It’s now six months since Wizkid failed to perform in Uganda, leaving many of his fans disappointed.
Events organiser Suudi Lukwago aka Suudiman, who has been involved with the industry for over ten years, said Wizkid’s failure to travel to Uganda was after he realized that he had been defrauded.
“Wiz Kid’s management was told that he was to perform in a night club. (When he previously came to Uganda during the Guinness Made of Black campaign, he performed in one of the small halls at Golf Course Hotel). With that lie, they negotiated a huge discount of 40%. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the booking for Wiz Kid, who was the most popular in Africa at the time, was made in Rwanda (where he performed) by people who are amateur in the business. They comprised a singer who isn’t familiar with Wiz Kid’s management and two naïve officials from Face TV,” Suudiman revealed today.
He says he knew it a month in advance that the artiste wasn’t going to travel to Uganda because he was in contact with Wizkid’s management.
“I knew, a month before the concert that Wiz Kid wouldn’t come for the Uganda concert. Owing to the pre-event hype, a close corporate friend invited me to Cooper Chimney restaurant at the Lugogo Cricket Oval. He wanted to come on board as a sponsor and asked me, as someone who has previously organized international shows to investigate and find out whether payment had been made for the artiste to come to Uganda. The show had been advertised well and he was keen to come on board. However, since he had lost money before in similar deals, he never wanted to take chances.
“When I called my sources in Nigeria and the US, I landed on the truth. The organizers, Face TV were telling lies. When I called them, they rubbished me and my concerns. I asked them about WizKid’s play list for the concert and whether they had been in contact with the band director, and they were ignorant and showed me attitude. Unknown to them, I was in touch with someone in Wiz Kid’s camp two weeks to the stipulated date of the concert, but they confessed they were not even rehearsing for the concert. Then it dawned that Ugandans are being taken for a ride. I would be lying if I tell you how much money exchanged hands or what was on the documents reflected in the lawsuit reflected the real sum disbursed to Wiz Kid’s management team.”
Scheduled for last December, Wizkid’s show was to celebrate StarTimes 6th Anniversary in Uganda. Close to 25,000 Ugandans paid for the “Wiz Kid Live in Kampala” that never came through.
“Many Ugandans by nature are the forgiving and forgetful type. After close to 25,000 Ugandans paid for the “Wiz Kid Live in Kampala” concert in December 2016, only for him not to turn up at the last minute, it appears a closed chapter. If Star Times had worked with reputable people, all we would have now would be good memories of the concert. KT or Balaam Barugahara would have pulled off a better job. When I read of the arrest warrant by Face TV, I concluded they are jokers who need to be answerable for tainting the name of Star Times. It is almost six months since the incident, but what has been done to date to bring him to book? Some of this broad day light thuggery needs to be investigated by the IGP,” added Suudiman, who has flown in quite a number of foreign artistes including R.Kelly, Brick n’ Lace, Busy Signal, Kevin Lytle, Burna Boy, Timaya among others.
