Nigerian singer Adekunle Kosoko, who performs as Adekunle Gold, has described a sickle cell crisis that struck during a flight to Tanzania. He said he needed a wheelchair after the plane landed in Ethiopia.
He gave the account in an interview with BBC Radio 1Xtra, reported on Wednesday, 30 September 2026.
Adekunle Gold said he was flying to Tanzania with a layover in Ethiopia when he felt stomach cramps. He first blamed food from the airport. “I thought it was maybe some meal that I had at the airport,” he said.
The pain continued. He said he went to the toilet, but nothing came out. He said the crew almost landed the plane because of how bad his condition became.
By the time the flight reached Ethiopia, he could not stand. “I could not even walk,” he said. He used a wheelchair for the first time in his life and went to the hospital, where a doctor told him he had a sickle cell crisis.
The doctor advised him to drink plenty of water on flights. The doctor also told him his oxygen level was low because he had drunk too little water that day. Adekunle Gold said the episode differed from earlier crises he had experienced.
He said he travels often. “I feel like I live on the plane,” he said, adding that people with sickle cell must monitor their oxygen levels, especially in the air.
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Adekunle Gold was born with sickle cell disease and has taken medication since he was five, according to an interview he gave in 2025. He said then that he still has crises “once in a while” but that they are milder than in childhood.
He runs the Adekunle Gold Foundation, which held a sickle cell outreach in Lagos on 14 March 2026 with the Sickle Cell Advocacy & Management Initiative. The event served more than 400 people.
