'My mum is my God, my dad is my God' — 9ice sparks fresh debate with new spiritual remarks

• 9ice says his parents occupy the highest spiritual place in his life, calling them his "God."

• His latest comments come months after revealing he has practised as a Babalawo for 18 years.

• The remarks have sparked fresh debate online over his views on religion and spirituality.

9ice is once again at the centre of online debate after declaring that his parents, not any deity, occupy the highest spiritual place in his life.

In a video posted to his Instagram on Sunday, the artist said: "Today I'll tell you something I don't really talk about, but I'll talk today. I love my mum, I love my dad, my god is my mum, my father is my god." He went further in the comments, clarifying that the reverence typically reserved for an unseen God should instead be directed at one's parents.

The singer didn't stop there. "I don't believe in inferior Gods," he added, distancing himself from the worship of any other spiritual beings and insisting his belief system doesn't fit neatly into traditional religious structures.

Predictably, the internet had thoughts, and most of them weren't kind. A large chunk of reactions accused him of being under the influence of something, with many dismissing the statement outright rather than engaging with it.

This isn't 9ice's first brush with this kind of controversy, and that's part of why the latest clip spread as fast as it did. Back in April, he went viral for a different but related rant, this time aimed squarely at Nigeria's religious culture. 

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"You'll leave Nigeria and go to Mecca to go and lick rock all in the name of Kabba," he said then, arguing that decades of national prayer hadn't translated into national progress. He compared Nigeria's work ethic unfavourably to London's, joking that between church on Sunday, Bible study on Wednesday and vigil on Friday, "when would you work?"

That same April video carried the revelation that actually explains a lot of the current reaction: 9ice disclosed he's been a practising Babalawo, a Yoruba traditional priest, for over 18 years, a detail he'd kept private until then. He also claimed, controversially, that "every favour you want in life is in the hands of the devil."

So when he resurfaces months later, effectively rejecting organised religion's deities in favour of his parents, it reads less like an isolated outburst and more like a continuation of a worldview he's been slowly unpacking in public. 

Some Nigerians found merit in his earlier point about productivity versus performative religiosity. Far fewer have extended that same patience to his spiritual claims, with both the Babalawo reveal and now this parental-deity comparison landing mostly as fodder for mockery rather than genuine reflection.

Whether 9ice is mid-spiritual-awakening or simply enjoys stirring timelines is, at this point, anyone's guess.

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