love to share one of his late songs that speaks of what he was going through at the peak of losing his life. The music industry now is corrupted with lots of dark secrets unknown to the listeners. We yearn for justice as Nigerian youths have taken to the streets in every state with a protest #justiceformohbad and a candle night. The promotion that he begged for while alive and didn't get is now in full force as three of his songs are being rated the best online and the proceedings are going into his former record label's account. Indeed something is fishy but we can only hope justice takes its course as the police are investigating the case further and ordered his corpse to be exhumed for autopsy, which I think is the best.

Thanks for your time and your comments will be appreciated. #justiceformohbad.