Revealed: Why Fela hated MKO Abiola

Back in the days, the late Afrobeat maestro, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, did not hide his hatred for the late Chief MKO Abiola. He was one of the many people Fela ridiculed with his music.
To him, the late business mogul and politician was corrupt and got his wealth fraudulently. In the song, ‘International Thief Thief,’ he called MKO out. Even though they were both natives of Abeokuta, Ogun State, the fight between Fela and MKO went on for years and
they did not get to settle till death took them away.

But according to Segun Aka-Bashorun, the son of Alao Aka- Bashorun, who was lawyer to both Fela and MKO at a time, the hatred Fela had for MKO was a personal one. While speaking at the reading of Jamiu Abiola’s ‘The President Who Never Ruled,’ a book about his father, the late MKO, Aka-Bashorun claimed that when Fela joined Decca Records West Africa, MKO was not pleased with his lyrics and certain things he was singing about.
And Abiola had a huge stake and say at Decca.

He said, “My father was their lawyer and I was close to him, which gave me the privilege to know some things. When Decca West Africa signed Fela, MKO had issues with some of the lyrics and things Fela was singing about and had to control it. Abiola had contracts with the military, so he had to find a way
to bring down Fela’s onslaught against the military government. Fela did not
like that.”

Aka-Bashorun maintained that most of the things Fela said about Abiola while he was alive were said out of the anger he had for him. He said things later got so terrible between them, as he felt the military set Abiola against him. “Due to the personal anger he had for MKO, he said so many things that were not true, just to spite him. He felt
that Abiola was used to rubbish his message. He had a lot of issues with him,” he added.

At the book reading session, he described MKO as an amazing and versatile being who loved to crack jokes, and quoted both the Quran and Bible copiously. “If MKO was here, everybody would leave this place laughing. He was so informed and he had so much love to give.
Despite having so many children, my mother said he was an amazing father and did not miss anyone’s birthday,” he added. He lauded Jamiu for putting the book together, insisting that it would go a long way in shaping the impression a lot people had about his father, MKO.
“Jamiu, what you have done is amazing; I have been talking behind you. Your dad would be very proud of this and I am so proud of you too. There are many people, including myself, who believed that most of MKO’s contracts were collected illegally.But he was a self-made millionaire. And setting the record straight as you have done in this book is awesome,” he noted.

After Decca refused to release the ‘Sorrow, Tears, and Blood’ album, Fela went ahead to set up Kalakuta Records.