Veteran Nigerian musician John Asiemo, popularly known as Daddy Showkey, has revealed how Senate President Godswill Akpabio stood by him during one of the most difficult periods of his life — a car crash that left him unable to walk for three years.
Speaking on The Podcast Network, the Ajegunle-born "galala" pioneer said the accident severely damaged his spine and confined him to bed for an extended stretch of his recovery. "My spine failed. I could not walk for three years. I had a car accident," he said. "It was before the assassination attempts."
Showkey said Akpabio, who was not yet Senate President at the time, was among the first people to respond when the accident happened. "The person who first came to my rescue was Godswill Akpabio," he said. "He helped me to go to the hospital, and I was in hospital for three years. He played a lot of roles. I knew him before he became a commissioner, and he is a true friend. When that thing happened to me, if not for Godswill Akpabio, I would not have walked again."
The revelation adds a personal dimension to a friendship that predates both men's rise to their current public profiles, and comes as Showkey has been increasingly open in recent interviews about the string of near-death experiences that have shaped his life — including separate assassination attempts he says he survived in the years following his recovery.
Showkey, whose 1990s hits helped define the ghetto/galala sound that grew out of Ajegunle, remains an active voice in Nigerian music and continues to speak publicly about his path from a difficult upbringing to national recognition.