President Bola Tinubu has described the late Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, as an eternal global icon whose influence continues to shape music and social consciousness worldwide, following his posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

In a State House statement on Sunday personally signed by him, the President said the Recording Academy of America’s honour affirmed Fela’s enduring impact on modern music and his foundational role in projecting African creativity to the world. The award makes Fela Kuti the first African to receive the prestigious lifetime honour.

President Tinubu noted that Fela was more than a musician, describing him as a fearless voice of the people, a philosopher of freedom, and a revolutionary whose music challenged injustice and redefined global sound.

“His courage, creativity, and conviction defined a generation and continue to inspire the world,” the President said, adding that in Yoruba mythology, Fela has transcended to a higher plane as an Orisa, becoming eternal.

The President remarked that Fela’s definition of Afrobeat remains evident in the works of successive generations of Nigerian artists, as well as in Afrobeats and other global music genres.

“Fela lives,” Tinubu declared, celebrating the late icon’s lasting legacy in Nigerian and world music.