Ayefele in this
interview with Glitz, reveals what the late
billionaire, Alhaji Arisekola Alao did for him, his wife, his back up artiste that absconded and his experience from female
admirers, etc…see excerpts below:
You seemed to be very close to the late Alhaji Arisekola Alao, what was your relationship with him?
I didn’t know him until one of his wives, the late Alhaja Risikat
Alao introduced me to him. This was the period people were donating the
needed funds for me to travel for treatment abroad and fortunately
someone took me to Alhaja Risikat and she called ‘Aare’ that if that was
the only help he intended doing for her that he should just do it for
me and he agreed. I was in my house when they brought the visa for me
and my wife, he footed all our expenses to London, we were in Javis
hotel for four months and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, he
paid all the bills. He even included weekly allowances and other things
but he warned me not to talk about it to anybody and that was what I
called ‘oro shi n bo to ba di ojo iwaju’ (I save the revelation for the
future). I wanted to say it but he warned me not to. That picture you
saw at the reception was taken on Easter Sunday at an event in UCH,
Ibadan, it was the first time I saw Alhaji danced like that to my songs,
after the performance he called me to his table and told a photographer
to take the picture and frame it for me. When I heard about his death I
was also in London and I recalled our last conversation and his unusual
behaviour and I thought he probably had a premonition of his death
because he got so friendly that day that I also joked that I wanted to
become a King in Ibadan and that he would have to approve it. His death
came as a shock, he was such a nice man.
‘Oro shi n bo to ba di ojo iwaju’, your fans must be eager to hear that in the next album, is there any plan towards that?
I wouldn’t want to do what he didn’t like when he was alive. Aare
didn’t want me to talk about it, so I would rather not. I can only talk
about it this way in a conversation and not in a song, I must respect
his wish. I wasn’t the only person he was nice to, a lot of people are
saying good things about him and I pray that God rewards him wherever he
is now.
Your wife is being kept out of public glare, many would have loved to see her with you once in a while, was this deliberate?
That has been her normal routine, I don’t instruct her on what to do
or what not to do. It is either you find her at home, in her shop or in
the United Kingdom. She attends the parties they invite her to.
How is your last album doing in the market?
It is one of my most patronised albums, it has sold more than the
others probably because people have been expecting it to see what it
would look like without my band boys that absconded in America, so it
makes the album a hot cake that is fast selling.
How many of them absconded and how did you react to their action?
They were three. Gbenga Ojoyido, my keyboardist, Dare Olusola one of
my back-up singers and Solomon Motimoke popularly called ‘Yatty’. They
only did the right thing at the wrong time, we can’t be together forever
but I think they did that at the wrong time and in a wrong way. I got
them multiple entry visas and they could have come back and decided to
go back again, I would have been happy if that was what they did. One of
them even has his passport with me till today and I was calling his
wife to come and collect it because I can imagine what they are passing
through at the moment, someone told me some days ago that he saw them
working at the train station, it is saddening. Though they may have
their reasons yet I know most of the youths today are misled by
prophets, we have to be careful in whatever we do. As I’m talking to you
my saxophonist and one of my guitarists are in America, I got them two
years’ visa.
What if they come back and apologise, would you forgive and take them back?
We offend God and he forgives, why not? What I’m after is their
well-being, and if they come back I will even support them to form their
band, it will make me happy for them to be successful and people will
call them ‘Ayefele boys’. I have tried several times to reach them on
face book but they chose not to reply. I even heard Yatty was in Ibadan
recently, but I didn’t see him.
Do you miss them?
Of course yet! They are my brothers, we started this band together a
long time ago and I miss their roles and that is why I feel for them
because they were part of the few that laboured for this image and they
were supposed to reap from the fruits. What they did means they would
just start all over again, some of the guys I have with me that are
enjoying things were not part of the first band I started with and now
they are enjoying the benefits. I think God has a way of doing things,
maybe if they didn’t leave these new guys might not have the chance.
Election has come and gone in Ekiti state, as an indigene how did you see it?
I was away in London during the election and what I heard was that it
was one of the best elections ever held in Nigerian history, so I’m
happy for the winner and also commend the spirit of the loser.
But you were closer to Governor Fayemi than the winner Ayo Fayose and you even played more for Fayemi?
I never played for Governor Fayemi more than once and that was when
he had his mother’s burial but I’ve always played for Fayose even when
he was in government. I’m everybody’s friend, am I not your friend?
Most of the time people call you a flirt, maybe because of your good look, how do you react to it?
I have many lady admirers and it’s left for me to maintain and
protect my integrity, I can’t negotiate my integrity for fun. I know my
limit when it comes to women but I love them because they constitute a
huge part of my fan-base.
How do you relate with your female admirers?
I deal with them as fans, nothing more than that. If you want more
than that I will post you, I wouldn’t say no, but I will evade you.
Do you often meet women you admire?
Yes, I can admire you even when I’m on the stage but not to the extent of having to ask you out.
You have a lot of female admirers, how far has a fan gone crazy with you?
I can’t finish talking about that if I should start. There was one
that said God sent her to me, she pretended as a prophetess, there was
another white woman from South Africa that came to my office to see me
and she grabbed me screaming ‘I touched him!’ Such experience is
countless.