I never supported Buhari or campaigned for Tinubu – Femi Kuti

Afrobeat star Femi Kuti has expressed strong displeasure over claims linking him to former President Muhammadu Buhari or suggesting that he campaigned for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, describing such narratives as false and deeply hurtful.

Femi made this known during an appearance on Arise Television while reacting to the posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recently conferred on his late father, Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

According to him, the prestigious honour represents global recognition of Fela’s lifelong resistance against dictatorship, corruption and injustice in Nigeria and across Africa.

“Everybody is very happy. We’re excited,” Femi said. “I’m in Los Angeles right now, and it’s hard to explain, unless you were alive in the 1970s, what my father did fighting dictatorship in Nigeria. People were very frightened of the military.”

He recalled the repeated harassment and violence Fela faced from the state, noting that such experiences left lasting trauma on the family.

“It was raid after raid. The burning of Kalakuta. His mother being thrown out of the window; she later died from the injuries she sustained,” he said. “We never knew when he would be arrested or released. It was arrest after arrest.”

Femi stressed that his father’s music was inseparable from Nigeria’s political history, explaining how Fela’s sound evolved into a powerful weapon of resistance.

“You have to understand how he developed his music,” he said. “From the 1960s to hits like Lady and Shakara, then he went fully political, confronting regime after regime.”

Reacting to questions about present-day politics, Femi firmly rejected attempts to associate him or his family with leaders his father openly opposed.

“When people say that somebody like me supported Buhari, that lie irritates me,” he said. “Or when people say I campaigned for Tinubu, those things hurt me as a person.”

He added that it would be impossible for Fela’s children to align with any government that does not genuinely serve the people.

“As Fela’s son, it is impossible for us to be part of any government that is not for the people, especially governments he opposed — people who beat him, arrested him or jailed him,” Femi stated.

Speaking further on the Grammy recognition, Femi said the award reflects decades of effort by the Kuti family and the global Afrobeat community to preserve and promote Fela’s legacy.

“My elder sister, my brother Seun, my son Made, and the rest of the family — we have all done our little bit to keep talking about him,” he said. “Musicians are playing his music, people are studying it, and Afrobeat artists today are inspired by him.”

“To top it all with one of the biggest awards in the world, the Grammys, what more can we want?” he added. “But it’s not for the family alone. Fela was a father to many. He was truly a voice for the voicele

ss in the 1970s and 1980s.”