This new Album titled Achu, advocating national integration, stands alone as one of the few authentic original afro-beat albums in this age of rap and funk.

All the songs are top-notch hits - makossa, bikutsi, a track in Pidgin English, blues, Malian and Senegalese genres and Hausa.Achu (not pounded cocoyam and yellow soup), has eight really wonderful lyrics and rhythms.

In them, Ben Ihims coos the troubles burning up his mind - poverty, love, bad friends.

"A lot of people pay a lot of lip service to national integration. I want to use music to pass the message across," says Ihims.

But the hot spot in his mind is found in Salamalekum where he thirsts for peace, calling for protection from God.It took Ihims some FCFA 1.6 million and a year in the studio to put together Achu.

"It is a lot of sweat,' he said, "but the pirates are not very kind to us at all."Ihims adds that "It is not easy to break even with pirates teeming all over the place." A few years ago, Ihims played live his first album, 'Tribalism' with six tracks at 3813 Tiko Business Complex, pulling quite a crowd.