Congratulations on your 74th birthday. How do you feel attaining this age?
I feel extremely happy and I thank God for the journey of life. It feels as though I just clocked 70 years old. It is a thing of joy attaining the age of 74. I want to thank God for my life; He made me a star in my chosen career. Looking back to what I have gone through in the last 74 years, I see this as a rare grace and opportunity. I am more happy that this birthday falls on a Sunday. Usually, my children, grandchildren and the church members come around to celebrate and pray with me in the house during my birthdays, but since my 74th birthday falls on a Sunday, I have decided to take the celebration to the presence of God with a thanksgiving service.
How do you see life now, looking back at the events that have shaped your life?
I have every reason to continue to thank God. I have gone through a lot in the last 74 years and God has been so good to me. No one will live without having one challenge or the other, but I thank God for the good and bad times I have experienced. The interesting thing is that, the Holy Spirit has always been with me through the journey. I see the Holy Spirit as my comforter and I have a good relationship with God. A good Christian will always thank God and ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit during the good and bad times.
You are a musician and a religious leader, how have you been handling these two at your age?
God makes it easy for me. To be an evangelist is the assignment God has given to me. I see myself as an evangelist who is on a mission, but my members address me as their General Overseer. Some people call me Chief Commander. As a visiting artiste at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in Ogun State, some people prefer to describe me as professor. I will say that I am a man of many parts. I have got to a stage in life that I cannot stop people from giving me various names and this is as a result of the fact that God has made me to make impact on many lives positively beyond what I can comprehend. I was a musician before going into the ministry. The most important thing in life is how you percieve or handle life issues; that’s what makes you a man.
With your achievements in music, religion and academics, would you say you are fulfilled?
I am a very fulfilled man and I have every reason to thank God for the grace to have come this far. There is nothing a man desires that I have not done in life. I bless God that I am a grandfather of many grandchildren and also a great grandfather. I am also blessed to have the opportunity to serve God. The ministry started 24 years ago and I thank God that it has grown in leaps and bounds with the aim of impacting lives.
What exactly led you into the ministry?
I invested in different kinds of businesses in the past. I have been a businessman at a young age. At 74, I am happy and contented with my achievements. Even when the ministry came on board, people still wanted my music and as a result of this, I started reaching out to people who cannot come to the church through what I call special appearance. This makes it easy for me to win more souls for Christ. The best thing for a man to do is to have a direction and be led by the Holy Spirit. I thank God that I have a direction and I have been following the path the Lord has chosen for me.
How was life before you gave your life to Christ?
Anyone who claims to be saint today was a once a sinner. According to Jesus Christ, anyone born of a woman is a sinner. The fact that I was born into a Christian family also helped my life. But I realised that the faith and salvation of my parents cannot save me; salvation is a personal experience. I thank God that I know Christ.
The entertainment industry has witnessed a massive development compared to when you and your contemporaries started. How do you feel about this?
Nigeria is a very blessed country and we have a lot of talents in the industry. It is to our delight that the new generation of artistes has taken over the industry with rare display of talents. There are still good songs in the industry, but there are quite a number of things that set this generation and ours apart. There are meaningful lyrics and messages in our songs that teach people good lessons. However, I guess the new musicians are meeting the demands of their generation, because it is always overwhelming when the young ones react to the young musicians. As a result of this development, we elders in the industry should appreciate them more and continually advise and nurture them so that they can learn from us. In fact, some of them have been remixing some of our works. It is important that they follow our path in delivering good music. Music is good; it is a mode of communication and it is obvious that people are receiving it with joy and happiness. My advice to the young musicians is that they should perfect whatever they are doing. We should also not forget that every artiste has their own identification; everyone knows what each artiste stands for. It is a great privilege that we still have veterans who are still impacting greatly in the industry.
It is God that made it so. It is the grace of God. I have done so many songs that no fewer than 30 to 50 radio or televition stations play my records in a day.
Are you getting the deserved royalty?
I will say it is becoming better; this is why the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has shouldered the responsibility. They are doing so much for the artistes and I can see them perfecting the system. One needs to give them more chance to perfect their operations and the distribution network. They have really started well, but the musicians need to cooperate with them to do more. Stakeholders should also not hesitate to advise or call their attention to some areas that should be amended.
What is your take on the dwindling resources of the Nigerian economy?
I think people need to be patient with Buhari’s administration. He has just spent a year and we can all see what he has been doing. Corruption has eaten deep into every sector of the nation and it has become a cankerworm that should be handled with care. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, Buhari is trying to recover all the stolen money. It is sad that Nigeria refused to make good use of the oil money when the price was good. Buhari is working hard to put the country in shape and at the same time fighting insurgency. I will say it has been tough for him in the last one year, but I know that by the grace of God we will all rejoice. President Buhari needs support of Nigerians; we need to collectively fight corruption to a halt. Otherwise we will continue to condemn him. I believe this government can achieve the change if we all support the President.
But there have been complaints from the masses that this was not the change they voted for?
The masses will complain because everyone wants to live in peace, but when people begin to say that this is not the change they voted for, then how do they want Buhari to fix the country? The oil price has gone down so bad and money is not circulating. This is because Nigerians have neglected what we ought not to neglect. We have neglected agriculture which was what we survived on before oil was discovered. Let us plant what we eat and stop the importing foods. Another thing is that Nigerians are lazy; we always want to be pampered. We are turning out graduates every year with no jobs for them. This is why we must embrace skill acquisitions. What stops with a graduates from learning bricklaying. Do you know how many houses that are being built in a day in this country despite the bad situation of the country. There will be enough jobs if graduates can venture into vocational jobs. We should not shy away from the fact that it is not everybody that will get a white collar job.
Some people say Nigeria is broke, do you believe this?
There is money in Nigeria, but people are too lazy access it. I used to trek to and from school when I was young and, at weekends, my mother and I would trek eight miles to sell clothes in the market. Today’s children spend more time on the internet doing nothing. They use big phones. I think the advent of technology has made them lazy. Though the idea is good, but the usage should be regulated. People don’t want to go to farm again. We all crave for white collar jobs. During our days, we went to farm after school. I am not sure if there are still farms in schools today. We must go back to agriculture. It should be inculcated into schools’ curriculum. That is the only way to develop agriculture. We also need to start raising our own Julius Berger to build our bridges. This is how we can grow as a nation. In the days of Papa Awolowo, Oni and Sons was the indigenous contractor who tarred roads. He was a Nigerian; he was empowered and he did very well. We now hire foreign experts to develop our country. It would have been a good thing if we bring them to train our people. Indigenous contractors should also emulate Oni and Sons. Nigeria is a good country, yet we are crying. The change we are clamouring for will not come, because it is not only about Buhari-it is everybody’s fault.We need to cooperate if we want the change to manifest.
Would you say your upbringing influenced your ageing?
I was lucky because my mother came to this world to live for her children. The first thing we did every morning was to chew our chewing sticks, bathe and eat; our mum made sure we always eat very early in the morning. This made us not to look at our friends whenever we visited them. She will stock meat in the house, especially during Ileya festival because she knew we might be tempted to eat meat outside. She will fill the home with food, so we will not have any reason to eat elsewhere. I enjoyed her food so much. She was a very good cook; no other food can match what my mum prepared. She was a disciplinarian and a strong woman.
Her first marriage was dissolved because she was barren for 18 years and that really affected her. She was not prepared for the divorce when the move was made by her first husband’s family. She left Lagos and relocated to Idogo, in Ogun State where she met another man, a carpenter and also a farmer; they enetually got married and the woman they had written off gave birth to me and my siblings. I really love my parents and I took good care of them. Though, my father thought he had done my mum a favour for her to be fruitful. My mum said she did not feel dejected about the development. She was a successful trader and also used the proceeds to take good care of us. My father never looked back when he left for Lagos for years. In fact, I was seven years old before I knew my father and when I asked him why he abandoned us, he replied that he trusted our mum that she would take good care of us.
What were your youthful days like?
Everything I learnt from my mother helped me when it was time for me to be independent. I tried many businesses in aspiration to become successful in life. I was a vendor and later became a bricklayer. Along the line, I ventured into icecream business, which I enjoyed most. The bicycle I used then was different from what we have today. In fact, I loved it so much. It was like a car and I enjoyed riding it to sell icecream and run errands. I was also a painter. Having experienced all these things, I came to realise that my mother really tried for us. Above all, the music that I took as a hobby eventually became my profession which gave me a breakthrough.
How was it like when you started as a musician?
Music is as easy as anything to me, though I had a lot of challenges to push my music career, especially on how to become a star. I have a documentary on that.
How did you become a star?
It was a sudden turnaround. I became a star within 24 hours. I got the gift of music from the school band when I was in the choir. I later became the band leader. After school, we set up a band at Idogo. Though I was the youngest. I played all the musical instruments and I took the lead vocal. All this contributed to my professionalism.
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