People Have Not Been Helping Me Because of D’Banj -OJB Jezreel

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.

It is a common thing for artistes to lavish money on material things like cars, cloths, jewelry and women. What surprised many was that OJB Jezreel was the brain behind 2Face’s ‘African Queen’ hit single, which got the attention of the world and Hollywood and turned the then budding artiste into a super star.

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.