By: ‘ Tunji Solomon
THE HAND writing was on the wall: TAYE CURRENCY was not current. If not, how did: “Were la fi nwo were” (interpreted: madness is used to cure madness); fit into coronation ceremony? His choice of such line among his lyrics marveled this writer as he drove along Igbeti road, Oyo State, last week Saturday. The appetite to listen to the live broadcast of the coronation in Ibadan, through the car radio, was poisoned with the poor lyrics.
NEVERTHELESS, THE journalistic instinct sustained the interest. The musician in question did not disappoint Oyo State indigenes: he only placed himself in the space of reference as party-mood killer, and negative headlines. Journalists, especially journalists of Yoruba extraction, commentators, presenters, among others, were allowed to butter their bread with negative reviews. It is a hard thing to stab oneself in the back. It is odd. Sincerely, he did.
LIKE AN expired product, he blown the opportunity to widen his musical career and economic expansion through referrals. He wasted access to more people as profile booster. Obviously, he is one of few people who thinks money is everything. Sadly, there are so many things money cannot buy. He needs to ask musicians that experienced setbacks through issues they least expected: the negative situations. What is their rating now?
FRANKLY SPEAKING, history says that most musicians that fell from grace to grass, usually lose their reputation before their relevance crash like the cookies that crumble, apologies to James Hadley Chase. Finally, their voice fades into obscurity like smokes from fainted chimney. Their career die like flame on transit. Such is the fate of the unwary musicians. Like sacrilege, coronation ceremony is not the spot error needs to rear its ugly head.
SADLY, AFTER money-making, there are higher places influence opens. Evidences abound. He de-marketed himself where it mattered most. History won’t forget this. Internet never forgets too. The Yorubas would remember this whenever there is any coronation in Yorubaland. He goofed big time. He failed his host. He let himself down. He is not a professional musician that know his onions. He was accidentally discharged into musical career, if not, where is his consistency?
HE HAS successfully relegated himself. He will live in his own shadow for long. This is one of the ways the sun sets at noon. He burnt his own cookies. He will kick himself time and time again. He cannot reverse the hands of time. His psychological wound would fester within him, and beyond now. No matter how he manages to cover it, the shadows of his errors won’t die any time soon. After all, only human conscience and shadow are monitoring judges.
THE CORONATION was an avenue to expand his relevance, consolidate on his acclaimed musical stories and warmed his way to the heart of the numerous audience, especially the August visitors that came for the coronation in September. It was an occasion to forget as soon as possible.
FRANKLY, HISTORY won’t have none of it too. While this writer pities him and the psychological upheavals the wrong lyric has plunged him into, to manage the present circumstance of image crisis, he needs to remain silent for a while as his best option, after his public apology. Even if he continues to be on stage, the perspectives have changed about his performance and personality.
LIKE EVERY human errors, though not like William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (or Mistake of the Night), time will heal him. History won’t forgive his error. History is hard to please. In the hands of historians, history is a tool. History is a not a friend or foe. History is never present or absent at any occasion: it hides in human memory. His best place is in the book- where it has built mansions and edifices that collated human strength and weaknesses. History is neither nice nor mean. History is not kind or hostile. History is a constant reminder of how soon human being forgets it exists.
UNLIKE THE falcons that fail to hear the falconer as William B. Yeats reiterates, a mere anarchy is loose upon the world when madness is used to cure madness. What a place to goof! What a moment to choose! It was at 44th Olubadan Coronation – where the world chose to fix their gaze and enjoy the continued tradition of succession and coronation of Oba Rashidi Ladoja as the new Olubadan of Ibadanland.
LIKE EVERY coronation, music and musicians are inevitable to spice the occasion, and slice boredom into tatters. Sadly, fun was sliced into pieces, memory stained and blamed game followed: when “were la n fi nwo were” gained momentum like a slogan. The need to professionalise Nigerian musical industry cannot but become more glaring every day. Our music has lost its fervour. Music of nowadays are like food of nowadays, fast and fleeting. The evergreen musics have departed out shores. We listen to what is available, not what is desirable. It is obvious: our musicians are bereaved of ideas. That’s why their career die in their life-time, not after their demise. That’s simply an irony!
THE PLANNING and Organising Committee of 44th Olubadan Coronation (within Olubadan and Oyo State Government) need to tender apology to Oyo State indigenes. It is not all the time that silence wins. Silence, in the context of public displeasure with musical content of an entertainer paid with tax payers’ money, is not noble. Besides, we are collectively embarrassed in the presence of global audience.
IF IBADAN belongs to every indigene of the state as stated by new Olubadan, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, in his speech on Saturday, then, the premise to apologize to us remains valid. If not, like the politically relevant platform President Bola Ahmed Tinubu used the occasion to raise the hope of Nigerians on the economy, then the new Olubadan statement was made to flatter us. Each one us knows where we come from. We have our history, we know our history, but we have sense of belonging. The likes of King Sunny Ade popularly known as KSA and Chief Ebenezer Obey are the ideal musicians that befit such occasions where the elders converged, not where an opportunist failed to know what mattered, and where.
UNDOUBTEDLY, HE has soiled his reputation beyond his imagination. He stained himself and etched his career like a leech on his host, with negative impressions. In his fame lies his frailty, he nailed his career through loudest ovation when his guiding angels left him when he needed them most. May be he was the one that ran away from their whispers. The golden opportunity he wasted through the platform of 44th Coronation cannot be regained. Some budding musicians are looking for a slice of such opportunity. Though they may never have it, they.may get crumbs of it, and they may never get anything in their life-time. That is paradox of life. Life is not fair and it will not be fair. That’s why life is a flux.
– Culled from:
-The GUEST COLUMNISTS, October 4, 2025.
‘Tunji Solomon, founder: The GUEST COLUMNISTS. Winner: 2017 Sam Omatseye Book Prize and 2016 SLAM NIGERIA Youths Hero Award
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