Nigerian gospel singer, Mike Abdul, has said that if the trending dance step, Zanku, can be regarded as worldly, then gospel singers should not drive cars or make use of other items that were made in the world. He made this remark against the backdrop of the backlash triggered by another gospel singer, Tope Alabi, who was seen in a video that went viral on social media dancing the ‘Zanku’ style at her late father’s wake keep.

Abdul said,

It was at her father’s burial and she was emotional. She needed to let off steam. In Yorubaland, it is a good thing if one’s parent outlives one. It is not good for a parent to know the grave of a child, so she was thankful for the fact that she was able to bury her father. She also lost her mother some years ago.

Some people even said if she was chewing gum irresponsibly. The question I have for such people is, what is the proper way of chewing gum? I checked the Instagram pages of the people who criticised her and I saw that they were not as holy as they claimed. People were just hypocritical with their criticism. I think people wanted to demonise her. I was with her at Oshodi (Lagos State)when she danced that way and the video was recorded. It was even a gospel song she was dancing to.

Right now, I am actually confused because I don’t know what constitutes ‘worldly music’. People shouldn’t be driving cars or wearing designer clothes such as Gucci because they are ‘worldly’ and were made by men. Many of the things we use were made by people who don’t believe in God. I think anybody should dance ‘zanku’, ‘shaku shaku’ or anything they want to dance. Nobody can worship and praise God for you. That you worship God in a solemn way doesn’t mean everyone should also do that.

Abdul also insisted that he wasn’t being biased with his support for Alabi. He said,

I cannot be said to be biased because I was one of the first people that started singing gospel fuji back when fuji music was considered worldly music. If I was the one that danced that way, people probably wouldn’t have talked because I have been doing that for a long time. I always take whatever is mainstream and give people the gospel alternative.

On the insinuation that individual members of Midnight Crew have not been able to do better than the group, the singer said,

I think they are right because it was a great group and we made a lot of great things together. However, it is also a matter of opinion and I wouldn’t want to say much about that. People have the right to their views.

On if the group would come back together to make music, Abdul said,

We really wish to (reunite) but we are not growing younger and we all have different responsibilities. One of us lives in the UK with her kids. We cannot tell her to leave her family for Midnight Crew.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.