2019 has indeed been an interesting and entertaining year in Nigeria and globally. During the course of the year, many celebrities were in the news for several not-so-nice reasons and scandal.
Here are our top 10 most controversial celebrities of 2019
- Tacha
Tacha, (real name Natasha Akide) the disqualified housemate of the Big Brother Naija ‘Pepper Dem’ edition, has become the most controversial reality star in Nigeria history and one of the top 10 most controversial celebrities of the year 2019.
While Tacha was still in the Big Brother’s house, a number of celebrities promised her huge amounts of money which turned out to be Audio Money. Among them was Peter Okoye of PSquare, who promised to give her N60 million if she did not win the show. Tacha didn’t win and well, let just say “the money na audio,” *In Rudeboy’s voice*
Sex therapist, Jaruma, also promised Tacha 500,000 AED which is equivalent to Nigerian N50 million, but unfortunately, that money also entered voicemail. Tacha’s management and her godmother, Jaruma had a fall out shortly after Tacha came out of the BBNaija house. Jaruma deleted the promise video from her IG page, Tacha never got the promised money and Jaruma’s reasons that only seemed like intentional excuses to avoid redeeming her pledge to the reality star.
The Instagram influencer and entrepreneur who was only just popular for the tattoo of musician, Davido’s OBO brand logo in between her breasts before the reality show, now has one of the strongest and equally, most controversial fan base called Titans.
2. Naira Marley
Nigerian Rapper, Naira Marley, grew from being just a young Nigerian with dreams into one of the most talked about Nigerian celebrities in 2019. He rose to fame when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) followed him up for the supposed support of cyber crime in an Instagram post. This led to the commission looking in on him and subsequently charging him with 11 courts bordering on counterfeit credit card and fraud.
After his release from the EFCC custody, he released, “Am I a Yahoo Boy” and “Soapy.” The latter song is unarguably one of the biggest street jams of the year. His fanbase name, Marlians, has also become ahousehold name with thousands of Nigerian youth identifying with it.
3. Biodun Fatoyinbo
Common Wealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) founder, Biodun Fatoyinbo was clad with a couple of rape scandals this year. First, it was Busola Dakolo, the wife of singer, Timi Dakolo,who came out to accuse him of raping her on different occasions about two decades ago.
Less than a week after Busola’s accusation, another lady who was an employee of COZA also came out to accuse the pastor of rape. The allegations led to an outrage with protesters demanding justice at the church’s Abuja and Lagos branches. Fatoyinbo was forced to step down from the pulpit amidst all these.
Busola filed a suit against Fatoyinbo in the high court for raping her as a teenager, but she lost the case as the judge; Justice Oathman A. Musa held that the case was empty and purely sentimental.
This is not the first time the ‘Gucci pastor’ is being accused of rape or caught up in sex scandals with his church members. In 2013, Ese Walter came out to confess that she had a week-long amorous affair with the COZA senior pastor during a visit to London .
4. Etinosa
Instagram comedian and Nollywood Actress, Etinosa Idemudia, went viral on social media early this year when she danced naked on MC Galaxy’s Instagram live video.
As though hungry for more controversial buzz around her, few weeks ago, she quoted Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child when he is young and when he is old he will not depart from it” and claimed the holy book was a scam because she is still departing even though she was trained and retrained. She then went ahead to use the Bible as an ashtray live on Instagram.
Some Muslims have since dared her to desecrate the Quran as she did the Bible.
5. Toyin Lawani
Serial entrepreneur and mother of two, Toyin Lawani of Tiannah’s Empire decided 2019 was a year to show the world what she has under her garments as she constantly dished out raunchy pictures of herself on her Instagram page.
She is also known for her quick insulting clapbacks at everyone who drops comments that do not sit well with her on her social media pages.
6. Tonto Dikeh
Tonto Dikeh is not one new to the lists of most controversial Nigerian celebrities as it seems she is always trailed by scandals, and she lives for them. Earlier this year, the drama queen created an uproar when she claimed that she never suspected her ex-husband and the father of her son, Olakunle Churchill of cheating as he could not last longer than 40 seconds in bed.
Last month, Tonto got into a fight and dirty exchange of words with blogger, Stella Dimoko Korkus. A fight that trended for hours on twitter. The blogger accused Tonto and her bestie, Bobrisky, of eating poo in Dubai. Stella also claimed that Tonto owed her N200,000 and alleged that the actress stole someone’s boyfriend, and posts empty shopping bags on social media to deceive people.
News also had it that Tonto Dikeh was detained by the Dubai Police for disturbing the peace and cursing out a security guard who refused her entry at an event in Dubai.
7. Bobrisky
Another personality who was in the news a lot this year is popular cross dresser, Bobrisky (real name, Idris Okuneye). Bobrisky is fond of making controversial statements about his transition into being a woman and how much money and gifts he gets from his “Bae.” He is also not one shy of showing off his assets on the gram.
Bobrisky claimed to have spent a sum of N19 million on his birthday bash that was invaded by the police on the count of preventing a potential breach of public peace in August. This got lots of people talking and taking sides online.
The cross-dresser was also described as a national disaster by Olusegun Runsewe, the director-general of the National council of Arts and Culture.
In October, the cross-dresser made the news headlines again in a video of him being beaten by a man who bashed his new car surfaced online.
Bobrisky has however, made a promise on his Instagram page to “put pepper” in the eyes of those who hate his lifestyle in 2020. I guess it’s safe to say, she he might be making this list again next year.
8. Wizkid & TiwaSavage
This two music stars have fueled the speculations by fans that they are romantically involved with their various raunchy acts such as butt grabbing while performing on stage, the scenes from Wizkid’s Fever video where Tiwa was the video vixen and the kiss they shared in Paris, France in October.
Whatever is going on between these two, they sure love having their fans’ tongues wag about it.
9. Regina Daniels
20-year-old Nigerian actress, Regina Daniels’ wedding to 59-year-old lawyer, businessman and politician, Ned Nwoko, within three weeks they met, was one of the biggest controversies in 2019. But whatever it is anyone had to say about her being a 6th wife at such a young age, Regina doesn’t seem to care. The couple are one for packing on PDA
Regina said in her interview with Daddy Freeze that she married someone much older than her because she was very stubborn and would not respect a younger man within her age bracket.
10. Burna Boy
Burna Boy, (real name, Damini Ogulu) the self-acclaimed African Giant asked that the organizers of Coachella and Arts Music Festival 2019 put his name in bigger fonts instead of the small font size printing of his name on the promotional poster for the event. He stated that his stance was to reflect his standing as an African Giant
The 28-year-old ‘Ye’ crooner called out a fan for not vibing to his performance during his concert in Atlanta and refunded the fan’s hundred dollar ticket price to him.
OluwaBurna also had a fall out with South African rapper, AKA during the xenophobic attack on Nigerians in South Africa recently. The artiste threatened the rapper and vowed not to visit South Africa.
Burna boy was to have a show in South Africa but the show was cancelled.
