Nigerian singer Simi has directly addressed the fierce social media backlash triggered by her previous tweets from over a decade ago. The controversy gained momentum on Monday, February 23, 2026, after critics dug posts from 2012 in which a then-23-year-old Simi shared anecdotes about children at her mother’s daycare.
The resurfaced tweets, which included jokes about a four-year-old having a “crush” on her and attempting to “lock lips,” were weaponized by online detractors to label the singer a pedophile and mock her with the derogatory nickname “Ikorodu Celine Dion.” This wave of cancel culture followed Simi’s tweet against rape culture during the viral Mirabel saga, where she had called for rapists to be “burnt and castrated” before the accuser eventually confessed to fabricating the claim.
Responding to the uproar on her X page, Simi refused to apologize for what she described as innocent, “mischievous” observations from her life before she became famous. She explained that in 2012, she was living with her mother and assisting at her daycare center while pursuing her music career. “I tweeted everything that happened in my life, as we all did at the time. Kids can be mischievous… Nothing I tweeted was from perversion,” she clarified.
Simi expressed frustration that her past was being twisted by a faceless mob to fit a false narrative, emphasizing that her comments were simply reflections of how she found children cute and lovable.
Despite the intense scrutiny, the Duduke crooner reaffirmed her deep commitment to advocating for victims of sexual violence. While she noted that her team had deleted some of the old tweets to protect her family from further harassment, she insisted that her current activism is not a costume but a core part of her identity.
“I have always spoken against rape and sexual assault, even before you knew I existed… I said stop raping women. I stand by it,” she wrote. The incident has left the Nigerian digital space deeply divided, with some demanding accountability for her old posts and others defending the singer against what they view as a coordinated attempt to silence a prominent voice for women’s safety.
