Falana – A Mercedes Benz owner almost slapped Fela, later Fela bought Mercedes Benz for Taxi

Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has shared a story about an incident that happened in the 1970s involving his client, late Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, and a wealthy man who almost slapped Fela.

Falana stated that in the 1970s a rich man, who had just acquired a Mercedes Benz, raised his hand to slap Fela, but dropped it the moment he realized who he was about to slap.

Falana said that after the incident, Fela went to buy a brand new Mercedes Benz car himself. He said Fela then fixed a carrier on the car and began using it as a taxi. He added that Fela did this deliberately to demean the car.

In Falana’s words: “I had a client, a big man wanted to slap him. I am talking about the 70s. This big man was riding a Mercedes Benz car, the car had just arrived the country then. So the big man raised up his hand to slap him, but when he realized it was Fela, he dropped his hand. Fela went to buy a new Mercedes Benz car, put a carrier on it and was calling Lagos-Ikorodu to demean the car”