At Last, I Meet My Greatest Fan

Segun Odegbami

When Commander talks, he sings. He picks and expresses his words carefully and softly, almost seductively. ‘Ekaleo.sesegunodegbaminiyen?’ (Good eveningo.isthatsegunodegbami?) ‘Ekalesir.beni.eminisir’, ( Goodeveningsir. Yes,itis) I responded.

The voice was unmistakable. The great man was actually on the line calling ordinary me. Then began a short but unbelievably friendly conversation. It was as if we had been friends forever, eager to hear each other out. Agreeing to a meeting was easy and immediate, and time to do so was ‘yesterday’. We could not wait. So, we set a date and venue. The day came quickly. Early that morning I received an sms. It was followed shortly by a phone call. We confirmed the time of the meeting - noon in his house.

At the appointed time, I arrived his home where I was being expected excitedly. Remember, we had never ever met one-on-one before. Only the occasional meeting at a few parties where he would be on the bandstand and we would exchange the occasional and customary long distance and very quick and polite greetings. I never ran into him at any social event where he was not performing.

So, back to his Ibara Housing Estate residence.

Our first few minutes together were of pleasantries followed by an interesting excursion into both our lives.

There was a lot of interesting catching up to do about each other. My life had been an open book, he told me.

He had been following my career and exploits with a lot of interest and fascination through the decades.

His life was the one that contained stories that must be told to be appreciated.

So, he told me about his roots, his parents, his place of birth, his growing up years, his choice of music for a career, his different interests and public deeds and projects, his total commitment to serving God through his Christian mission and humanity through his Foundation. He is trying to expand the scope of his foundation into new areas of empowerment amongst other things, that’s why he was looking for me.

I was flattered to say the least. I tried to match his openness by going into a little of my life. He halted me because, as he told me, he knew a great deal about the several things I had been doing that he had been following with pride through the years.

Then he answered my million Dollar question even without my asking.

He was very happy I had not let him down through the years, because before he decided to wax a song in my honour, he had never met me. He only knew me from a distance. He followed my progress and achievements during my playing days, so much that when I was about to be married the inspiration came that he should produce a song for me and my colleagues making the country and the

Yoruba people very proud.

He fixed the time to release the song and wrote the title of the song even before he had scripted a line of the lyrics.

He then waited until after I got married to give it some rationale and purpose before producing it.

One day, when he was convinced the time was ripe, without writing down a single line of words, he went into his recording studio and started to sing and to record the song. Suddenly, as I listened to him in rapt attention, it happened. He opened his mouth and started to sing the song, every line the way he recorded it 40 years ago. He remembered the lines, word for word.

I was mesmerized. I asked him how he could do that. He told me that the song is one of his favourite tunes.

He told me that he played it in his car a few times every week whilst he traveled.

Then he called one of his aides to testify (as if I doubted what he just said). He asked him about his favourite song. His aide confirmed that even that morning my song was playing in the car as they drove into town.

I was humbled. He had done all of this with- out ever meeting me, quietly following my career with great interest and loving what he saw.

After that, I had no need to ask him my one million Dollar question any more. He had answered it in his narration.

I was so grateful and appreciative of what he did, etching my name on vinyl in a song that stamps my place forever in Nigerian football folklore.

For one hour, I sat and listened to one of the greatest sons of Abeokuta, capital of a State we both come from, the cultural and geographical space that birthed some of the most accomplished Africans in virtually all fields of human endeavor. Here was this divinely gifted, blessed and contented man, his humility his greatest strength, eulogising me even in my presence.

Truly, I realized, I was in the presence of a ‘god’.

To break the monotony of my silence, I sought a small favour from him. Even before I had finished asking, he laughed, stretched out both hands as if in supplication and surrender and announced, ‘Youhavemytotal permissionevenwithoutaskingforit’. I continued to stare at the man in admiration and some envy. Even when I finally left his presence and his house, I could hear his gentle voice singing eternal words that have become a refrain for young people who are challenged to do everything they do to the best of their ability. “Doitwell,anythingyoudo, anythingyoudo,anythingyoudo, doitwellanythingyoudo, doityourbest”. “Fromkunleawesutomudalawal, frommudalawaltoojebode, fromojebodetoodegbami, fromodegbamio…itisagoal. Itisagoalo,fromodegbami”

Everlasting lines in an evergreen song.