Sunny Ade

By Odolaye Aremu

The King has been on the throne since a core of the Nigerian generation can ever remember. A man who with his sheer force of unavoidable charisma has made the Nigerian entertainment stage his empire, throne and footstool. And that is why the King is the King!

He’s the only musician in the present day Nigeria that I am constantly amazed at his staying power. He’s been doing the same thing over and over for ages and he keeps getting better everyday, especially stagecraft wise. He probably has every Nigerian big men or women on speed dial. And I am talking of men and women of institutional wealth and not those overnight wannabes constantly fooling around with total bankruptcy.

Every time I see KSA, he strikes me as a man doing what he loves and he definitely love what he does. A rugged entertainer who wouldn’t dare retire but could be one to be eventually wheeled off the stage in a wheelchair or carted off in a stretcher. It feels me with an unexplainable forlornness to imagine a musical landscape of which KSA would one day become chunks and bits of memory!

And his humility! As rich as he is, as popular as he is and as elitist as he could have been, KSA could make the Grim Reaper himself spray him with willingness and reckless abandon. He takes from all comers- the haves, them have-nots – including from the fools living from paycheck to paycheck. The charm of the man works perfectly well on anyone, whether a Scrooge, a Grimm or if you are Tunde Idiagbon. KSA shall take your last penny with pleasure and thee shall open your wallet too, with all gladness. Old timers have said it many times in my presence that: Ishola Ogun may be financially well off than some patrons still spraying him.

I am particularly not vain, but Aladeniyi is one of my weaknesses. I declare that I shall one day make the rent money rain on this magical maestro, if the Lord tarries his second coming. Let it be said of me too that:

“Odolaye náà bá won sanwó omo Alade!” (Odolaye too spent money for Omo Alade)