Opinion : To  The  Mayegun | By Tunde Busari

In 2001, the then King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal released a song titled STATEMENT. The intro/opening track goes thus:
Ohun taye ba so e da,
Se bohun naa o fi bu e bo dola
Ohun t’aye ba so e da
Ohun t’aye ba so e da
Se bohun naa o fi bu e bo dola
O ba tete, mero naa pa o
Tori ojo iwaju
O ba tete, mero naa pa o tori ojo iwaju u
Bobo nice tan ba so e da
Baby fine tan ba so e da
Se bohun naa o fi bu e bo dolaa

(Translation)
Whatever people turn you to is the same they will use against you tomorrow
You better think right now to escape future regret

If you surrender yourself to human manipulation, you will live to regret your docility in future.

Dissecting the intended message of the excerpt and juxtaposing it with public image of one I always like to call Alhaji K1, one will feel no pain to understand why the Ijebu-Ode son is often a beautiful bride to diatribe from known critics and even a section of his fans.

I have come across reactions of some of his fans who would always spill that though they enjoy what they call his classical fuji because of its simplicity, they don’t like his expressive arrogance which, according to them, fall short of his status as public figure expected to be a role model to younger generation of musicians.

On this social media, if you have the time, the loose time to burn, you will read all sorts of comments-informed, uninformed, ill-informed and outright babanlanonsense. The traffic of words, which accompanied the news of the Mayegun installation in January, pointed to the fact that Alhaji K1 is blessed with fanatical fans and bitterest foes in almost equal percentage. In every 10 comments, six congratulated him while four screamed and highlighted why he was a misfit for that title.

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi, the conferring authority, also shared from those disapproval. When I could no longer bear the pressure on me, some hours to the installation, I picked my phone and spoke with Oba Adeyemi who shed light on the matter and also told me how he was unperturbed by the rage on social media.On January 21, just a week after the installation, through Nigerian Tribune, my employer, I published an exclusive interview headlined: ‘Why I made a musician Mayegun of Yorubaland-Oba Adeyemi,’ The first class traditional ruler defended his choice with argument difficult to dismiss, especially with his reference to his previous involvement in similar subject.

When the same Mayegun, the beneficiary of the Alaafin, is now alleged to have turned round and peed inside the palace of the same Alaafin, then there is trouble beyond Covid-19 in the air. I never knew I was, in the public eye, that close to the Alaafin’s palace until messages were descending into my whats app and inbox, requesting me to confirm the toxic story. I replied all the messages with deliberate silence because whatever I would have said would be ‘a palace source’ and would give credibility to the stuff and make a saboteur in me.

Baba Alaafin, in an interview I published last year, had passionately warned Nigerian youths to take advantage offered by social media to expand their knowledge base rather than to dig hole on their path to a promising future. So, while the story was dancing in the sky, he probably was sympatising with the carriers and consumers, knowing that any topic about him is not and cannot be ordinary because he is not and cannot be ordinary among traditional rulers even beyond Yoruba nation.

Back to Alhaji K1’s song in his STATEMENT. The track, which is both advice and sermon, seems to be the principle which he has long chosen to guide his life, regardless of its popularity, acceptability and applause of the public. He loves to do things in his own way and leaves the public to their judgement of his actions. He does not lose sleep whether they smile or gnash their teeth or attempt a dive into the Atlantic. As long as his action aligns with his principle, it’s all correct, borrowing from my former line editor, Mr Wole Efunnuga. In truth, there is no wrong in living your life for your life and not living your life for lives of others. Isn’t that what most of so-called motivational volumes preach?

Even at that, Alhaji K1 should note from this Sunday morning that there is need to subject certain things in his life to review as he steadily climbs older age (63 years, one month) and assumes higher status as the Mayegun of Yorubaland. It is no longer‘to hell with what the public say’, Apala baa jisoro, Solooo Makinde ooo.’

Rather, it is now a matter of reflection, a deep reflection and patient preview of his future. I want him to know that the failure of the current tale is not the end of the matter. In fact, a strategic thinker would see it as impetus for other hawkers to take their turn to also cook another and more damaging stuffs. And when lies are told, retold and retold again, they sound like truth and even transform to truth in the ears of target audience.

It appears that the gang up against him is real, untiring, obstinate and deadly too such that one day, he would be shocked to be stripped of his flaunted political privileges when manufactured (false) evidence of anti-party activities is couriered to the leadership of his party. Aren’t we in the age of photoshop and advanced forgery?

But before it gets to that possible end, he has all opportunity now to turn a new leaf, even though only a fool will daily struggle to satisfy everybody to enter their good book. Okay, was he aware that visual of how he physically molested a hustling photographer of age bracket of one of his sons would one day hit the air to force him into defensive? Did he know how widely the picture was shared? That’s the point. That’s my point!