The case of ace
music producer, Babatunde Okungbowa, better known as OJB Jezreel drew public
sympathy in 2013, when calls were made to the general public to raise fund for
his kidney transplant abroad.
The target was N16
million and Nigerians swung into action as soon as the news of his kidney
problem got into public domain. But while that was going on, many wondered why
someone of OJB’s status was unable to afford such an amount, knowing the
affluence of musicians.
So, it was expected that someone like the
talented music producer should have managed his kidney ailment before it degenerated.
During the
donations, some Nigerian celebrities used OJB Jezreel’s situation for publicity
stunts as some of them announced their donations publicly.
The issue almost
caused a problem, which forced some concerned friends of OJB to debunk claims
and news report that some artistes donated for the cause. Among the artistes on
the list was D’Banj, who was reported to have donated a sum of N5 million to
the cause.
After his return
from the surgery in India, OJB Jezreel claimed D’Banj never donated towards his
treatment.
While speaking
with First
Weekly in an interview at an event in Lagos, OJB Jezreel explained that
he has no grudge against D’Banj but that some people feel reluctant to listen
to him whenever he meets them regarding helping a cause.
“I am not harsh on
D’Banj. You go to a programme and someone says you’ve raised N170 million,
others said N500 million,” OJB said. When asked if such gets to him, he
answered, “it doesn’t get to me, but it gets to you, when you are about to seal
a deal and someone said what are you doing with the N500 million you raised.
You understand what I am saying now.”
“These things
happen. When you go to a place to tell people that there are people going through
what I went through, please, they need to help them, they will say, ‘come on,
you can’t tell me you’ve finished N170 million. It is all about the people who
lied that they gave me money. It is not only D’Banj.
His own only came
out because someone said he was there, when he testified that they gave me the
money. I am not interested in who gave and who didn’t, what I am interested in
is using what God has done for me to touch other people’s lives,” he explained.
