NIGERIA, Dec. 3 -- Jamaica-born reggae sensation Jimmy Cliff is dead, aged 81. His "House of Exile" (1974) and Tracy Chapman's "All that you have is your soul" (1989) are my best of all times. Cliff's "Have you heard the news?" (1976), in which he dragged Nigeria's name in the mud over a business deal with some music promoters gone awry, as a result of which he was arrested on his landing in Nigeria on December 10, 1974 and was detained for three days, never stopped to amuse!

Cliff was accused of breach of contract, but because of his larger-than-life image, his voice resonated far beyond what his antagonists or Nigeria as a country could muster. That rift forever put a wedge between Cliff and Nigeria, a country he avoided like a plague ...