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Seven years after their public feud, Nigerian singer Timaya has refuted claims that he and his former boss Eedris Abdulkareem are alike.
During his recent interview with Naija FM, the singer was likened to his former boss and he immediately shut it down, stressing that he does not behave or talk like Abdulkareem.
He said, "Nobody fears Eedris because he talks too much, right from time. I don't even want anyone to fear me; I respect myself so that people can respect me."
"I just meant that normally nobody likes to look for Timaya's trouble because if they look for it, they'd find it," the host clarified. Timaya asserted that he and Eedris never had issues when they worked together but they still don't talk to this day.
"Eedris Abdulkareem and I never had any issues, we just had a work relationship and I learned the things I needed to learn at that time and moved on. I don't think he knew my name at that time but I only have him a shout-out because he was a part of my success story. We don't converse and we don't have any reason to," said Timaya.
He added, "When you work for people or people work with you don't act like you're tolerating them, instead treat them like family because you never know tomorrow. Those people at the top at the time were the major problem because they kept their recording artistes in the boys quarters. We didn't have a relationship before and he treated us like a boss. People did things differently at the time he and I didn't have any rapport at all for the time I worked with him."
Recall that back in 2017, the pair were at loggerheads after Timaya accused Eedris Abdulkareem of not recognising him when he was his backup, artist. He talked about how he used his own money to pay for his transportation to perform with him back in the days.
Timaya, at the time, was quick to remind him how he helped musicians like Patoranking, Runtown, Skales become popular but questioned the Mr. Lecturer singer about how many musicians he helped back in the days. He then insulted him and called him a "dirty Igbo smoker."