{"id":273510,"date":"2011-01-11T12:56:45","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T12:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/?p=46326"},"modified":"2011-01-11T12:56:45","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T12:56:45","slug":"the-greatest-thing-i-would-have-loved-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/01\/11\/the-greatest-thing-i-would-have-loved-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"The greatest thing I would have loved to do"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
*Olaiya...As a band boy at 12, I was earning a salary of One Shilling and Six pence <\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nBy Jide Ajani, Editor, Northern Operations
\nWhen 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 \u2013 mind you, he has 13 while his father had 24 children; and the 13 are from his various Cheri Kokos.
\nThis is the second part of the interview we commenced last week.
\nExcerpts:
\nMusic 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?
\nYou know when one rises and has been blessed by God Almighty to a certain level, you\u2019ll want to forget all the sorrows of the past and you\u2019ll always want to remember only the good things that have happened to you.
\nBut, 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.
\nHe took my driver (who developed mental concoction), my brother (who had his arm broken) and I to Sagamu General Hospital.
\nThe Chief Medical Officer there happened to be his classmate.
\nAt that juncture, I just asked myself what this life was all about, jumping from one place to the other?
\nThis thing happened even at a time that I was still a nobody.
\nWhat year was that?
\nIt was in 1958 or 1959.
\nThank God! Nobody died?
\nNo! Nobody died.\u00a0 The picture of the accident was so horrible.
\nMy 504 car then, if it had caved in, we would have all died but it caved out.
\nTOS Benson was going on his own and just spotted the accident.
\nWas it that he knew it was you or he just wanted to stop and help?
\nHe just wanted to stop and help.\u00a0 He was just being kind.
\nGod bless his soul.\u00a0 Which of your songs gave you that hit?
\nI think it was, sadly, I would have thought it to be Victor Olaiya\u2019s Incantation the flipside of which was Aiga\u2019na.
\nWhy is that sad?
\nIt was the phrase the Biafrans used during the war when they were retreating, Aiga\u2019na.
\nWhat does that phrase mean?
\nWe\u2019re retreating, we\u2019re ready to go, we\u2019re packed, we\u2019ve decided.
\nYou just sang the song?
\nYes, o.
\nWhat year was that?
\nIt must be early in the 1950s.
\nThe doctorate you have, where did you get it from?
\nIt is from the City University of Los Angeles.
\nHow does your normal day run?
\nIt\u2019s a very queer schedule.\u00a0 I\u2019ll 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.
\nNobody 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.
\nWhat type of job do you do, because when I placed my call earlier in the day, Mama said you\u2019ll be at work in the evening?
\nI come here to the hotel to oversee it and manage it even in the new extension.
\nStadium Hotel was opened on December 31, 1972.\u00a0 It was jam-packed.\u00a0 It was built by me from scratch with my sweat.\u00a0 It took seven years to complete the building.
\nI still play too.
\nI played during the October 1 celebrations last year at Eko Le\u2019Meridien where I played for the governor and some other dignitaries.
\nNow, your life and women! You were a good Lagos boy when you came to town.\u00a0 What did the women like about you?\u00a0 Was it your music or your physique or just you?
\nIt must have been the music and at that time, I didn\u2019t have this grey hair here (pointing to his forehead).
\nAt about 20, 22, 24, I had acquired the fame and I would have thought it was the music.
\nAt one stage of my life, my music was popularly embraced because I was travelling all along the West coast \u2013 Ghana, Togo, Benin.
\nEach time the girls, the Cherikokos \u2013 I call them my Cherikokos because they were very beautiful damsels \u2013 came around, I compose for them.
\nPeople like being flattered or being praised and when you play music and mention peoples\u2019 names they feel good.
\nThis 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?\u00a0 There is a way you\u2019re holding it\u2026
\nThe handkerchief is there to soothe the trump and it is the conventional way of holding it for easy manipulation.
\nHow 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.
\nInspiration comes and I always carry pen and paper to write some thoughts that come.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t, 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\u2019ll pull over and write it down. You then get the wordings and the tune.
\nYes, people have said my music carries with it some philosophical undertones.
\nThen, there are those I compose in praise of my numerous Cherikokos (laughter), are also very musical, challenging and inviting.
\nAt 80, you still look strong, what\u2019s the secret?
\nWell, I think I\u2019m 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.
\nWhat advice would you give the younger ones, in spite of the type of music they play?
\nLet me tell you, whatever they play is the result of the type of work they have put in.
\nYou make efforts and you achieve or obtain results.\u00a0 Whatever you put in as effort, they already have the result.\u00a0 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.
\nI know some of them would like to say, \u2018I want to be like Victor Olaiya who has many Cherikokos and who is very young at 80\u2032 but, I have always told them that hardwork pays.
\nI\u2019ve always told them that being a genius is just one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration \u2013 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.
\nIf only five per cent would do the thinking for the whole world, what a wonderful world it would be for all.\u00a0 So, they have to be hardworking, prayerful and devoted.
\nAre there times you listen to some music and ask, \u2018what the hell is this\u2019?
\nWell, I do.
\nIf you look back at 80, what would you say you would have loved to achieve the most in life?
\nTo have had more children, that is taking after my father who had 24.
\nI only have 13 and that\u2019s just about half-way through.\u00a0 (Long laughter)
\nAre you rich, comfortable, wealthy or contented?
\nI\u2019m just contented.
\nMusicians have been made by you and this hotel, can you mention a few?
\nWouldn\u2019t it be news if I say I cannot remember more than just half a dozen, but let\u2019s keep counting (laughs).
\nKing Sunny Ade
\nRev. Ebenezer Obey
\nAdmiral Dele Abiodun
\nThe late Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister
\nKollington Ayinla
\nObesere
\nShina Peters
\nSegun Adewale
\nAtawewe
\nThe late Tunde Nightingale
\nPrince Adekunle
\nFela Anikulapo-Kuti passed through me along with Sir Victor Uwaifo, Bala Miller, Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson,
\nWhat legacy would you have loved to leave behind?
\nMy 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.
\nYou were there at Independence and you have your dream of what Nigeria should be\u2026
\nThis is not the Nigeria we hoped for.
\nThe most important problem is corruption. If we can wipe it off in all its ramifications, then we\u2019ll be on the way forward.\u00a0 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u2013 mind you, he has 13 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nThe greatest thing I would have loved to do - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/01\/11\/the-greatest-thing-i-would-have-loved-to-do\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The greatest thing I would have loved to do - 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