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00:00:00 Any saying that is probably untrue,
00:00:03 if you feel like you want to know more about
00:00:07 K1 the ultimate, Kwan1, then what to do?
00:00:10 Take a trip down to Ejiobu.
00:00:12 The resort is there, his library is there.
00:00:15 You'll find a lot of information
00:00:18 when you've gotten in there.
00:00:19 You see proof, you see this, you see that.
00:00:21 So that's what I ask God for.
00:00:23 And God has blessed me with.
00:00:27 Honestly, energy, something like this,
00:00:31 what's putting the whole of one's energy into?
00:00:36 Because what I wanted to establish here
00:00:39 is something I believe will go on
00:00:40 for the next over 100 years.
00:00:42 And if my children were able to realize
00:00:47 what legacy was left behind for them to manage,
00:00:51 and they choose to manage it very well,
00:00:56 their children too will come to appreciate
00:00:58 that somebody really left something.
00:01:01 And this community will also be thankful to God
00:01:04 that such a person come out of this community.
00:01:08 Yoruba as a whole will be so proud
00:01:11 to say, "Oh, heck yes, one of the entertainers
00:01:16 "that come out of the Yoruba land is yes,
00:01:18 "is one man called K1 the ultimate.
00:01:22 "He truly came out."
00:01:23 That's the idea.
00:01:25 And there's no effort in putting that that is too much.
00:01:29 But in terms of Naira and Kobo,
00:01:33 I may not be able to quantify it,
00:01:35 because it is a dream.
00:01:37 It is a dream, not a venture.
00:01:40 There's a difference between what is,
00:01:49 what idea that is conceived like a dream,
00:01:54 and the one that is just for business aspect of it.
00:01:57 There are a lot of things you might not be able to do
00:01:59 when you consider the business part of it.
00:02:03 Some money might be too much to be committed
00:02:06 into things like that, but when it's a dream,
00:02:08 you won't mind any amount you want to spend
00:02:11 to actualize your dream.
00:02:13 So in terms of Naira and Kobo,
00:02:15 I don't even think I have time to sit back
00:02:19 to be asking myself, "How much have I been putting into this?"
00:02:23 I just keep doing it the way it comes.
00:02:26 I will do it at a time, I do one.
00:02:29 Another person will come, a professional will tell you,
00:02:32 "Oh, but you can do it like this."
00:02:34 Since this is going to be for a long period of time,
00:02:38 we change, we start changing.
00:02:40 By the time we finish and we go inside in India,
00:02:43 you will see what we're talking about.
00:02:45 When you enter here, you can never come to term
00:02:50 what we have inside there is what we have inside there.
00:02:54 You just be looking at it.
00:02:55 You see outside when you are coming in.
00:02:57 So if no opportunity for you to go in there,
00:02:59 you won't know anything.
00:03:01 It's like you are here, you see, you just see picture,
00:03:04 one-time picture, and you leave.
00:03:06 From a very long time, I've had opportunity
00:03:10 of doing collaboration with many artists in the past.
00:03:20 Collaboration, the worst that will happen
00:03:23 out of collaboration is you do something together.
00:03:26 It can't be more than that.
00:03:28 But the stage that I am now,
00:03:30 for someone to have put in over 50 years,
00:03:35 socially, you should be a real role model
00:03:39 that many others come in, will have to come in
00:03:43 and read like a book and get something good out of it.
00:03:48 Just past mere collaboration, collaboration to listen.
00:03:52 If you look at my kind of music and the present day music,
00:04:00 they were different, lean entirely.
00:04:03 But I can tell you, majorly, the formative part
00:04:09 of that music of present day, take its cue
00:04:16 and its learning from what we have done
00:04:19 for all that years to suit the modern life of today.
00:04:25 My concern is I wanted to be talked about
00:04:36 as an artist who had come along the line,
00:04:43 but I wanted to also be studied as one artist,
00:04:47 how did he manage to go this far
00:04:50 and other areas he gets himself that he branches into.
00:04:55 That's my concern.
00:05:03 My concern is for every artist to know that
00:05:06 it is just more than just playing music
00:05:10 and going back to sleep.
00:05:12 Because those that plays it in the past,
00:05:15 that do not develop the business angle of it,
00:05:19 they end up just being an entertainer
00:05:24 or one time musician, simply because
00:05:27 of the way they handled it.
00:05:33 I don't throw people off.
00:05:35 I make use of every opportunity that comes my way.
00:05:39 If I meet a new person today,
00:05:41 what I want to listen from you is your overview.
00:05:45 I want to listen to your opinion.
00:05:48 In the course of listening to you,
00:05:50 I will see where to ask a question of your idea,
00:05:54 your own infusion, what can you contribute.
00:05:58 And I want to develop it so that tomorrow
00:06:00 when you see me along that line,
00:06:02 you too can be so proud of yourself
00:06:04 that when I have a particular scene,
00:06:07 those are two words I keep in to him
00:06:09 and he will make good use of them.
00:06:12 My thinking goes beyond, there's nothing I could do more
00:06:18 than all I've been doing in the past.
00:06:21 Something keep telling me at this age,
00:06:27 I should be thinking of more of resting,
00:06:31 but I find out my energy is still very strong.
00:06:38 I'm still very agile.
00:06:40 Healthy wise, I'm okay.
00:06:43 Health wise, I'm okay, I'm fine.
00:06:45 I do not have any major ailment that I'm nursing.
00:06:49 I give glory to God Almighty,
00:06:52 so I don't see why I should not.
00:06:55 When I tell you I'm over 60 and close to 70,
00:06:59 you probably look at me and feel like, is it true?
00:07:05 Probably because I don't overweigh myself
00:07:08 down with something I should not.
00:07:11 Before you came in here, I just stepped down.
00:07:15 I think I escorted somebody who came visiting
00:07:20 when I saw you coming.
00:07:21 If not, I'll be back, either in my study,
00:07:26 or I'll be back at the site looking at what they are doing,
00:07:31 or if I'm not around here, maybe I'll be at my ranch,
00:07:36 or I go visiting to my other sites, or the farm.
00:07:40 I have a farmer, too.
00:07:41 So sometimes I go to the farm to spend.
00:07:43 I've been to farm this morning.
00:07:46 I have a farm somewhere, I went to the farm.
00:07:49 I left home at about seven o'clock,
00:07:53 and I returned some two hours ago from the farm.
00:07:57 So that's my kind of a person.
00:08:00 (chanting in foreign language)
00:08:04 It is my song.
00:08:05 My father's name is Anifowoshe.
00:08:09 When I use my father's name to say,
00:08:12 referring to myself, (chanting in foreign language)
00:08:16 when Olamide was to use it, I didn't object to it.
00:08:21 It was a young man that was just coming up.
00:08:26 We want to see everything that everybody doing.
00:08:30 Get there.
00:08:31 Africa, a whole lot of artists from the West comes in here
00:08:36 to pick on what we have.
00:08:40 They never give credit to anybody.
00:08:42 They took it away and turn it around.
00:08:45 Now, our children, they don't allow us sleep.
00:08:50 That's what they listen to every time, every day.
00:08:53 So if I don't give opportunity for the lives of him,
00:08:57 he won't be there doing wonderfully well
00:08:59 as he's doing today.
00:09:01 We are proud of them because they are offspring.
00:09:05 It's part of what we left.
00:09:07 It's part of what we give from people before us.
00:09:09 So continuity in that order.
00:09:12 And many more, many more.
00:09:15 The majority of music is still very much being enjoyed
00:09:22 by people, especially people appreciate old stuff.
00:09:28 That read a lot into them.
00:09:30 So I have a lot of repertoire that people enjoy
00:09:36 and that still fetches big money, man.
00:09:40 You know, there are two Afrobeat now.
00:09:44 What would you call Fela's music?
00:09:46 You see now?
00:09:46 You are giving it an interpretation that suits you.
00:09:49 You said that.
00:09:50 Why that, when you said Afrobeat?
00:09:52 Because if I answer your question directly,
00:09:55 am I saying the life of Fela came to take a cue from me?
00:09:57 No.
00:09:58 - No, because you define--
00:10:00 - The five Afrobeat of today, and I said it.
00:10:02 I said, present day music.
00:10:05 Take a cue from us.
00:10:07 It is true.
00:10:09 You listen to it.
00:10:10 You listen to the reading.
00:10:12 You listen to everything.
00:10:13 You see the format.
00:10:16 Don't shy away from saying what is the truth.
00:10:19 Oh yes, I do.
00:10:20 I have children that are doing well in music.
00:10:23 I have both male and female that are doing well.
00:10:26 I have my children.
00:10:28 My children, they've laid their hands
00:10:30 on different kind of music.
00:10:33 Not necessarily Fuji alone.
00:10:35 Fuji is their background.
00:10:37 That is what they know their father for.
00:10:39 They exhibit the one that is theirs.
00:10:42 They find themselves doing.
00:10:47 I have my daughter, Honey, doing pretty well.
00:10:52 She's in England.
00:10:53 I have mostly my son.
00:10:55 They've all featured in many musical exposition.
00:10:59 Not two years, three, five, 10 years ago.
00:11:04 They're doing well.
00:11:07 Rome wasn't built in a day.
00:11:09 They're growing themselves too.
00:11:11 So don't be surprised when you see them
00:11:14 take one of their father's old job
00:11:17 and do justice to it.
00:11:18 It is theirs.
00:11:20 It's there.
00:11:21 All my life, I do research.
00:11:23 Every opportunity that I have.
00:11:26 Presently, I'm in school.
00:11:29 I'm in school.
00:11:32 As a matter of fact, I was going to be a fresher
00:11:36 at OU.
00:11:37 So I'm just trying to do things
00:11:41 in my own way to suit myself.
00:11:50 It's one of my exposition.
00:11:52 Research.
00:11:56 Research is everyday thing.
00:11:57 I'm continuing to continue to do it.
00:12:00 Education.
00:12:01 You learn 'til you die.
00:12:03 We are here talking about the most vital
00:12:06 and important part of my life
00:12:10 that makes me be what I am, music.
00:12:13 And that I'm still very much into it.
00:12:17 When you started your question,
00:12:20 you said I'm a member of the ruling party.
00:12:24 Yes, I can't deny that.
00:12:26 Everybody has his or her right of association.
00:12:30 So if by virtue of that, oh yes,
00:12:33 I am a member of the ruling party.
00:12:37 A respectable member of the society
00:12:40 who have every reason to pitch his tent
00:12:45 and he chooses.
00:12:47 That is not to say I'm looking forward
00:12:50 to any gainful employment via being a member
00:12:56 of either ruling party or any political class or anything.
00:13:04 Every one of us, we are politician.
00:13:09 Whatever any form you takes it.
00:13:11 I'm not seeking office.
00:13:12 I've never seek an office.
00:13:14 And I'm not gonna seek an office.
00:13:17 Maybe because I want the best for my people.
00:13:20 That even made me to align with the ruling party
00:13:23 so that the very best for my people could come
00:13:27 as a part of my association.
00:13:30 Maybe there's one thing or the other.
00:13:36 Maybe by association of friends
00:13:38 that made me in the first place
00:13:40 to find myself doing that.
00:13:43 But not to the point like I want to seek elective office.
00:13:47 I don't see we are elective office
00:13:49 who make a difference of what I am doing
00:13:55 if at this stage, now that I want to seek elective office.
00:13:59 Very recently, I had opportunity
00:14:02 of going to attend a function at the OU
00:14:06 where the last set of graduates,
00:14:11 students coming out.
00:14:13 And there, the band on stand,
00:14:19 they tried their hands on some of my work
00:14:26 to recognize my presence and to honor me.
00:14:31 I was so overjoyous that I can be singled out
00:14:35 among very many others and they do that for me.
00:14:38 In the form of wanting to appreciate them more,
00:14:41 I seek to speak to the leader of the band.
00:14:45 And there I was told it's a band
00:14:49 from the music class of OU.
00:14:51 And they told me they just started that class
00:14:57 and I showed so much interest.
00:15:01 I was overjoyed.
00:15:02 I called for further discussion
00:15:05 and in the course of doing that,
00:15:07 I told them, "Yeah, I want to go back to school.
00:15:11 "I want to be part of that to see how we can develop
00:15:14 "a lot out of that."
00:15:15 Before we started this gathering,
00:15:18 I received a call from someone
00:15:22 that I said I'm in the middle of an interview.
00:15:25 What the man that truly called me was
00:15:28 (speaks in foreign language)
00:15:34 I think I have jointly with him discussed a lot
00:15:38 about developing the works of those past leaders
00:15:42 that we have in entertainment.
00:15:47 So it shows how my interest and part of what I discussed
00:15:51 with the Dean of School of Music, OU,
00:15:56 that we can do better to bring a whole lot of artists.
00:16:01 Mugun State is blessed with very many names.
00:16:05 Aruna Shola is from here, Shena Peters, Ayuva,
00:16:09 Wizkid, Lamide, a whole lot of them.
00:16:12 Not many people even know Wizkid is from here.
00:16:16 Many don't know where the band comes from.
00:16:19 The band is from Mugun State too.
00:16:20 A whole lot, we are blessed.
00:16:22 So I am speaking to the leadership of School of Music, OU,
00:16:27 that I could be used as a medium
00:16:29 to bring everybody together
00:16:31 to come in and develop that that one is going on.
00:16:34 That's what prompted me to want to go back to school
00:16:37 and to see what we can do along that line.
00:16:39 The challenges of it is what we are seeing of today's society
00:16:43 the whole lot of the thing that one has endured
00:16:49 from the beginning.
00:16:51 You see, when I would go out for performance,
00:16:53 they would not even allow us to say one word
00:16:56 because current day super musicians were present
00:17:01 and they don't want to listen to anything
00:17:04 any new person wants to say.
00:17:07 That is society for you.
00:17:10 But we were that storm and today we are there.
00:17:15 We give glory to God.
00:17:17 We didn't let that deter us,
00:17:19 neither do we let that overwhelm us
00:17:23 and consume us, that have to derail us.
00:17:28 We focus and we give glory to God Almighty.
00:17:32 So it is about life itself.
00:17:35 It be a time you get it done.
00:17:37 There'll be a time you are climbing,
00:17:40 there'll be a time you are crawling.
00:17:42 So we give glory to God.
00:17:44 I've never, even when I, after my surgery,
00:17:47 the energy keeps growing.
00:17:50 This is 10 finger.
00:17:53 If one out of this 10 finger says
00:17:58 it's not gonna join hand with the rest,
00:18:00 there's no way they'll mention them as 10.
00:18:02 And if there's only one finger,
00:18:07 who refuses to join the rest of the nine?
00:18:11 That one too has problem.
00:18:14 The nine will always be majority over one.
00:18:18 So what is best?
00:18:19 What is best is for one to realize
00:18:22 that if I added myself to the nine, it would be 10.
00:18:25 It is also for the nine to realize
00:18:28 that if we have this one too, it would be 10.
00:18:31 And life will be peaceful for all of us to live at.
00:18:36 What we are joined today, it is the grace of God.
00:18:40 Even though we believe we have it as a talent,
00:18:43 without you being created, without you being born,
00:18:47 you might not have opportunity to want to say
00:18:49 you have one talent or the other.
00:18:51 A lot of people that has this talent
00:18:53 that they could not even transport it to anything,
00:18:56 such as in the course of my sojourning life,
00:18:59 one day I went on musical tour and I was in Germany
00:19:04 and this group of promoters came to seek for me
00:19:10 coming to London in the course of that tour.
00:19:14 We actually don't plan going to London.
00:19:18 We only plan Europe.
00:19:20 And while we were in Germany, this group of people came
00:19:24 and they said they want us to come to London
00:19:26 for like a five performance.
00:19:30 And in my usual way, I travel with my band, my full band,
00:19:35 and I now tell them, we can't jump into London.
00:19:40 We don't even have visa for London.
00:19:42 We will need a visa.
00:19:44 And the condition is you must have work permit.
00:19:47 So before you can discuss, go and get work permit done.
00:19:50 And when you finish with the work permit,
00:19:53 come, we approach the embassy.
00:19:54 Either we go back to Nigeria or whatever.
00:19:56 They said we don't need to go back to Nigeria
00:19:59 that they will seek the visa somewhere within the Europe.
00:20:04 So they now went.
00:20:05 They got the work permit, they came back.
00:20:07 They brought the work permit to me, we look at it.
00:20:10 And we now look at nearest British High Commission
00:20:15 that we could go.
00:20:16 So when in Germany, they said we should go Dusseldorf.
00:20:20 That's where they have the British High Commission.
00:20:23 And we went to Dusseldorf.
00:20:24 When we're getting in there to the embassy,
00:20:26 we presented our case and they said to us,
00:20:29 there is a condition that says we cannot seek,
00:20:34 Nigerian passport holder cannot seek visa outside home.
00:20:40 You must go back to your own country.
00:20:44 And I said to the front office person talking to me
00:20:49 that I know a little bit of the applicable laws
00:20:54 regarding that, that we are here as a temporary resident
00:20:58 because we hold work permit for the Europe.
00:21:02 So as at that time, our work permit in Germany
00:21:06 covers beyond a six month.
00:21:08 So we are duly documented,
00:21:14 temporarily as a resident having a six month working permit.
00:21:19 So we can, and because of saying that,
00:21:21 I told the person, I said, tell the visa officer
00:21:25 that group of musician, though we hold Nigerian passport,
00:21:29 but we're a group of musician with work permit.
00:21:32 And we also have work permit to England.
00:21:36 And the duration of the work permit to England
00:21:37 is just four weeks.
00:21:39 While we are coming back to Germany,
00:21:41 we are not going from there to no other place,
00:21:45 but coming back here.
00:21:47 And they allow me to see one higher officer
00:21:53 who I later learned is the visa consular.
00:21:59 What the man says, he says, you said you are a group of,
00:22:03 I said, musician.
00:22:04 I was holding more than 20 passport.
00:22:07 He says, you are a musician.
00:22:08 I said, really?
00:22:09 He said, where are your band members?
00:22:11 I said, they are at our resident.
00:22:14 We are temporarily resident.
00:22:16 I'm here to drop the application.
00:22:18 If you require to see all of them,
00:22:19 I could go and bring them.
00:22:20 He says, I will need to see all of them.
00:22:22 So he gave me appointment to the other day.
00:22:26 I ran to Berlin on another train
00:22:29 and we're back at the set up the next morning.
00:22:31 And he see all of us.
00:22:33 When he sees all of us, he says, wow, very large band.
00:22:37 I said, yes.
00:22:38 He says, how long have you had your band?
00:22:40 I told him, he says, what do you play?
00:22:42 We play African classical.
00:22:44 That's what we classify Fuji as, African classical.
00:22:47 I said, I play, we play African classical.
00:22:50 And he says, wow.
00:22:51 He says, do you know what?
00:22:52 I said, I don't.
00:22:53 He said, do you know I'm a musician?
00:22:55 He said, how many albums have you done?
00:22:57 I told him the numbers of album I've ever done.
00:23:00 He says, I find it very hard to do one album.
00:23:04 He says, I'm studio fried.
00:23:07 I said, well, really?
00:23:08 Don't worry.
00:23:09 I guarantee you, you can do an album.
00:23:12 He says, you mean it?
00:23:13 I said, yeah.
00:23:14 Me and you, we can work something out.
00:23:17 If anybody know one album of mine that I did, Berlin,
00:23:21 Berlin special.
00:23:23 (singing in foreign language)
00:23:27 Was in that trip, I made that album.
00:23:30 So, and I told him, I said, I can invite him to Berlin.
00:23:35 We set up a studio.
00:23:37 Guess what he did?
00:23:38 And he came to the studio.
00:23:39 We aided him, we encouraged him.
00:23:41 And he brought his book.
00:23:43 And he had a three track album recorded alongside me.
00:23:48 You know what the guy says?
00:23:51 He says, by virtue of authority given unto me,
00:23:55 I waive that condition of you.
00:23:57 And he gave us visa to go to London.
00:23:59 That is musician for you.
00:24:05 If you don't forget,
00:24:07 there had been one time president of America,
00:24:09 I think Bill Clinton,
00:24:11 who came to him function in Scotland.
00:24:13 Then he had to go on stage to take up a saxophone.
00:24:15 I was blowing saxophone.
00:24:17 And he asked me, he says,
00:24:18 he's been a musician since his childhood.
00:24:21 You see things like that happening.
00:24:23 A whole lot of people in music
00:24:25 that they could not even showcase it.
00:24:27 Maybe because of position
00:24:30 and whatever they are doing at that particular time.
00:24:32 So music is food of love.
00:24:35 Continue to play.
00:24:38 Recently I post something on my Facebook page.
00:24:42 There I said, education is beautiful.
00:24:47 It's one of the best anybody could possess.
00:24:50 But if you do not have opportunity of going to school,
00:24:52 you can always choose to surround yourself
00:24:56 with people that you can learn from.
00:24:58 So the first grade of my education
00:25:01 is finding myself in the midst of learned people.
00:25:05 I never shied away from listening to discussion.
00:25:11 I never shied away from watching programs on the TV,
00:25:16 see group of people coming to discuss.
00:25:19 I never shied away from listening to a radio program
00:25:23 where a lot was being discussed.
00:25:25 I never shied away from even listening
00:25:28 to political leaders
00:25:29 when they were presenting their case.
00:25:31 Before they become leader,
00:25:33 the first of all being a starter.
00:25:35 They want to tell us they love us.
00:25:37 They come on the podium to talk to us,
00:25:39 to convince us,
00:25:41 to tell us where we believe shoe is pinching.
00:25:44 I listen to people.
00:25:46 I afford myself that opportunity largely.
00:25:49 Before about the issue of you going to school
00:25:52 or not going to school,
00:25:53 I am a dropout from school.
00:25:58 Formerly,
00:25:59 but now I am modern
00:26:02 and I'm still learning.
00:26:04 Like I said, I know value of education.
00:26:06 Minus the fact that I've done in my life
00:26:09 to have trained a whole lot of professionals.
00:26:13 Among my children, I have doctor.
00:26:16 Among my children, I have lawyers,
00:26:20 especially my female child.
00:26:22 They are lawyers.
00:26:23 I have, I have an engineer.
00:26:27 I have a whole lot of them.
00:26:29 And I learned from them as well.
00:26:33 I learned from them.
00:26:35 We discuss, we group each other to discuss.
00:26:37 We argue, we debate.
00:26:39 We do all sorts of things.
00:26:41 So would I say I have self-education?
00:26:44 But the fact of it is,
00:26:47 you do not criticize or reject what is good.
00:26:51 Any sane person will never criticize
00:26:55 the beauty of education.
00:26:58 Education is about living.
00:27:01 It's about life.
00:27:02 It's about daily activities.
00:27:04 No, no, not a cold greeting,
00:27:06 but you imagine, let me remind you too.
00:27:09 You might have one friend of yours that,
00:27:11 you know, you have your usual,
00:27:14 some will do leg tilting.
00:27:18 So, you know, that's our own form of,
00:27:20 we are childhood friend.
00:27:22 Myself, Chino Peters, we've been friends for a long time.
00:27:25 And Waike Adjau, we were three then.
00:27:29 Waike, senior us in age, but we are all friends.
00:27:33 We grew together and we does,
00:27:36 we does friendship so nicely together.
00:27:39 It is not courtesy.
00:27:41 Number one, I will start by saying,
00:27:44 the love I have for myself
00:27:52 has made me to have a group of people around me,
00:27:56 beside me and behind me,
00:27:59 to the point I will call some group of people, my group.
00:28:04 Started as a Ajwere Ajisari.
00:28:10 I started as a little boy, eight year old,
00:28:15 in my community in Lagos Island.
00:28:19 It may interest you,
00:28:20 Fatai Oluperi, I've been with me since,
00:28:27 was a little boy, like a 13 year old.
00:28:30 And he's still with me.
00:28:33 So presently, Oluperi is the oldest.
00:28:37 And he's still with me.
00:28:40 - What is his name?
00:28:42 - Ikle Sakaya.
00:28:44 (audience murmurs)
00:28:47 Over the years, that's what he's been with me.
00:28:49 He's been with me for that long.
00:28:53 And he's still with me.
00:28:54 Ours is an organization at a point,
00:28:58 the highest I'm fired.
00:29:00 Ours is an organization like you show,
00:29:03 you signify intention to join
00:29:05 and tomorrow when you feel like,
00:29:07 maybe you find something else, you opt out.
00:29:10 I run a band, I run a band like,
00:29:18 like someone who has love for God
00:29:22 and says he wants to do God work
00:29:25 and he developed to have a gathering
00:29:28 that later turned out to be a church
00:29:31 or an Islamic organization
00:29:33 where people coming in and out,
00:29:35 become prayer group and stuff.
00:29:37 The day somebody was born,
00:29:42 nobody was ordained as a pastor or an imam
00:29:45 the day you were born.
00:29:47 It's in the course of you growing
00:29:49 and dedication you give
00:29:50 and the love you show to your God
00:29:52 that makes you feel like,
00:29:54 I want to do God work to anybody that does that.
00:29:58 So in my case also, when I established my band,
00:30:01 was only me, was an idea of me to establish a band
00:30:05 and call other people to partake in it.
00:30:08 But I tell you something,
00:30:09 you must have the quality of leadership in you.
00:30:17 Before you can do anything like that.
00:30:18 If you do not have, you can never have it.
00:30:21 You must have quality of leadership
00:30:25 that must be in you, in you.
00:30:27 You must be so blessed by God
00:30:29 to be able to tolerate people.
00:30:33 Because in one of the things that is so difficult
00:30:37 to manage is coming together of people.
00:30:40 Even when we all agree that we want to establish
00:30:44 a social club, ego will not make someone accept
00:30:49 want to be the leader of the group.
00:30:52 Someone, one person must be president.
00:30:57 Another one will be vice.
00:30:59 But you can imagine, the man that will be fighting
00:31:02 the one that is president will say in everything,
00:31:05 the president, the man you made as president
00:31:07 cannot lord over me.
00:31:09 I'm better off than him.
00:31:11 That is you.
00:31:12 Some are blessed with leadership traits,
00:31:16 they have it in them.
00:31:17 When others see, they say this one is resilient,
00:31:20 is enough to give him the right of leadership by me.
00:31:24 To say, let this one be my leader.
00:31:26 And stuff like that.
00:31:27 That's society for you.
00:31:28 It happens here and there.
00:31:31 So that's why in politics, everybody has a choice.
00:31:36 But in ours, like that of mine, I formed my band.
00:31:40 I called people in my band.
00:31:42 When I see a way that is not my way, I can easily drop.
00:31:47 But when I see a way that is my way,
00:31:50 even when you want to opt out, I will tell you
00:31:51 this is why you should not opt out.
00:31:53 Let's continue.
00:31:55 We'll make adjustment.
00:31:56 Okay, what is it that you don't like?
00:31:59 I can, because of one person, drop one thing
00:32:02 probably he doesn't like, and he's ready
00:32:04 to be with me sincerely.
00:32:05 So that's how I formed my band.
00:32:08 Over 52 years back, and I've been the sole runner
00:32:12 of my band.
00:32:13 My band is not a band that was formed by somebody
00:32:17 put all of us together and made me a leader.
00:32:19 No, my band is my own band that I formed myself
00:32:23 and I named after me from the inception.
00:32:27 So my band has been a band that was solely established
00:32:30 by one band, me.
00:32:32 Not by my father.
00:32:33 My band is not a band that was put together
00:32:35 by my father on my behalf, my brother on my behalf,
00:32:40 or a group of people in the community
00:32:42 that made me a leader, no.
00:32:44 I established my band.
00:32:46 I hire people.
00:32:47 I fire people too.
00:32:50 So you can imagine, if I said long ago,
00:32:56 I have Olupe Olupele the longest of my present members.
00:33:00 He's been the longest since.
00:33:01 Many have come after him, have left.
00:33:05 And he's still there.
00:33:06 He himself at a point has left, he came back.
00:33:09 I've done a album where I said,
00:33:13 (singing in foreign language)
00:33:16 He had left at a time, he came back at another time.
00:33:21 He had left more than once.
00:33:23 I take him back.
00:33:26 Why?
00:33:27 Why did I choose to take him back?
00:33:28 I choose to take him back because, number one,
00:33:31 I must have look unto, you see sometimes, ego.
00:33:35 Sometimes unnecessary high-hanging could make you disagree
00:33:40 with somebody you are not supposed to disagree with.
00:33:44 Or for a reason of something that is not really
00:33:48 what's dragging that will make you leave your beat
00:33:52 and maybe when you realize, you come back.
00:33:54 I have majority of them that run away abroad.
00:33:57 I have majority of them that they are not genuinely
00:34:02 in love with music.
00:34:04 They only showcase what they feel they have talent over
00:34:07 and we tolerate them to say, "With time you will grow."
00:34:09 But they have their own plan.
00:34:11 Their game plan is one day when I have opportunity
00:34:13 to travel with this man, I'm running away.
00:34:15 They do, they run.
00:34:17 They come back.
00:34:19 I have majority of them that have run away.
00:34:21 That sees me today, anytime I'm abroad,
00:34:23 they will come back to me.
00:34:24 They will leave whatever they are doing.
00:34:26 They will come to me, they will stay with me
00:34:28 'til I will leave.
00:34:30 When I go to America, I see majority of them.
00:34:32 When I go to London, I see majority of them.
00:34:35 So, ours is a band you signify interest to join.
00:34:41 At another time, you don't feel like.
00:34:43 Some deliberately come, they run away.
00:34:46 Some, they are not there.
00:34:48 You will see somebody joining the band
00:34:52 because he wants to get himself educated.
00:34:54 He doesn't have money.
00:34:55 He doesn't have ways to raise money
00:34:57 to get himself educated.
00:34:58 He joined the band for little money he's making
00:35:01 either to sustain himself while in school.
00:35:04 Maybe he has somebody paying his school fees,
00:35:07 but daily money he doesn't have.
00:35:10 So, he joined the band to feel like
00:35:11 whatever little thing coming in,
00:35:13 he will be using that to sustain himself.
00:35:16 We have, for different reason, people,
00:35:18 I have a lot of people working in my band
00:35:20 that I am the one that engineer
00:35:22 they are going back to school.
00:35:24 I pay them and see them through their education.
00:35:27 Even in my establishment here,
00:35:29 I have a cleaner that I believe this one
00:35:32 has a promising future.
00:35:35 You don't, this you are doing, you don't do here.
00:35:38 Go back to school, what it takes.
00:35:42 Don't worry, I'll finance you.
00:35:43 I'll call my manager.
00:35:45 Let this one go.
00:35:46 If it is two days in a week,
00:35:47 he or she can come back, give them opportunity.
00:35:52 When they become something tomorrow,
00:35:53 they won't forget you, manager.
00:35:55 They won't forget me, the owner.
00:35:56 We have, I have many, I have very many way
00:35:58 I've touched people's life.
00:36:01 So, my present band,
00:36:03 before my birthday, even the new year, yeah,
00:36:11 the new year, Sammy Wagmama Bimo and Wally Coco,
00:36:15 they still came from Dublin.
00:36:17 They came here.
00:36:18 They came, they said they were in Nigeria
00:36:20 and they're here to pay homage
00:36:22 and they want to spend time with me.
00:36:24 Many of them will come.
00:36:26 They'll bring me gift.
00:36:27 If I don't allow them to go,
00:36:31 would that be opportunity for them to come back?
00:36:35 If I am so bad, would they have been back here?
00:36:39 No.
00:36:40 The latest, I mean, the recent development
00:36:46 is as a result of people for you,
00:36:48 like Ayonkule.
00:36:50 Ayonkule had been former member of the band.
00:36:53 He's been a troubleshooter.
00:36:54 He has gone, he has come back.
00:36:56 He has gone, he has come back.
00:36:58 I will tell you, of all my band men,
00:37:02 only that Ayonkule, over seven times
00:37:07 people had come to beg for, to be restored back.
00:37:12 They have one association called ABDO.
00:37:16 Their leader at the time, long time ago,
00:37:22 happens to be one drummer like that,
00:37:25 that drums for Lagbaja.
00:37:27 He happens to be their president.
00:37:29 Was it because of Ayonkule, I get to know
00:37:33 that drummer of Lagbaja as the president
00:37:35 of Association of Drummer ABDO.
00:37:38 Ayonkule, as you see, Ayonkule complains too much
00:37:44 because that is what drummers do.
00:37:48 That has been the foundation and founding way of life
00:37:53 of drummer.
00:37:55 Mine will not be the first time a drummer will drop.
00:37:58 Many bands, some start from Pella,
00:38:02 Aruna Ejola, Yuzu Walatunji, Benissa Obe,
00:38:06 King Sunny Ade.
00:38:07 At one time, their drummer dropped.
00:38:10 People had run away from them.
00:38:13 Mine is not the first.
00:38:15 But the fact of it is, I love my band.
00:38:19 I love myself.
00:38:20 I established my band.
00:38:22 I wanted the best for myself.
00:38:24 So if overlooking people's shortcomings
00:38:27 is what will keep my band moving,
00:38:32 I would rather do that than,
00:38:33 this one is no good, go.
00:38:36 That one is no good, go.
00:38:37 That one offended you.
00:38:39 Somebody said, okay, sorry, I apologize, I apologize.
00:38:41 Come back to your job.
00:38:42 So if you're offended, I send you away.
00:38:47 Another time people come in to say,
00:38:49 please forgive him, let him come back.
00:38:51 If I do, that's not a wrong thing on me.
00:38:54 I am human.
00:38:56 You know where I offended God to?
00:38:58 Do I know how I say sorry to God and God forgives me?
00:39:03 I am not even God alone.
00:39:04 There are many people that I have offended
00:39:07 that I'll say to them, I'm sorry.
00:39:08 And they will agree genuinely that my repentance is genuine.
00:39:12 So that is life for you.
00:39:14 I hold my band.
00:39:15 When I will borrow money to keep my band going,
00:39:20 who knows that?
00:39:21 When I will use money contribution from a job,
00:39:26 what do you call it?
00:39:30 Thrift.
00:39:31 I have many society that I joined
00:39:34 in the course of wanting to get things done for myself.
00:39:38 Do you know how many times I've borrowed money
00:39:39 to buy ticket for my band?
00:39:42 Balaji Basia, my shadowed friend.
00:39:45 For everywhere Balaji lives,
00:39:49 what concern Balaji is, our best is friend, can excel.
00:39:53 Anywhere Balaji is, either he's in London,
00:39:57 in America or he's in Canada,
00:39:59 first thing first is, Omo, this place is okay.
00:40:03 Can you come down in here?
00:40:05 That is his own contribution.
00:40:06 He will tell me, okay, Omo, don't worry.
00:40:08 I know somebody that can do work permit.
00:40:11 Maybe when they do work permit,
00:40:13 and we can put things together.
00:40:15 If you have money, you buy ticket for your band.
00:40:17 Come here, come and try this place.
00:40:18 You never can tell.
00:40:20 Maybe I don't have money at that time.
00:40:21 Maybe I'll go and sell one important thing.
00:40:24 Do you know how many times I've sold my land
00:40:27 to raise money to be able to develop my band?
00:40:29 I've been recording artists, Ndebaba, Adetunji,
00:40:35 who later become Dio Lubadon.
00:40:36 May God forgive his soul and bless his soul.
00:40:39 Do you know how many times I will beg them
00:40:42 to please sponsor us, let off our record,
00:40:46 and they'll put money together.
00:40:48 I'll go to studio without collecting a dime.
00:40:51 That I'll record all we just want them,
00:40:54 we want our name on the vinyl.
00:40:56 We want people to see that which we've done album.
00:40:59 Do you know how many things I've overlooked in my life
00:41:03 to be able to keep a band working?
00:41:06 I never can say how many time I've gone to borrow money
00:41:09 to finance my band's trip.
00:41:12 There are a lot of my friends, my old time friend,
00:41:18 childhood friend, will be the one that will invite,
00:41:21 "Omo, what's up?
00:41:23 "London is okay.
00:41:24 "We can arrange something.
00:41:26 "We have some people running in here.
00:41:28 "Let's go."
00:41:29 And we will go.
00:41:30 I'll contribute money.
00:41:31 My other friends will contribute money.
00:41:33 We'll make a journey.
00:41:35 I was in Canada one year, Balaji,
00:41:37 make arrangement to go from London to Canada.
00:41:43 There's this arrangement of me and the promoter
00:41:50 that arranged our trip to London.
00:41:54 Towards the end of the trip,
00:41:55 there's a disagreement of money you want to pay me,
00:42:00 so that I can have something to do.
00:42:03 And he's giving excuses and he becomes sore.
00:42:09 Balaji said, "Don't worry.
00:42:11 "I can arrange for you to come to Canada."
00:42:12 He arranged.
00:42:13 We got a lawyer.
00:42:14 We got visa from London to Canada.
00:42:17 We got to Canada.
00:42:18 The Malawi Air Force says, "Don't worry.
00:42:19 "Now that you are in Canada, me too,
00:42:21 "I can arrange for you to come to America."
00:42:24 So, and we crossed to America.
00:42:26 So luckily my band goes with me to London
00:42:30 from London to Canada, from Canada to America.
00:42:34 Now when we get to America,
00:42:35 which is there when my boys that I fought for
00:42:39 that I put all my connection together,
00:42:43 they now see that I want more money.
00:42:47 They will threaten you to say we will run away,
00:42:50 so that you'll be begging them.
00:42:51 Mine is not the first time.
00:42:53 The old band that travel with Shino Peter as my friend,
00:42:56 they look when they get abroad.
00:42:59 Well, ours is not the first,
00:43:03 but one thing I want to tell you is,
00:43:07 let me use Olu Peli as an example.
00:43:11 He won't be with me for over 40 something years,
00:43:16 and I will not be treating him nice.
00:43:21 I will still remain there.
00:43:23 It's not possible.
00:43:27 From inception, the agreement between me and my group
00:43:31 is 60/40, 60/40 from inception.
00:43:36 40 to them, they are very minute, maybe about nine of them.
00:43:43 So they are just nine,
00:43:45 but when they becoming larger, they cut to 14, 15,
00:43:51 I see that there are more than nine.
00:43:55 So there should be adjustment of money condition.
00:43:58 And we said, okay, 50/50, which is fair enough.
00:44:03 I'll be the one that will do the singing.
00:44:05 I'll be the one that do this.
00:44:07 I'll be the one that will show the super show.
00:44:09 Maybe I do one show, I don't even collect anything.
00:44:12 Up to date, we have a lot of our fans that group with us.
00:44:17 Those that group with us,
00:44:18 that have been seen in the last 35, 40 years,
00:44:21 when their children wants to do wedding today
00:44:23 and they come to me to say,
00:44:24 "Omo, that child of that time, you helped me do the naming.
00:44:28 "He's doing wedding."
00:44:30 Would I tell my longtime friend to say,
00:44:32 "Go and bring him 10 million naira."
00:44:34 I do free shows to people while some pays.
00:44:37 You have to use the right hand to rub the left
00:44:42 and everything comes better.
00:44:44 So that is how I've been running my band.
00:44:46 It's a soul band.
00:44:48 It is a soul band.
00:44:50 I have the grace of God to be able to be
00:44:53 someone that is contented.
00:44:56 Take for instance, the last Europe tour, I took my boys.
00:45:02 The last Europe I took my boys,
00:45:07 I remember Mike Fasher King.
00:45:10 For every time we traveled abroad, we approached embassy.
00:45:18 (silence)
00:45:21 The moment any of the band ran away
00:45:25 and we are back to apply for visa at that embassy,
00:45:29 they will inquire about those ones that are not.
00:45:31 How could you present 15 passport to us?
00:45:35 We give all of them visa.
00:45:36 Another time you are coming to apply for visa,
00:45:40 you came with new 10 passport, five old passport.
00:45:45 They now ask, "What happened to those 10?
00:45:47 Do we want to tell them they ran away?"
00:45:50 We will tell them they leave the band.
00:45:52 Until all documents comes together,
00:45:56 they now see that they ran away.
00:45:58 It's not the first time.
00:45:59 You know how many people that have run behind Fela?
00:46:01 You know how many times people run from Sonia Ade and others?
00:46:06 Even the lesser known band member, this become problem.
00:46:09 They will refuse the visa.
00:46:11 When they refuse it, because of what?
00:46:13 Because of those that ran away.
00:46:16 "Who bears the burden?"
00:46:17 I bear the burden.
00:46:18 That is when the idea of, okay, anytime from now,
00:46:23 we would rather be keeping passport for two reasons.
00:46:27 One, if you allow somebody to keep his passport,
00:46:31 he might lost it.
00:46:32 But if not for that, for every time I traveled abroad,
00:46:38 there had never been a time I went there
00:46:40 without working visa.
00:46:43 Because if you do that, you stand risk.
00:46:48 You stand to be deported.
00:46:49 Oh yes, you must have work permit.
00:46:54 I am a band.
00:46:56 I run a large band.
00:46:58 I can't sneak in to perform.
00:47:01 No, I carry a very big identity on me.
00:47:04 We will pay for work permit.
00:47:08 In the work permit, taxes has been charged.
00:47:13 We will have to pay, maybe after the show,
00:47:16 the promoter would make deduction.
00:47:19 Part of the deduction the promoter would make
00:47:21 from whatever arrangement we agree upon
00:47:24 is to pay tax to government.
00:47:28 They would take it.
00:47:29 It is entertainment tax, foreign artist.
00:47:31 They have their regulation.
00:47:33 They have in the application
00:47:34 to the American Embassy of British,
00:47:38 you must declare how much money you are giving
00:47:40 to each entertainer that travels with you as a band member.
00:47:44 If we have not been doing that,
00:47:47 how would it be possible for them to allow one,
00:47:50 just one man to bring in loads of people
00:47:52 into their community?
00:47:53 And guess what?
00:47:54 When I travel abroad, if I'm staying at World of Astoria,
00:47:58 that same World of Astoria is where my band will stay.
00:48:01 I'm not a leader that will stay at World of Astoria
00:48:03 and I'm not be looking for my friends
00:48:05 that will have to help me take care of one or two
00:48:09 of my boys.
00:48:09 This is where you encourage them running away.
00:48:12 When you do not know about their whereabouts.
00:48:14 So I want to stay at World of Astoria
00:48:19 or I'm staying at the London 18 Park Lane.
00:48:21 I'll get apartment for my boys there too.
00:48:24 They will stay with me so that we can be together.
00:48:26 We can do this together.
00:48:27 We can do that together.
00:48:28 You know people.
00:48:29 We are human.
00:48:32 Somebody can lie to you 1,000 times,
00:48:35 I want to go there and buy something.
00:48:37 The two people that ran away this last time in London,
00:48:41 what did they say?
00:48:42 They said that they are going to buy something
00:48:44 in the grocery store.
00:48:46 That's how they get to escape from the rest of them.
00:48:48 But the point is they left.
00:48:52 You can't put chain to their neck and tie them down.
00:48:56 The last trip I make to London, we have two shows to do.
00:49:01 We did one, Manchester.
00:49:06 And we left Manchester to do the second one in London.
00:49:09 The distance, as we are leaving Nigeria,
00:49:12 we move straight to Manchester.
00:49:14 We flew from Nigeria straight to London.
00:49:18 We joined moving bus to Manchester.
00:49:23 We arrived Manchester like about nine o'clock
00:49:27 after four hours on the road.
00:49:29 Me too, I travel by road.
00:49:31 We travel together.
00:49:33 We get to Manchester straight up.
00:49:36 Was at a restaurant.
00:49:37 They had to quickly change my clothes to go to the show
00:49:42 because show starts at 10 o'clock and we end two o'clock.
00:49:46 We finished from there two o'clock.
00:49:48 They ride the same bus back to London with me too.
00:49:53 I was sleeping in the bus.
00:49:54 We came to London and where do I take them?
00:49:59 I took them to the hotel.
00:50:00 We get to the hotel.
00:50:01 Hotel says they only have accommodation for me.
00:50:05 They could not give us accommodation.
00:50:07 We have just only one show.
00:50:09 And I travel with like 17 boys or 18, 18.
00:50:15 And they were demanding for two in the room
00:50:19 and the room is 1,400 pounds.
00:50:22 So for me to do 1,400 pounds for 18 people,
00:50:28 I probably be needing like nine rooms.
00:50:30 What sense in it?
00:50:34 We have to look for somewhere,
00:50:36 somebody who offers us a place and I paid.
00:50:40 It goes in there.
00:50:42 Just for us to do the show one night and the next morning,
00:50:45 we have split flight.
00:50:47 This goes on this flight, that goes on that flight.
00:50:50 Even if somewhere there is love,
00:50:52 if there had never been a main person among us,
00:50:55 we go together like that.
00:50:58 We live together.
00:50:59 Those two, two one, run away.
00:51:02 They are lucky, good for you.
00:51:04 In this day in Nigeria, if anybody wants to jackpot,
00:51:08 let them jackpot.
00:51:08 If you do not cultivate the habit
00:51:11 of walking seriously in Nigeria,
00:51:14 when you get where you are jackpotting to,
00:51:16 you will suffer because you must walk.
00:51:19 I don't ask anybody not to run away.
00:51:20 Go run away, it's your cause.
00:51:22 I didn't run away.
00:51:24 All this I put together.
00:51:25 Was between the time I decided,
00:51:31 I don't want to travel again.
00:51:33 Between 2018 and 2022,
00:51:36 I established many other businesses.
00:51:41 I established my bakery, 2017, November.
00:51:46 And when I see the returns,
00:51:49 was the proceed I get from the bakery
00:51:50 that I used to buy this land.
00:51:53 And I can see that I'm growing.
00:51:55 And I ask myself, what's the need of me?
00:51:57 Any little three days off, like this period,
00:52:00 is it I travel to go to Lesser Hatch
00:52:04 or I travel to America or I go to Canada.
00:52:06 I will go and sit there, take money,
00:52:10 just be spending, enjoying.
00:52:11 But at another time I decided I'm not going.
00:52:14 And I'm able to utilize the money.
00:52:17 So, the same money they got,
00:52:21 this man standing, Mr. Mosulu Mati,
00:52:24 he is the one that, he is the welfare manager
00:52:26 who does their sharing.
00:52:29 I didn't share money by giving money cash at hand.
00:52:32 I share money through the bank.
00:52:37 Current sharing formula is 40, 60.
00:52:43 40 to me, 60 to the band.
00:52:51 Out of the 60 of the band, 10 from them.
00:52:55 10 from me again, is what we use to pay the management.
00:52:58 That's where people like him got his own wage.
00:53:01 So I end up taking 30.
00:53:06 Now, I believe we are a big band.
00:53:09 Maybe one outing could bring something tangible.
00:53:12 It is very, very wrong and arrogant nonsense
00:53:17 for anybody to think I will use people like a slave.
00:53:19 Who is serving slave here?
00:53:22 Am I the one serving slave when I will take you,
00:53:24 borrow money to buy ticket for the band?
00:53:26 When I will go into one negotiation with promoter,
00:53:28 I brought that does not simplify what I'm getting.
00:53:32 Simply because I just want to keep the name
00:53:34 of the band going.
00:53:35 Do you know how many time I've sold my things
00:53:40 to get my band kick off?
00:53:41 Do you know how many time?
00:53:43 We used to pay musical equipment company at every show.
00:53:48 Sometimes 2.5 million per show.
00:53:50 Sometimes 4 million Naira.
00:53:52 Per show, generator, you pay for it.
00:53:58 All these things, I've gotten it in the past.
00:54:01 When I had my surgery, 2010,
00:54:06 a lot of people show a gift on me.
00:54:13 A lot of people show me gift.
00:54:16 They show me with gift that in the end,
00:54:19 what do I use this money for?
00:54:21 If I'm so selfish, I probably use the money for myself.
00:54:26 I didn't do that, what do I do?
00:54:28 I go to where they're selling musical equipment,
00:54:30 I put money on equipment.
00:54:31 I bought excess seal of equipment
00:54:34 to bring down to Nigeria.
00:54:36 I get to Nigeria, buy moving vehicle,
00:54:38 buy generator brand new,
00:54:40 put it on a moving vehicle brand new,
00:54:42 I set my band so that I will not continue being paying
00:54:46 heavy money daily basis to equipment letting company.
00:54:55 If I have police, it is from this,
00:54:59 that I will pay it, not from their money.
00:55:02 If I have any other anger on, it's from my own money
00:55:05 because they are my personal staff.
00:55:08 The one that concerned the band,
00:55:10 first and foremost, the band would take 60%,
00:55:14 the deduct 10 for the management.
00:55:18 I got 40, I take 10 for the management makes 20.
00:55:23 In my band, it's a standing order in my band.
00:55:26 Even those that are dead,
00:55:28 long time ago, we still pay them.
00:55:30 Those that died in service, I have record for it.
00:55:35 I have their name, I have their bank account,
00:55:37 their families still goes to collect
00:55:40 whatever money we give to them.
00:55:41 If we are traveling abroad,
00:55:42 like the one who traveled last 17 or 18 member,
00:55:45 those are the ones that did not go, we pay them.
00:55:48 In Nigeria.
00:55:52 It's a standing order.
00:55:53 And I didn't take my band abroad,
00:55:55 make money abroad and pay them neither,
00:55:57 neither value here.
00:55:58 I paid them the way we earn it.
00:56:01 So who is enslaving who?
00:56:04 I am the one who is enslaving,
00:56:07 but how did I get to suck myself out?
00:56:11 I suck myself out because of what I've been used to.
00:56:14 I always have somewhere to run back to,
00:56:19 either to borrow or to do whatever,
00:56:22 to do whatever I'm doing,
00:56:24 if need to add up our pay,
00:56:26 to make that work for me.
00:56:29 I've been able to use that to develop myself.
00:56:32 When I was to establish my bakery 2017,
00:56:35 the style I introduced to my bread making,
00:56:40 I wanted to have more customers.
00:56:42 I have a kind of a bread that is so expensive
00:56:46 because of what we use in producing my bread.
00:56:49 I don't do my go,
00:56:51 your bigger production.
00:56:54 My bread is, my bread stands, it stands out.
00:56:57 I called my band member, I told them,
00:57:01 I want to start making bread.
00:57:03 To those of you, either your wife, your mother,
00:57:05 or you want to have somebody you put there.
00:57:08 If you want to tell me,
00:57:10 you to come, we're collecting bread.
00:57:12 I was looking for a large patronage
00:57:16 and everybody will be making money.
00:57:17 Some tell me, okay, they'll be thinking about it.
00:57:21 Some tell me, let me go and arrange.
00:57:23 I'll come back to you.
00:57:24 Nobody comes.
00:57:25 And I'm doing my business.
00:57:27 It is mine.
00:57:27 But one thing I'm saying is this,
00:57:31 the equipment I used money to buy when I was sick,
00:57:35 that I bought in Nigeria,
00:57:36 I supposed to be collecting money on it.
00:57:39 But I donated to the cause of the bank.
00:57:44 So their earnings goes up.
00:57:46 Where do we have problem?
00:57:49 When people forget about wear and tear.
00:57:52 When the instrument will have problem,
00:57:54 engineer will say, sir,
00:57:56 we have problem about four speakers is down.
00:57:59 We need to recone.
00:58:00 We need to do rebuild.
00:58:02 One engine, one sleeve, two sleeve is faulty.
00:58:05 We need to repair.
00:58:07 You know what my band will do?
00:58:09 They will tell the engineer,
00:58:10 if you don't mention it before we share our money,
00:58:14 you are dead.
00:58:15 So those one will not talk.
00:58:17 This is the equipment I'm not charging anything on.
00:58:22 So instead of letting that one say,
00:58:25 sir, we have problem of the engine,
00:58:28 maybe 250,000, take it, go and repair it.
00:58:31 That's our tools.
00:58:32 They will not.
00:58:33 When they share the money,
00:58:34 they took their own part, they leave.
00:58:36 That one will not come to me two days or three days
00:58:38 to the next show.
00:58:39 Sir, we have problems, sir.
00:58:41 I said, well, some of our speakers,
00:58:43 some of our cables,
00:58:44 and I said, before we share money,
00:58:47 why can't you talk?
00:58:48 And I said, I forgot.
00:58:50 When I get home, my mother was sick.
00:58:52 I had to go and take care of my mother.
00:58:54 So when it goes to a point,
00:58:56 I said, okay, you know what?
00:58:57 Don't worry.
00:58:58 Leave my equipment.
00:58:59 Go and be renting equipment.
00:59:03 How you will not pay the equipment company I want to see.
00:59:08 So if we have show,
00:59:09 equipment company will collect money.
00:59:11 So what we have is what we will share.
00:59:13 What we have is what we will share.
00:59:17 So you could not maintain the one you have free of charge.
00:59:20 I'm not charging money for moving vehicle.
00:59:23 I'm not charging money on the generator
00:59:26 and the vehicle that carries generator.
00:59:29 I'm not charging money on the equipment.
00:59:32 I'm not charging money on storage.
00:59:34 Foiling and everything, I'm not charging money.
00:59:41 The equipment will be set at the venue.
00:59:43 You finish performance, all you're after is that money.
00:59:47 Upon the one you will steal.
00:59:48 They'll steal money on stage.
00:59:50 If you see them the way they are.
00:59:51 Some people have method of putting gum on their shoe
00:59:55 to step on.
00:59:55 All this magomago way of life.
00:59:58 But it's normal.
00:59:59 It is normal.
01:00:00 What do you expect where you have large people,
01:00:03 over 27, 28 people.
01:00:05 Close the hangar on.
01:00:08 But I've been enjoying grace of God.
01:00:11 I've been able to do many other businesses
01:00:14 that give me return and I feel like,
01:00:17 okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
01:00:19 Saying okay, okay doesn't mean everything is okay.
01:00:25 It's just that it's been part of me.
01:00:28 I am cool there.
01:00:32 That is complaining that they will tell his passport.
01:00:35 Let me tell you a story.
01:00:38 He ran away from the band in England.
01:00:40 While we were on tour.
01:00:42 He ran away from the band with his passport.
01:00:47 Together with him and another two member of the band.
01:00:52 And we came back to Nigeria.
01:00:55 That was in the 90s.
01:01:00 In the 90s.
01:01:02 - First time he ran away from the band.
01:01:04 - One of his time that he ran away.
01:01:06 He ran away in England.
01:01:07 After he ran away, he took his passport and left.
01:01:11 Information original later time says,
01:01:17 in the course of him overstaying,
01:01:22 he now gave the passport.
01:01:25 It was in London.
01:01:26 He now gave the passport to somebody
01:01:28 to come and present the passport at the embassy.
01:01:33 That time they are not putting picture
01:01:36 at the back of visa.
01:01:37 So they took the passport somewhere.
01:01:40 They changed the head, put another person's head.
01:01:43 For one thing or the other,
01:01:44 that one take the passport to the embassy.
01:01:46 British High Commission detected that.
01:01:48 The interview they gave to that one
01:01:50 does not tally with the visas,
01:01:54 a lot of visas and the passport.
01:01:56 They will tell the passport to say,
01:01:57 call the owner of the passport
01:01:59 to come and take the passport.
01:02:00 Ayokunle's passport is at the British High Commission.
01:02:05 This is a man I got the passport for.
01:02:06 I'm the one that got the passport for him.
01:02:09 He does not, he cannot write and read.
01:02:11 Ayokunle cannot write or read.
01:02:17 I did everything for them.
01:02:18 Okay, I'm not the one that collected your passport.
01:02:24 You've run away with the passport.
01:02:26 So how come you'd run away with the passport?
01:02:28 Your passport was with me.
01:02:30 It can't be with me.
01:02:31 There is another one.
01:02:33 This is my law.
01:02:34 I was reading his interview too.
01:02:36 That one says in America,
01:02:38 the mother of heaven bought them tickets to return back.
01:02:42 If they don't have their passport,
01:02:43 how possible to return?
01:02:46 Because that one said,
01:02:49 in the interview he said,
01:02:49 I left all of them in America
01:02:53 to go to my ex-wife in London.
01:02:56 Yes, they have their passport.
01:03:00 Is it possible for me to leave them there
01:03:02 and carry their passport along with me to London?
01:03:04 It's impossible.
01:03:05 Immigration or customs will ask me,
01:03:06 what are you doing with?
01:03:08 They have their passport.
01:03:11 If they don't have their passport,
01:03:12 they won't be able to return.
01:03:14 They left when I get to Nigeria,
01:03:18 because their problem,
01:03:19 when I see their problem too much,
01:03:20 I said, you know what?
01:03:21 Innovation, that's when I disbanded.
01:03:24 I disbanded and I regrouped again
01:03:28 to have another new band.
01:03:30 After them, another set of people have run away.
01:03:33 (audience laughing)
01:03:35 It's a common,
01:03:36 let me give thanks to God Almighty.
01:03:39 What about Shino Pitas,
01:03:40 that his own band,
01:03:41 the whole of the band ran away.
01:03:43 Or haven't you heard that before?
01:03:45 They run away.
01:03:46 Shino did not die,
01:03:47 but whatever,
01:03:49 from whatever any action of that,
01:03:52 they always set the band leader behind.
01:03:57 They send him back.
01:03:58 That's wrong.
01:04:00 You want God to answer your prayer?
01:04:02 You cut another person's life short
01:04:05 and you think God will allow you go scot-free?
01:04:08 But if you go to ask the band member,
01:04:13 you will see somebody,
01:04:14 I'll tell you he's been with the band for 15 years
01:04:16 and he has built two houses.
01:04:18 You will tell this one.
01:04:21 Of recent, one stage,
01:04:24 I think was the last party,
01:04:25 deputy governor of Ugun,
01:04:27 had that white stone.
01:04:30 (woman speaking off mic)
01:04:32 Ago, that one came to me and said,
01:04:34 "Sir, I have a problem."
01:04:36 I said, "What?"
01:04:37 He says, "One of the homeless,"
01:04:39 he says, "His house at Ibadan
01:04:42 "was marked for demolition by off record
01:04:45 "governor Shey Markinde."
01:04:48 And I said, "What did you do?"
01:04:50 He said, "Not only him,
01:04:50 "about 500 people in that area,
01:04:53 "they want to demolish their house."
01:04:55 And I said, "God."
01:04:57 Even if I know governor Shey Markinde,
01:05:00 Shey Markinde will not be the one
01:05:03 that they really want to demolish you people's house.
01:05:06 Maybe you people contravene the law,
01:05:08 the land was sold to you that is wrong,
01:05:10 or blah, blah, blah.
01:05:11 I said, "I cannot go to Shey Markinde
01:05:14 "to tell governor Shey Markinde,
01:05:15 "Sir, one of my boy built a house there.
01:05:18 "Please, kindly leave him."
01:05:20 Would he leave you out of over 500 like you said?
01:05:25 I said, "But I can tell you one thing.
01:05:29 "Like as usual, we do to others."
01:05:30 I said, "Whatever you think you can salvage in your house,
01:05:35 "go and salvage it.
01:05:38 "Go and look for a land that you know is genuine.
01:05:43 "Come to me, I'll give you money, you buy the land.
01:05:46 "And whatever the band can also deduct for you,
01:05:48 "they deduct for you.
01:05:49 "If you set you back to, you know,
01:05:52 "after you build your house again,
01:05:53 "that's the best I can do."
01:05:55 That's what I said on stage.
01:05:56 I said, "That's the best I can do."
01:05:58 But for me to go to Shey Markinde,
01:06:00 the pain and the time it would take me
01:06:03 to want to be telling His Excellency Shey Markinde
01:06:07 to spare your house, I don't know how I'm gonna do that.
01:06:12 I said, "But instead of doing that, don't worry.
01:06:14 "That's one I promise you, I'll do for you."
01:06:17 Or the one that will tell me he wants to do
01:06:19 the window of his house.
01:06:22 Or he wants to do, he wants to do decking.
01:06:26 In my own little way, I'll try as a leader.
01:06:30 But that particular Ayankule, it's not new to me.
01:06:36 Ayankule used to...
01:06:40 Every woman in marriage,
01:06:46 I don't want to offend women,
01:06:50 with this I want to say.
01:06:51 What do you say to a woman who says,
01:06:54 "For over 25 years I've been with my husband,
01:06:56 "my husband has never done anything tangible
01:06:58 "to better my life."
01:07:01 And you didn't go.
01:07:02 You said the man is not good,
01:07:06 you born the first child, second, third and fourth.
01:07:11 People now saying, "That man is a bad man."
01:07:15 No, he's a bad man.
01:07:16 You stay put in a relationship that span 25 years
01:07:20 and you put to bed four children and the man is not good.
01:07:25 If our mothers can do that,
01:07:27 let the man give her a cup of water,
01:07:31 he will come back to you and say,
01:07:33 "Oh, they took one, yeah, we finished it."
01:07:35 That is drama, they are like our wife.
01:07:39 They will complain when things doesn't go their way.
01:07:45 They will shut mouth when it goes their way.
01:07:50 I don't see it as a problem.
01:07:52 But where did I see problem?
01:07:54 I see problem from people that won't encourage them to talk.
01:07:59 Few days ago, somebody called me
01:08:08 and told me, some people called him and says,
01:08:14 "I was told you have one encounter with Kwame,
01:08:17 "if you can tell us, we'll pay you money."
01:08:22 That one I said, "How do you mean?"
01:08:24 He says, "We were told you at the time
01:08:27 "you had one problem with Kwame,
01:08:28 "we are journalists, come, we'll give you money,
01:08:32 "come and tell us story."
01:08:34 So all that, all that is bad.
01:08:39 In our society, it's ungodly.
01:08:41 You just want to run somebody down,
01:08:43 "Jah, at all cost."
01:08:45 Somebody God has made, you want to run the person down.
01:08:48 At all cost, you can't, you can't succeed.
01:08:51 You can't, that is no way.
01:08:53 That is what social media turn us to.
01:08:56 To those of you that are doing serious
01:08:58 and genuine journalism, that practice it,
01:09:01 you know the ethics of the job.
01:09:03 To those of you that chooses to be disciplined to yourself
01:09:08 and not of that you have a kind of act of disciplining
01:09:12 on you to the public, you have your way of going about it.
01:09:16 Fine, to those of you that feel like,
01:09:18 "Oh yeah, we're a lot."
01:09:20 Fine, but one thing that I know is I'm human.
01:09:25 I'm not a saint.
01:09:27 I won't say I'm the most perfect person.
01:09:30 No, I am not.
01:09:32 I don't want to be perfect.
01:09:34 I want to do things, I reverse it to say,
01:09:37 "Oh, I made a mistake in India."
01:09:40 And I quickly readdress it.
01:09:42 That is to be human.
01:09:43 I don't have, if I'm talking about my voice
01:09:49 from now until tomorrow, we can't finish.
01:09:51 How can I finish topic of over 35, 40 years?
01:09:54 This is what comes to mind you'll be talking about.
01:09:59 But to them, to those of them that have left the band
01:10:04 for 20 years, now that the band is at the top,
01:10:07 what do you expect them to say?
01:10:10 They can't talk anything good.
01:10:11 They can't.
01:10:14 They can't talk anything good.
01:10:18 - Sir, I think you've done justice to them.
01:10:21 And you are in general, you get-
01:10:24 - Number one, I might not be able to tell you
01:10:29 if you got many shows I've done.
01:10:31 This is a band that keeps growing
01:10:33 and keep performing every time.
01:10:36 And the other one, the album, in the era of piracy,
01:10:41 do you know how many of my album down the street?
01:10:43 I don't even know how it gets to the public.
01:10:47 Do you know many people that comes to my show?
01:10:50 Or do you know many people that come across my tape?
01:10:52 They took it to the studio to work on it
01:10:55 and put a picture on it and the pictures address,
01:10:58 wrong address, fake address, fake this, fake that.
01:11:00 And they put it in the market, they are selling.
01:11:03 We give glory to God.
01:11:04 We are blessed because we are blessed.
01:11:06 That's why people feel they can always do that
01:11:09 and get away with it.
01:11:10 Even those one with silly, with silly give out to people
01:11:16 who mistook our action for stupidity.
01:11:19 We are not stupid.
01:11:22 Very recently, the copyright lawyer came
01:11:26 and we were discussing.
01:11:27 Iridu Marie, he was here, was discussing with me
01:11:32 about some rights, some copyright that I have,
01:11:37 some infringement, this and that.
01:11:39 I told him, "Pomila, you can't be telling me that.
01:11:44 "This is why I have you, is to go and protect all that.
01:11:48 "So if need be, you have to take them to court.
01:11:51 "Go ahead."
01:11:52 Do you know how many people that will go out,
01:11:55 put my name in their return card to say
01:11:58 KwaMwaN Band will be performing for them
01:12:00 when they did not even approach me at all?
01:12:02 They will use that to sell either show,
01:12:06 their party, this and that and that and that.
01:12:09 And when I'm not back, they say, "Oh, that was you.
01:12:11 "You don't disappoint them again."
01:12:13 I didn't even know anything about.
01:12:15 All this, I can't count as a success.
01:12:23 But you asked me the top question, you said--
01:12:28 - Your fondest memory.
01:12:31 - The fondest memory is the fact that
01:12:34 I am counted among the few that enjoys
01:12:37 the benevolent of God and good people.
01:12:39 That has been the fondest.
01:12:41 Let me be honest with you.
01:12:43 Nigeria music, Nigeria entertainment,
01:12:45 music, entertainment, that's the big house.
01:12:50 What's contributing larger amount of money to the GDP?
01:12:58 But we are good at talking,
01:13:03 than actualizing it.
01:13:06 When there are no applicable laws that guided it,
01:13:13 there are a lot of infringements.
01:13:15 Nobody helps anybody.
01:13:17 Nobody helps anybody.
01:13:21 A lot of things is not well structured.
01:13:27 No serious law that gives support and backing.
01:13:31 Number three, people don't even respect any law.
01:13:42 And you can't cry foul to anywhere, nobody will hear you.
01:13:45 Musicians sometimes, those one you see discussing,
01:13:51 will be few of learned one and larger house of
01:13:57 those that are not learned.
01:13:59 Those few one will be using the other ones to collect.
01:14:03 When they need them to come and say,
01:14:07 "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey," to carry placard, you see them.
01:14:10 When it comes to serious matter, you will see anybody.
01:14:13 That is the society that we are.
01:14:16 Until recently, when now being forced on people,
01:14:19 your NIN, your BVN, everything is attached.
01:14:24 If you don't have BVN, NIN, you cannot get your passport
01:14:29 done, you can't get your driver's license done,
01:14:31 you can't get this done, you can't get that done.
01:14:34 I'm sure some heady ones will still not have those things.
01:14:40 My band, I forgot, long time ago when I was living
01:14:45 at Okota, I used to pay them by hand.
01:14:50 I was forced to.
01:14:52 They would come to my house, we do meeting every Monday.
01:14:58 Ours is every week, not monthly.
01:15:02 What we do show weekend, on Monday, come and collect, go.
01:15:05 They would come to my house.
01:15:08 The moment they give them the money,
01:15:09 you see all the beer parlors around.
01:15:12 You see the restaurant around.
01:15:13 Everywhere we are going.
01:15:17 Two days after that, or two days before the next payment,
01:15:23 you now see food seller, bar owner, they will now come
01:15:28 to say, somebody wants to see a legend, I say,
01:15:31 "What happened?"
01:15:32 He says, "I'm here to report two of your boys.
01:15:35 "They've been hoeing me, they've been hoeing me."
01:15:38 And I say, "What did they buy from you?"
01:15:40 They bought beer, they bought drink, they bought food
01:15:43 for somebody that was passing.
01:15:45 How do we, how do we, how do we comprehend this?
01:15:51 And I tell them, I said, "You know what?
01:15:56 "I don't want you people to be coming to my house
01:15:58 "every Monday again."
01:15:59 Somebody living at Agege will come to Okota
01:16:03 because they want to share money.
01:16:05 Somebody living at Agege wants to come to Okota
01:16:08 every Monday.
01:16:09 And the rule is, they don't see you, you don't get paid.
01:16:14 You must come and collect your money.
01:16:16 You can't send somebody, I'm sick.
01:16:18 If you are sick, let your money sick.
01:16:20 So, I now said to them, "Don't bother.
01:16:24 "Give me your account details.
01:16:29 "I'll be putting money into your account."
01:16:32 Some gave their account, some says,
01:16:34 "Put it in my sister's account,
01:16:36 "put it in my father's account, put it in my brother."
01:16:40 I said, "No."
01:16:41 I wake up one day, I call my account officer
01:16:45 at both GTB and Zenith.
01:16:48 I said, "They should bring forms."
01:16:51 They're all sitting down on a Monday.
01:16:53 Yeah, register all of them.
01:16:55 That is not the era of BBN, NIN and stuff.
01:16:58 They register bank account for them.
01:17:01 I use my own account, bank account to guarantee.
01:17:05 My bank account is Fujio Repertoire Nigerian Limited.
01:17:09 I also have King Gwaselai Ndey Marshall, Nigerian Limited.
01:17:13 They're all registered, duly.
01:17:16 That is the account their money comes from.
01:17:18 The third account their money will probably come from
01:17:21 will be Mosh, Mosh Light Enterprise.
01:17:24 That is his own account.
01:17:25 So, I now said they should open account for them.
01:17:30 If you don't have this account,
01:17:32 I'll be paying your money.
01:17:34 So, they now have account.
01:17:36 Like I'm saying,
01:17:37 well, I spoke to my account officer,
01:17:42 went coolest case, come on.
01:17:45 I told TT to be compiling statement of over five years.
01:17:50 I can present five years statement of account
01:18:00 for my band, individual, where I pay their money.
01:18:05 Where you know what percentage of money they shared.
01:18:11 In a band of 28 direct members,
01:18:16 if I give them 10 million Nigerian,
01:18:21 tell me, how much do you think the highest person
01:18:27 that took money would be taken out of 28,
01:18:31 where I deliver 10 million?
01:18:34 We need to see statement of account.
01:18:39 This is the paying officer.
01:18:40 I am the best.
01:18:43 Yes, I am the best, if not number one.
01:18:48 I'm among the best of band that pay wages
01:18:52 in this country today, more than anybody.
01:18:55 More than I stand to be challenged.
01:19:00 I stand to be challenged.
01:19:06 I have statement of account to back it up.
01:19:08 Each member, they have their account.
01:19:10 None of them has account that is other than
01:19:14 Zenith Bank or GT Bank.
01:19:16 Don't double my top list.
01:19:20 I have their bank account.
01:19:23 Mule left, when?
01:19:25 Was early part of last year.
01:19:29 Mule, is it up to two years?
01:19:34 No, it's not up to two years old.
01:19:36 It was last year, Sokopawa's party.
01:19:38 That was when he comes last.
01:19:40 He first left and then he came to Sokopawa party to--
01:19:44 Okay, that he left.
01:19:52 (man speaking faintly)
01:19:54 Was at Sokopawa party.
01:19:55 I told him he will never.
01:19:57 He came, who bought him?
01:19:59 I think was Gagian.
01:20:01 Gagian Afis.
01:20:02 And I suspended myself.
01:20:05 Listen, Kule has gone.
01:20:07 Why did you go and bring Kule back?
01:20:10 Listen, I am the band leader.
01:20:14 I am the voice people listen to.
01:20:17 I am the one that controls every direction of the band.
01:20:21 My own is soul controller.
01:20:27 It is what I want.
01:20:28 If I want to leap on guitar is what I will leap on.
01:20:32 If I want to leap on Sakara is what I will leap on.
01:20:35 My own is not a band that one entity will say,
01:20:42 I'll be the one.
01:20:43 No, no, I'm the one that knows where I want
01:20:46 the control of my music to go,
01:20:48 the direction I want it to go.
01:20:50 I don't want Kule.
01:20:51 They get their money weekly now, not monthly.
01:20:54 I don't pay monthly.
01:20:55 (man speaking faintly)
01:21:00 Partial.
01:21:00 Partial.
01:21:01 If they have three, it goes in three ways.
01:21:08 Times four, times five.
01:21:15 No, one of them got an interview also,
01:21:17 Kamoribata, who says even level 17 officer
01:21:20 doesn't get money more than them.
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