Asa, the singer, performed ‘Fire on the Mountain’, her hit song, at the unveiling of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited on Tuesday in Abuja.

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President Muhammadu Buhari and other top government dignitaries graced the landmark event, which officially transformed the oil firm from a state-run oil corporation to a commercial venture.

On July 1, NNPC Limited legally transformed into a company whose operations and activities are regulated by the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), following the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.

At the event, the music star, born Bukola Elemide, serenaded the audience with a soulful performance of the song.

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“One day the river will over flow, and there’ll be no where for us to go, and we will run! run! Wishing we had put out the fire,” she sings.

The singer released the song, which is a track off ‘Asha’ album, in 2007.

Her performance of the song is seen by some people as a cryptic message about the situation of things in the country.

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Many others also argued that the singer’s action was in support of criticism about the government’s decision to privatise the NNPC.

The official unveiling of the company comes amid growing concerns over lingering fuel scarcity in the country.

Watch the video below:

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Here are what some Nigerians had to say:

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Below are the song’s full lyrics:

Mmm, worry, oh, oh. Mmm-mm. There is fire on the mountain and nobody seems to be on the run. Oh, there is fire on the mountaintop and no one is a-runnin’.
I wake up in the mornin’. Tell you what I see on my TV screen. I see the blood of an innocent child And everybody’s watchin’.
Now I’m looking out my window. And what do I see? I see an army of a soldier man marching across the street, yeah
Hey, Mr. Soldier man. Tomorrow is the day you go to war but you are fighting for another man’s cause
And you don’t even know him
Oooh! What did he say to make you so blind. To your conscience and reason?
Could it be love for your country?
Or for the gun you use in killing?
So… there is fire on the mountain
And nobody seems to be on the run
Oh, there is fire on the mountaintop
And no one is a-runnin’
Hey, Mr. Lover man, can I get a chance to talk to you? ‘Cause you are fooling with a dead man’s corpse. And you don’t know what you do. So you say you have a lover
And you love her like no other
So you buy her a diamond that someone has died on
Don’t you think there something wrong with this? Tell me! Who’s responsible for what we teach our children? Is it the Internet or the stars on television? Why? Oh why? Why? Oh, Why? Oh! So little Lucy turns 16
And like the movie, she’s been seen
She has a lover in her daddy
She can’t tell nobody ’til she makes the evening news
For there is fire on the mountain
And there is nobody seems to be on the run
Oh, there is fire on the mountaintop
And no one is a-runnin’, oh yes
One day the river will overflow
And there’ll be nowhere for us to go
And we will run, run. Wishing we had put out the fire, oh for there is fire on the mountain, yeah, yeah
And there ain’t nobody seems to be on the run. Nobody, nobody, oh! Oh, there is fire on the mountaintop. And no one is a-runnin’, so, yeah, yeah, yeah
There is fire on the mountain (fire in Africa, oh) Nobody seems to be on the run (Fire everywhere, everywhere in the sea, yeah!)
Fire on the mountaintop (fire in the ocean, la-da!) No one is a-runnin’
Fire on the mountain (fire, fire, fire, yeah) Nobody seems to be on the run (nobody)



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