By Jide Ajani, Editor, Northern Operations
When a man says that what he regrets till date is probably the fact that he has not been able to meet or surpass the number of children his father has had, then, you know such a man is a jolly good fellow – mind you, he has 13 while his father had 24 children; and the 13 are from his various Cheri Kokos.
This is the second part of the interview we commenced last week.
Excerpts:
Music has done well for you and we can also say you have done well for music. Would there be anything you want to say you regret the most all through your music career, may be one particular incident that happened that would have made you almost abandon music?
You know when one rises and has been blessed by God Almighty to a certain level, you’ll want to forget all the sorrows of the past and you’ll always want to remember only the good things that have happened to you.
But, I would have thought that at one stage, I had a very serious car accident on my way coming from Owo to Lagos to prepare the band for our trip to Togo after our Mid-Western tour that year and I suddenly found myself under a trailer and guess who came to our rescue at the spot on Ikorodu/Sagamu road, it was the late TOS Benson who helped to pull me out from under the propeller of the trailer where my driver had buried the car.
He took my driver (who developed mental concoction), my brother (who had his arm broken) and I to Sagamu General Hospital.
The Chief Medical Officer there happened to be his classmate.
At that juncture, I just asked myself what this life was all about, jumping from one place to the other?
This thing happened even at a time that I was still a nobody.
What year was that?
It was in 1958 or 1959.
Thank God! Nobody died?
No! Nobody died. The picture of the accident was so horrible.
My 504 car then, if it had caved in, we would have all died but it caved out.
TOS Benson was going on his own and just spotted the accident.
Was it that he knew it was you or he just wanted to stop and help?
He just wanted to stop and help. He was just being kind.
God bless his soul. Which of your songs gave you that hit?
I think it was, sadly, I would have thought it to be Victor Olaiya’s Incantation the flipside of which was Aiga’na.
Why is that sad?
It was the phrase the Biafrans used during the war when they were retreating, Aiga’na.
What does that phrase mean?
We’re retreating, we’re ready to go, we’re packed, we’ve decided.
You just sang the song?
Yes, o.
What year was that?
It must be early in the 1950s.
The doctorate you have, where did you get it from?
It is from the City University of Los Angeles.
How does your normal day run?
It’s a very queer schedule. I’ll always be here until I go back home to have my meal around midnight, watch films on television for another two or three hours before I have my sleep around 3 or 4 in the morning.
Nobody wakes me because they are not exactly sure when I went to bed and any time I get up at mid-day, my other day starts by mid-day.
What type of job do you do, because when I placed my call earlier in the day, Mama said you’ll be at work in the evening?
I come here to the hotel to oversee it and manage it even in the new extension.
Stadium Hotel was opened on December 31, 1972. It was jam-packed. It was built by me from scratch with my sweat. It took seven years to complete the building.
I still play too.
I played during the October 1 celebrations last year at Eko Le’Meridien where I played for the governor and some other dignitaries.
Now, your life and women! You were a good Lagos boy when you came to town. What did the women like about you? Was it your music or your physique or just you?
It must have been the music and at that time, I didn’t have this grey hair here (pointing to his forehead).
At about 20, 22, 24, I had acquired the fame and I would have thought it was the music.
At one stage of my life, my music was popularly embraced because I was travelling all along the West coast – Ghana, Togo, Benin.
Each time the girls, the Cherikokos – I call them my Cherikokos because they were very beautiful damsels – came around, I compose for them.
People like being flattered or being praised and when you play music and mention peoples’ names they feel good.
This white handkerchief you have been holding since, people see you every time you play holding one, is it for the sweat or to soothe the force pressing down the trump? There is a way you’re holding it…
The handkerchief is there to soothe the trump and it is the conventional way of holding it for easy manipulation.
How do you get your inspiration? There are some of your songs that are very inspiring, but some, with respect, are seen as verging on vulgarity.
Inspiration comes and I always carry pen and paper to write some thoughts that come. If you don’t, you might lose some of these thoughts. Anywhere I am I write. There are times I would be travelling and a thought would come and I’ll pull over and write it down. You then get the wordings and the tune.
Yes, people have said my music carries with it some philosophical undertones.
Then, there are those I compose in praise of my numerous Cherikokos (laughter), are also very musical, challenging and inviting.
At 80, you still look strong, what’s the secret?
Well, I think I’m not idle and I try to work in various forms, body exercise, I play on the stage and do a lot of dancing and I try not to be lazy and above all, I pray to God for guidance.
What advice would you give the younger ones, in spite of the type of music they play?
Let me tell you, whatever they play is the result of the type of work they have put in.
You make efforts and you achieve or obtain results. Whatever you put in as effort, they already have the result. There is nothing one can advise them to do other than that they should remain hardworking in their chosen fields. But, above all, they should be prayerful.
I know some of them would like to say, ‘I want to be like Victor Olaiya who has many Cherikokos and who is very young at 80′ but, I have always told them that hardwork pays.
I’ve always told them that being a genius is just one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration – which means you have to sweat and work very hard. About 95 per cent of the people in the world do not think; four per cent think they think for the others, but the remaining one per cent does the thinking for the whole world.
If only five per cent would do the thinking for the whole world, what a wonderful world it would be for all. So, they have to be hardworking, prayerful and devoted.
Are there times you listen to some music and ask, ‘what the hell is this’?
Well, I do.
If you look back at 80, what would you say you would have loved to achieve the most in life?
To have had more children, that is taking after my father who had 24.
I only have 13 and that’s just about half-way through. (Long laughter)
Are you rich, comfortable, wealthy or contented?
I’m just contented.
Musicians have been made by you and this hotel, can you mention a few?
Wouldn’t it be news if I say I cannot remember more than just half a dozen, but let’s keep counting (laughs).
King Sunny Ade
Rev. Ebenezer Obey
Admiral Dele Abiodun
The late Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister
Kollington Ayinla
Obesere
Shina Peters
Segun Adewale
Atawewe
The late Tunde Nightingale
Prince Adekunle
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti passed through me along with Sir Victor Uwaifo, Bala Miller, Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson,
What legacy would you have loved to leave behind?
My music, with which over the years I have succeeded in touching on lives and homes, putting laughter on the faces of many people, would be a good legacy.
You were there at Independence and you have your dream of what Nigeria should be…
This is not the Nigeria we hoped for.
The most important problem is corruption. If we can wipe it off in all its ramifications, then we’ll be on the way forward. Every ill in this country boils down to corruption. We should also desist from making politics a do-or-die affair. It is not like that in more civilised part of the world