Rumours, speculations and controversies surrounding the marriage of one of Nigeria’s most successful female pop artistes, Tiwa Savage, took a melodramatic twist yesterday when her husband, Tunji Balogun aka Teebillz, reportedly attempted to commit suicide at the Ikoyi Bridge in Lagos.
Teebillz’s suicide attempt, which was widely reported in the social media space and is still trending, was linked to the alleged crisis rocking his marriage, which has come under public scrutiny in the last few weeks. Some of the reports insinuated that Teebillz – who was Tiwa’s manager before they signed the dotted line a lavish Dubai wedding on April 26, 2014 – blames his depression on marital blues.
According to the report, Tiwa’s husband – with whom she already had a son – was stopped from jumping off the rail on the Ikoyi Bridge by two other famous Nigeria musicians, Banky W and Peter Okoye of the P-Square tag-team, who quickly recognized him and rushed to save the ugly situation with support from another man present at the scene.
Fears over the present status of their marriage was triggered by an Instagram post where Teebillz allegedly bade his wife goodbye after accusing her, her mother and his own father, Ibrahim Olatunji, of wrongdoings. He accused his father of not performing his duties in the family, adding that he would have done better if he had focused on being a “better person” and not taking after his father.
Consequently, it went viral, but in another posting on Twitter later that day, he claimed that the post was sent by hackers who might have gained unauthorized access to his Instagram page.
“All the comment that were being made were not true and were not written by Tunji Balogun. I am in the process of getting back my account and I have contacted the appropriate authorities,” he posted on the @teebillzTEMP Twitter account, which he described as temporary.
Teebillz went even further, using a photograph he took with Tiwa as the profile picture of the new Twitter page just to prove that his relationship with his wife was still intact. The sudden disappearance of the previous posts also raised suspicion because no sooner had it started generating reactions than they were taken down, something that experts say rarely happens in genuine cases of hacking.
As things stand at the moment, Tiwa and Teebillz are in the spotlight while the clouds gather ominously around their marriage, which is barely two years old.
It doesn’t help that they are both in the entertainment industry, which attracts even more attention to their private lives. Teebillz, is a music producer and entrepreneur while his wife Tiwa, a chart-bursting singer par excellence.
The Lagos-born diva has been very consistent in churning out songs that get massive airplay such as “Without My Heart,” “Eminado,” “Kele Kele Love,” “Wanted, My Darlin” and “Ife We Gbona.” She has also featured on several other artistes’ songs and has won several awards at the Headies, Nigerian Entertainment Awards, MTV Awards, Channel O Awards and Nigerian Music Video Awards. She was even nominated at the MOBO and BET awards.
Tiwa moved to London at a young age where she begun to sing professionally. She started out as a back-up singer for internationally renownes musicians such as George Michael, Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, Blu Cantrell, Emma Bunton, Kelly Clarkson and others. Tiwa returned to Nigeria few years ago and has since dominated the Nigeria entertainment industry.
