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By Senior Chief ‘Lekan Alabi
IBADAN – In part one of my post of the above title, I recalled the celebrations, ten years ago, of the KSA FESTIVAL 2012, of which I was the Chairman of its PLANNING COMMITTEE.
Other members were, Mr. Clement Ige, a veteran journalist and longtime friend and business associate of KSA, Mr. Olutade Makinde, Jnr, the journalist-son of the late Mr. Olutade Makinde, who was the editor of the ENTERTAINER magazine that conducted the vox pop through which its readers chose KSA as the KING OF JUJU MUSIC in 1977, Barr. Ola Makinde, another son of Mr Olutade Makinde, Niyi, then the Group Accountant of KSA HOLDINGS and Chief (Mrs) Bunmi Adesanya of NEW ERA FASHION COMPANY LIMITED.
Apart from being a shrewed, hardworking, fairminded, reliable, above-board businessman, KSA is also a gentleman, decent being whom I can attest to his loyalty and reliability, since I came in close contact with him in 1974, while I was the social page editor of the now defunct Sunday Sketch newspaper.
In appreciation of the KSA FESTIVAL 2012 PLANNING COMMITTEE’s successful outing, KSA sent words to me, early in January 2013 to choose a date for his proposed thank-you-reception.
I consulted the members of the PC and we agreed on the date chosen by me.
As for the venue, we took Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja ordinarily for granted as the venue.
But, to our surprise, pleasant though, KSA replied that he would want us to be his guests at his Igba, Ondo Town sprawling home. We agreed to be hosted at his choice of venue.
The ‘ire’ that I mentioned above came about when it was lunch time at Igba in Ondo.
While KSA kept away from us, during a meeting I had quickly summoned on our (PLANNING COMMITTEE) members arrival in a wing of his large compound/home, in Igba, we, the PC members, jointly signed a Statement of Accounts, prepared by myself and Niyi, KSA’s accountant.
In it, I was, in my capacity as the Chairman of the KSA FESTIVAL 2012, who had personally borne the expenses of my UK tour, in the cause of the FESTIVAL, allocated the lion share of the profit made, followed by the celebrant, KSA and the other members according to a performance/contribution ratio.
In no time, lunch was ready and we ‘invited’, as it were, KSA, our kind host in.
I read out our Statement of Accounts (and the sharing of profit formular), but was stopped halfway by KSA, when I got to the sharing of profit point.
He apologised for his interruption and protested loudly his inclusion in the sharing of profit saying: “Oba l’ola (that’s what he calls me) after all the resources, valuable time and knowledge freely put by you and the Planning Committee members to the huge success of my 2012 Festival here in Nigeria and abroad, I don’t deserve a kobo from the profit made by your group.
“Rather, it’s me and my band that ought to compensate you all, particularly Oba lola, the Chairman”.
Sensing that any further word/action by us or KSA on the matter might ‘spoil’ the inviting pounded yam lunch, I ‘ordered’, as it were Clement, the longtime business associate of KSA, to say the opening prayer, after which the consumption of the iyan, efo riro, eran igbe, igbin, panla etc followed.
Note: Part 3 of this account follows in due course, please.**
*Senior Chief ‘Lekan Alabi, the Maye of Olubadan of Ibadanland writes from Ibadan.
