My sunday is truly special and it is supposed to be my day of rest, physically and spiritually. As I am now based in Lagos working with Channels Television as the General Manager in charge of News, Programmes and Broadcast Operations, I am consistently finding it difficult to stay away from the studio after my sunday service.
I have been going to church, and finding myself ending up in the office because of one thing or the other. This will not be a good pattern to develop because day of rest should be respected, especially as I end up spending up to 12 hours at work every day of the week.
This last sunday was no exception as I was told that Professor Pat Utomi was the guest on Rubbing Minds, our Youth oriented programme that is presented by Shade Ladipo and and Chude Jideonwo, with Adebola Williams and co as Producers. There was no way I could have ignored someone of the calibre of Pat Utomi in my station without dropping by to say hello and pump some flesh... :-)
However, to make things more complicated, my very good friend, the one and only Elegant Stallion of Africa, Onyeka Onwenu asked me to please attend the Neighbour 2 Neighbour sponsored Artistes United, A Dinner In Support of President Goodluck Jonathan on a sunday night. I had to chew on this and said a tentative yes. I waited till 8pm to call Mandi who was working on this event with Onyeka. I do not like to be late for events, but this one, I was not very keen on, and the only reason I was attending was because the invitation came from Onyeka.
When I called Mandi and was informed Mr. President was not there yet, but was expected to be late anyway, I had to get out of my pyjamas to take a shower, change and head to Victoria Island for the event, hoping to see the man GEJ in his element, especially as he is said to be comfortable in the company of Comedians, Musicians and Entertainers, to the point where the major interview granted by His Excellency was conducted by our own very famous and funny Musician, D'Banj.
I arrived to find the hall 70% full and people still milling around outside in the expectation that they will all rush in when the convoy of His Excellency arrives.
Alibaba opened the event as the Master of Ceremony and then had these two guys, comedians, come on stage afterwards. Sadly I forgot the name of the one Alibaba called the insane comedian, but without a shadow of doubt the guy was insanely funny. He could belt out a good tune and he could murder any song. He is also capable of making a guy like me who wants to not be seen laughing out loud in an environment like this laugh so much, I had a few drops of tears... lol...
Anyway, my dear friend Onyeka Onwenu came on to give a very powerful opening speech, which was convincing and compelling. She should have been appointed as the Principal Advocate and Director General for GEJ Campaign. She made it succinctly clear that Goodluck Jonathan is the best President Nigerians can have amongst the lot contesting now, because he has been the friend of the Entertainment industry from when he was the Governor of Bayelsa state.
Obviously this friendship has continued as our dear President opted to spend time with D'Banj, albeit granting an interview, while other candidates were busy presenting their manifesto to Nigerians on the Live Presidential Debate broadcast on NN24.
The disappointment defied words for description as I witnessed pockets of musicians drifting away quietly as time passed by. The reason I could not make a quick exit was because of Dudu, the legend of Nigerian Music Video, Tunde Alabi Hundeyin. My brother and former boss from OGTV was in his element as he provided further entertainment for me, with his witty remarks and comments about all the weird and wonderful characters in the industry. Some of them were dressed in outfits that would make you wonder why they had anything on at all.
When I remembered I had an 8am meeting with the Google Business Development Manager on Monday morning, I had to quickly call my driver and make a graceful exit.
I heard from the grapevine that Mr. President might have wanted to attend, but could not tear himself away from the fence-mending job he was doing. He was most likely working on the relationship management and finding solution to the Lagos/Ogun States palaver. I read in the papers this morning that GEJ had to spend a lot of time untangling the messy quagmire in Ogun State as well as all the political shenanigan going on with the presence of Bode George back in the fray in Lagos. These are chinese whispers that were never confirmed or denied, but published by some newspapers.
The long and short of this, speaking in colloquial language, is that, the best friends of GEJ were not dancing and singing for him last night. They did not seem too impressed. Though there was consistent denial that any money had been shared or given by anyone to make the night happen. Hmmm... the truth will always come out at some point.... so watch this space... when it does, we will all know... :-)
The only sad thing was that I did not get much for my Sunday evening spent outside the comfort of my hotel room. I probably would have achieved more by staying indoors and do the usual, sort out my paperwork for Monday and watch some boring television... lol... Hey, I should not be such an ingrate, I did get loads of laugh, thank you Alibaba, thank you my big brother Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin, thank you the "insane comedian" who made me laugh a lot and thank you Elegant Stallion, Onyeka Onwenu, I will hope you contest and win your local government so that you can show our people what it means to lead from the front.
I have been going to church, and finding myself ending up in the office because of one thing or the other. This will not be a good pattern to develop because day of rest should be respected, especially as I end up spending up to 12 hours at work every day of the week.
This last sunday was no exception as I was told that Professor Pat Utomi was the guest on Rubbing Minds, our Youth oriented programme that is presented by Shade Ladipo and and Chude Jideonwo, with Adebola Williams and co as Producers. There was no way I could have ignored someone of the calibre of Pat Utomi in my station without dropping by to say hello and pump some flesh... :-)
However, to make things more complicated, my very good friend, the one and only Elegant Stallion of Africa, Onyeka Onwenu asked me to please attend the Neighbour 2 Neighbour sponsored Artistes United, A Dinner In Support of President Goodluck Jonathan on a sunday night. I had to chew on this and said a tentative yes. I waited till 8pm to call Mandi who was working on this event with Onyeka. I do not like to be late for events, but this one, I was not very keen on, and the only reason I was attending was because the invitation came from Onyeka.
When I called Mandi and was informed Mr. President was not there yet, but was expected to be late anyway, I had to get out of my pyjamas to take a shower, change and head to Victoria Island for the event, hoping to see the man GEJ in his element, especially as he is said to be comfortable in the company of Comedians, Musicians and Entertainers, to the point where the major interview granted by His Excellency was conducted by our own very famous and funny Musician, D'Banj.
I arrived to find the hall 70% full and people still milling around outside in the expectation that they will all rush in when the convoy of His Excellency arrives.
Alibaba opened the event as the Master of Ceremony and then had these two guys, comedians, come on stage afterwards. Sadly I forgot the name of the one Alibaba called the insane comedian, but without a shadow of doubt the guy was insanely funny. He could belt out a good tune and he could murder any song. He is also capable of making a guy like me who wants to not be seen laughing out loud in an environment like this laugh so much, I had a few drops of tears... lol...
Anyway, my dear friend Onyeka Onwenu came on to give a very powerful opening speech, which was convincing and compelling. She should have been appointed as the Principal Advocate and Director General for GEJ Campaign. She made it succinctly clear that Goodluck Jonathan is the best President Nigerians can have amongst the lot contesting now, because he has been the friend of the Entertainment industry from when he was the Governor of Bayelsa state.
Obviously this friendship has continued as our dear President opted to spend time with D'Banj, albeit granting an interview, while other candidates were busy presenting their manifesto to Nigerians on the Live Presidential Debate broadcast on NN24.
The disappointment defied words for description as I witnessed pockets of musicians drifting away quietly as time passed by. The reason I could not make a quick exit was because of Dudu, the legend of Nigerian Music Video, Tunde Alabi Hundeyin. My brother and former boss from OGTV was in his element as he provided further entertainment for me, with his witty remarks and comments about all the weird and wonderful characters in the industry. Some of them were dressed in outfits that would make you wonder why they had anything on at all.
When I remembered I had an 8am meeting with the Google Business Development Manager on Monday morning, I had to quickly call my driver and make a graceful exit.
I heard from the grapevine that Mr. President might have wanted to attend, but could not tear himself away from the fence-mending job he was doing. He was most likely working on the relationship management and finding solution to the Lagos/Ogun States palaver. I read in the papers this morning that GEJ had to spend a lot of time untangling the messy quagmire in Ogun State as well as all the political shenanigan going on with the presence of Bode George back in the fray in Lagos. These are chinese whispers that were never confirmed or denied, but published by some newspapers.
The long and short of this, speaking in colloquial language, is that, the best friends of GEJ were not dancing and singing for him last night. They did not seem too impressed. Though there was consistent denial that any money had been shared or given by anyone to make the night happen. Hmmm... the truth will always come out at some point.... so watch this space... when it does, we will all know... :-)
The only sad thing was that I did not get much for my Sunday evening spent outside the comfort of my hotel room. I probably would have achieved more by staying indoors and do the usual, sort out my paperwork for Monday and watch some boring television... lol... Hey, I should not be such an ingrate, I did get loads of laugh, thank you Alibaba, thank you my big brother Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin, thank you the "insane comedian" who made me laugh a lot and thank you Elegant Stallion, Onyeka Onwenu, I will hope you contest and win your local government so that you can show our people what it means to lead from the front.
