• Reveals The Origin Of Their Fight
Many people don’t know how Nigeria’s 2 Fuji Icons, the late Alhaji Ayinde Barrister and Alhaji Ayinla Kollington ended their age-long rift. In this interview with City People Editors, Alhaji Kollington revealed how King of Fuji, K1 who is the Maiyegun of Yorubaland was the one who ended their fight under one of the Xmas trees, inside his Alagbado compound in Lagos years ago. See details below.
You keep complaining that you don’t like the way the Fuji industry is today. Why can’t you do something about it? Why can’t you step in and talk to all of them? Why are you not reaching out to all the big names in Fuji? They all respect you. Tell them the way forward as an elder. What do you think is the way forward?
There is no other way forward other than how we have been going about it. Let them continue what they are doing now. They are singing and people are listening. They are singing, people are dancing and buying their CDs. There is no other way forward. The other way forward is for all of us to unite. Let there be unity among us. We should all be as close as I was to Sikiru Ayinde before he died. If I am doing something or having a party, he would be there. If he was having an event, I would also be there. Since he has gone, those coming behind like Wasiu Ayinde, I expect him to talk to me from time to time on how we can run the Fuji family. He saw how Alhaji Barrister and I were close. He should be next to me. Wasiu Ayinde and I ought to be close. He should be me and him, who should be running the Fuji industry. Where I can’t go to, he should be the one to say Baba don’t worry, let me go and represent you there. He should be the one doing Kurukere with me. That is how it should be. He does not do that. He is far away. The Fuji industry can’t be united this way. Everybody is fighting for Supremacy in the industry. Alhamdulillah! I am highly contented with what I am today.
From what we see, Alhaji K1 respects you a lot. He always praises you and mentions your name with respect. He calls you Baba. Where did he go wrong?
Me too, I praise him whenever I sing. Me too, I respect him when I sing. (Laughs).
So, what is the problem?
We are not organised. We all need to sink our differences. Don’t let us tell lies. Don’t let us deceive ourselves. I am not happy. Wasiu knows I am not happy. I don’t know how to lie. I can’t be hiding behind a finger. I am not a pretender. I cannot pretend.
You and Alhaji Ayinde Barrister reigned for a long time. How did both of you cope? Though you were friends, you also quarrelled. How were your friends & enemies at the same time?
There is no secret there. That is how God destined it to happen. We would be friends today, tomorrow we would be enemies. Intermittently we kept fighting and ending our squabbles. When it got to a certain level, we ended our fight. This place you are sitting was the same place he used to sit and we would be talking to each other and remembering those days when we used to sing WERE music when we were young when we were kids. When we became older, we had to stop fighting. We didn’t know that our fight would end quickly like that.
How did your fight with Barrister start?
People engineered my fight with Barrister. Olowonyo was the one I was referring to that he was abusing Ayinla Omowura. And Ayinla Omowura happens to be my own elder brother and my Adviser. Olowonyo now went to Sikiru that a young boy is abusing him and he wants Sikiru to help him reply me. Instead of telling him that Kola (me), I am his friend and that he can call me and talk to me, he decided to behave childishly. He was a young man like me then. He also decided to reply me. He abused me very well. That was how the fight started. Let us thank God.
How did you end the fight?
It was God that ended the fight for us when Iya Ilu Oke died. That is my mum. Mama mi. Because as we kept ending the fight people kept bringing it back.
Some people think the Producers or Marketers kept encouraging you and Alhaji Barrister not to end the fight. Is it true?
No. It’s not so. There is nothing like that. Do you know that K1 was the one who ended this our rift for us? Sikiru was abroad. I said I won’t tell him that my mum had died. Wasiu said I should tell Sikiru. Wasiu said I also was with him when Sikiru’s mother died. He said call Sikiru and tell him. And I did. He said he will come. He said he will arrive that day, but I should not do anything to embarrass him ooo!
Don’t bring in conspiracy ooo (Laughs) That is Barrister for you. Oremi Lafia. He arrived on time. He arrived and met all of us here in my compound.
Wasiu went to meet him at the Airport along with a lot of Fuji musicians and they all came here with him. K1 now told all the fuji musicians, to leave aside of the compound for the 2 of us to go and end our fight. Then, the 2 of us went to sit under the tree and we got talking. He said he has forgiven me all my sins and all I did to him in the name of his mum. Also, all what he has done to offend me I should forgive him in the name of Iya Ilu Oke. He said we should not fight again. I then told him you are always the cause of our fights.
That is how we ended the fight and we started the party. Should I now say Wasiu didn’t do well there? He did. I praise Wasiu for brokering Peace between Barrister & I. God will give him strength. God will give him knowledge & wisdom to continue to do good things like that.
Can’t you forgive K1 and forget anything he has done to you? You are everybody’s father…
He has not offended me in any way. I have already mentioned what he should be doing that he is not doing. He has not offended me in any way. I was only angry that when he wanted to take the title of Maiyegun he should have come to my house to tell me himself. He only sent me a letter of notification. He should have come here to say, Baba, I want to take a Chieftaincy title. But he sent my IV to me through somebody. He calls me Baba and I appreciate him for that. I thought he should equate me with his late Oga, Barrister. If Barrister were to be alive would he have sent the IV to him like that, or would he have taken it to him by hand?
Why didn’t you call him to complain about that because during the Mayegun Chieftaincy title in Oyo, K1 apologised to everyone and asked for a new beginning…
I have forgiven him. I sent a message to him through the people he sent to me that I did not like the way he sent his IV to me. I was also sick and I went to India. I spoke to him from India. I told him I was sick, he has not come to greet me since then.
He also came to perform around my area here, he didn’t drop by to see me. Me, I am not fighting him.
But he called me recently. He sang for me on the phone. Me too, I sang back on the phone. We were both singing for each other. He said Baba, don’t be angry over what happened in the past. I pray for him all the time. I wish him well.
