Charles Novia: Majek Fashek is an ingrate

Charles Novia, movie producer/entrepreneur, has said his association with reggae icon Majek Fashek cost him a lot of friends and businesses.

Novia said the musician and his manager must be “high on weed” for maligning his name.

Majek’s manager, Uzoma Omenka, had recently said his client was not adequately compensated for the remake of Send Down The Rain by Timi Dakolo.

Novia’s November Productions represented Majek at the time.

Although Dakolo and Novia maintain that there’s proof that Majek was paid, his manager says they’ll sue for N100 million for copyright infringement.

In an interview with PUNCH, the filmmaker described the Nigerian music icon as an “ingrate”, noting that everyone who once helped him eventually fled from him.

He said: “I spent about five years of my life trying to bring his career back on track but he went into a dark hole and after the dealings I had with Timi Dakolo, I said I had had enough. For somebody to call himself Majek’s manager and he is trying to malign my image, he must be high on weed, he does not know what he is saying and he is a bad influence on Majek. He is as stupid as whatever he is taking.

“The whole industry knows what I did for this guy. Uzo is not at liberty to comment on the transactions I had with Majek when I was managing him. It is not his business because we had the power of attorney and in the presence of four witnesses in the office Majek gave me power of attorney and he put his thumb print on it.

“Majek came and was begging that he needed money. We negotiated on his behalf and we got $2000 for it and that was when a naira to a dollar was about N250.

“There was never a time when I was managing Majek that he did not need money and apart from the official payments, I cannot count the number of times I gave money to that fellow out of my own goodwill. I lost friends and businesses because of Majek. He is an ingrate. Why has everybody who has helped Majek in the past run from him? These are things I should not be saying but I am a bit angry because they are maligning my name.”