A semi-talented Nigerian musician? Singer? Davido is problematic. From his early days of “I’m richer than your father”, to tweet fights, and now to promise and fail, he is not doing himself any favours, but maybe he is. No publicity is bad publicity and while among the good people of Twitter he is garnering a new reputation as scum, Twitter is a very inadequate representation of the rest of Nigeria and Africa where Davido is a superstar and is approaching godlike status.

While I’m not convinced about his musical talent or abilities, he is doing something right as he is arguably the second biggest Nigerian musician just behind Wizkid.

Earlier this month, David Adeleke (not Davido) came on Twitter to ask for help. The talented writer and Ventures Africa editor had gotten into a media programme at the prestigious Yale University and following from the days of his personal blog to the great work he does, it is easy to stan for him. In the course of his fundraising on the Internet, Davido announced to the world via his Twitter account that he had the young lad covered. I cheered, you cheered, my mum cheered, your mum probably cheered that OBO was coming through for David. With Davido’s announcement that he would be taking care of the school bills, donations started to grind down to a halt.

We waited

And waited

And tweeted

And waited some more, for the Tatty billion for akkant crooner to fulfil his promise. In this time, sounds from other sections of the internet resonated something most of us knew – Davido and his promises are audio – We go hear am, we just no go see am. A few years ago, Chuzzus was promised a Macbook by Lord Davido.  Maybe tomorrow, the Macbook will show up, but as of this point, we no even sabi wetin the carton of the Macbook go look like.

After a scathing set of tweets, by Osarumen, Davido came around with a feeble response.

I'm actually very annoyed with this Davido fellow. People were fundraising on their own, on a tight deadline, and you came to promise /1

— Osarumen Osamuyi (@SkweiRd) May 26, 2017

assistance (that nobody fucking asked you for), collected lots of PR love for it, and in the process made people LESS LIKELY to help out. /2

— Osarumen Osamuyi (@SkweiRd) May 26, 2017

I'm not even sure what to classify this nonsense as, because you have already convinced everybody that you're the richest (lol), so why /3

— Osarumen Osamuyi (@SkweiRd) May 26, 2017

on earth do you go round making promises you won't fulfill? I'd be fine if it was as harmless as the MacBook you promised someone here, 4/

— Osarumen Osamuyi (@SkweiRd) May 26, 2017

(which, as far as I know, has turned to vaporware), but donation rate slowed down significantly after you made the (unsolicited) promise. /5

— Osarumen Osamuyi (@SkweiRd) May 26, 2017

If @DavidIAdeleke sat on his hands waiting for you, he wouldn't have raised the money he needed, and you'd have continued this charade. /6

— Osarumen Osamuyi (@SkweiRd) May 26, 2017

MOST BENEVOLENT! Now, you've promised another kid money for his schooling (that he did not beg you for), so we can clap for you. Take ?? /7 pic.twitter.com/2UWW395Hip

— Osarumen Osamuyi (@SkweiRd) May 26, 2017

I'm forced to conclude that it's one of two things: either you in fact DON'T have 30 billion in your account (figurative, for the idiots /8

— Osarumen Osamuyi (@SkweiRd) May 26, 2017

who will come to nitpick in my mentions) and you feel the need to keep up appearances, OR you're insecure and you want people to like you /9

— Osarumen Osamuyi (@SkweiRd) May 26, 2017

without having to do the things that make people like people. Neither is a good look. You should know better, abeg. kmt. @iam_Davido /10

— Osarumen Osamuyi (@SkweiRd) May 26, 2017

And this cheeky tweet was added for good measure

"tAtI BiLlIOn fOr tHe aKaNT e O" pic.twitter.com/igGKGXxdGg

— Osarumen Osamuyi (@SkweiRd) May 26, 2017

Davido finally responded to the tweetstorm saying he had done a wire transfer and the money would get through much later. But the deadlines had already passed.

Yea I sent a wire yday from my American account which will reach him on Monday it's an international transfer so you wouldn't understand.. https://t.co/OeyHzs3GAH

— Davido (@iam_Davido) May 26, 2017

This behaviour is callous at best. While there are excuses for Lord Davido – he is busy, he has music to bother about, he is not god, he should not have made any promise. The time sensitive nature of the request as well as his promise could have ended the dreams of the talented young man.

My own question is – When does Davido wire the Macbook to Chuzzus?