Last night, Ilorin trended on Twitter, but for wrong, or comic reasons.
On one side is the afro singer international fans ranting and on the other are the Ilorin people, defending their ancestral home’s intergrity.
Wizkid’s fans were outraged on Twitter, angry that he was not deservingly treated like a star. And accused and that the concert was poorly organised.
There are mentions of the plastic chair he was pictured sitting on. While fans berated it, the ‘defencecousels’ opined that either Wizkid is not too proud to accept it or that should the organizers get him Queen Bathsheba’s chair because he is Wizkid?
Ahead of his StarBoy Fest show in Lagos which would come up today, he was just in Ilorin, for another gig on Christmas Day, for which he was said to have been paid handsomely. Some sources say it’s a Kwara State government invention.
At Kwara Hotel where the show took place, he was nearly mobbed as fans jumped over asking for bear hugs. “Ọ̀fẹ́ni hug” (hug is free) soon enough become a joke, as pictures and videos pumped on social media of the scene showing the hip-hop star being rough-handled and struggling to extricate himself.
Some even climbed the stage just to hug him.
Another shared video shows Wizkid sitting on a plastic chair backstage. In the video, he was seen yawning, appearing flustered about it all.
Some also wrote that Ilorin, being a renowned religious city should have settled for their homemade artists, who are mostly Islamic singers rather than ‘high class Wizkid’.
Some also wrote that Wizkid should never have gone to the city.
“Videos and footages recorded from the scene showed clearly how the singer was being mishandled by fans.
“Things got out of control and the security had to intervene to put things in order. This could probably be the reason Wizkid was made to sit on a plastic chair, yawning while the security calmed things down for the show to continue Wizkid after the show posted a picture of how his Nike footwear looked after the mobbing and experience in Ilorin.”
However, the tussle seems to be among fans because aside pictures of his footwear Posted Wizkid himself hasnot reacted negatively to the incident.
How superstar Wizkid ended up in Ilorin on Christmas day is a story for another day.
Jimoh Taofik Adekunle
[Jimson Jaat Taofik]
December 26, 2019