Join our WhatsApp channel HERE for the latest Benue news and updates!
Benue-born music legend David Abeke, better known as David Abeks, has tearfully opened up about the crushing hardship that has pushed him to the brink, declaring in a viral interview on Thursday night, November 13, 2025, that he is “dying in silence.”
The man who gave Tiv music its first modern, Western-influenced sound and took it to international stages says he now lives in abject poverty, abandoned by the same industry and community he spent over three decades building.
“I have done my best for the Tiv people. My songs will outlive me,” the visibly frail artiste told Benue info-pedia. “But today I have nothing. If anyone insults me for gaining nothing from music, they are insulting the entire Tiv nation, because the Tiv have refused to appreciate what I did.”
Abeks, whose groundbreaking 1993 single “Lost Affection” announced the arrival of contemporary Tiv pop, went on to release classics like “Tar Ne Taver Yum” (1998), “Refugee” (2003), “Come Tomorrow,” and as recently as 2024, the album Peace and Dooshima. Industry insiders credit him with more than 30 recorded songs and for single-handedly dragging Tiv music from purely traditional circles onto radio stations and global playlists.
Yet at what should be the twilight of a celebrated career, the pioneer says he battles ill health, hunger, and total neglect. “I can’t kill myself because my brothers have refused to help,” he said, his voice breaking.
The emotional outpouring has sparked outrage and soul-searching across Benue and beyond, with many asking how a cultural icon who laid the foundation for today’s generation of Tiv artistes can be left to suffer in silence.
Fans, fellow musicians, and cultural organisations have begun mobilising support, while others are calling on the Benue State government and wealthy Tiv sons and daughters to urgently intervene before the man widely regarded as the father of modern Tiv music slips away in the same quiet poverty he now laments.
As one elder put it: “If David Abeks dies like this, we will all be guilty. His voice carried our story to the world when no one else did. Now it is our turn to carry him.”
