“Lo! Some we loved, the loveliest and best That Time and Fate of all their Vintage prest; Have drank their Cup a Round or two before And one by one crept silently to Rest…” Edward Fitzgerald (Translated from the Persian poet Omar Khayyam)

TRIBUTE Sayonara, Fatai! O dabo n’iyen o!

When I learnt that my good friend and fellow entertainer Fatai Rolling Dollar (aka ‘the youngest old man in Nigeria’) had downed his final cup with gusto and slipped out silently into the night without a backward glance, I was not in the least saddened!

On the contrary, I cheered lustily and rejoiced heartily for Fatai, for he went out with his head held high, singing and dancing as he went….

Fatai

As the cognoscenti are well aware, it is the fondest wish of every entertainer to bow out gracefully at the end of every show, leaving the audience pinning for more…

This time there will be no encores:Fatai is already on his way, leaping from star to star, with his beloved guitar firmly strapped to his back, beard thrust forward into the interplanetary winds, eyes gleaming with humorous mischief, gravelly voice belting out one last time :”Won keresi number yen!”…

Sayonara Fatai! O d’igba o!Fatai, we weep not for you, even though you departed without ever having boasted of owning the kind of worldly riches that present day Nigerians pin their illusory hopes on… You were never in a position to assign oil wells to yourself or to acquire bank or telephone company shares by manipulating public funds for personal advantage…

In any case, you would never ever have been tempted to steal public funds, even if anyone could have gotten you to sit still in an airconditioned office for eight hours a day on each working day, half choked to death by a cloth rope baptized ‘tie’wound tightly round your neck!…

Poor Fatai Olagunju! Nobody ever thought of giving you any part of the 40 million naira largesse they say is a fitting reward for clueless karaoke hip hop wannabe overhyped apprentice mumu‘moosicians’ whom they claim to have appointed rubbish Ambassadors of nothingness…

Take heart Fatai! Nobody ever gave a brass farthing either to Baby Face Paul or to E.C. Arinze or to Zeal Onyia or to Fela Anikulapo-Kutiorto Johnny Haastrup or to Bala Miller or to Segun Bucknor…

Goodluck then to the karaoke crowd and to their witless sponsors! Let them continue to pollute the air with the cacophonic accumulation of repetitive noises they insist on calling music!

WHO CARES?

Fatai Rolling Dollar has vaulted over the sun and the moon, and is already navigating smoothly through the stars and the planets on his way to the largest concert hall of all to perform in a show that will last for the rest of eternity…

Fatai my brother, if there be an abode out there where musicians and entertainers congregate for celestial after hours jam sessions, do throw a hearty salute on behalf of the rest of us to all our colleagues and friends who have preceded us into the afterlife once you land over there in rainbow land!

Fatai, greet Fela Anikulapo-Kuti for us o!Shout out to Abamiedaomoiyaaje: “Everybody say yehyeh!”

Greet Ravi Shankar and Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker and Benny More and DuroLadipo and Rex Lawson and Stephen Osita Osadebe wellwello!

Tell Miriam Makeba that we will soon be there with all of them!I beg don’t forget to let James Brown and Michael Jackson know that we will soon join them to learn the intricacies of the new dance steps they have invented over there!

Fatai, o dabo o! Sun reomoluabi!

And Fatai, as you went your way deeper into the world of the ancestors, do not forget to convey our gratitude‘and undying respect to the Afrikan heroes of times past…

Say to Dinga and to Diabe Cisse and to Sundiata Keita and to Sonni Ali Ber that they live on in our hearts!

Say to Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and to Patrice Lumumba and to Reuben Um Nyobe and to Felix Moumie and to Amilcar Cabral and to Edouardo Mondlane and to Samora Machel and to Steve Biko and to Johnny Makatini and to Chris Hannithat their sacrifices were not in vain…

Fatai, proclaim proudly to our heroes that the descendants of Jaja of Opobo and of U-Chaka Zulu stand tall and continue to fare forward with unbowed heads in spite of all the traitors and rogues and nincompoops and IMF stooges that call themselves Ministers and Governors and Senators and Presidents in present day Africa…

Fatai my brother, tell our heroes that many hands remain lifted to carry on with the struggle, and that victory will inevitably come to the peoples of Afrika!

Fatai Olagunju ore mi atata,ibik’ibit’oba de, k’osha ma so kiri wipe:awonoloriburuku o le da awaomoAfrikaduro:WON KERE SI NUMBER YEN!

Fatai Olagunju, eniyanrere, eniyanatata, eniyant’emi, eniyanpataki, eleregidi to fi’wajokinihun!

Mo yo fun e, moyo fun’ra mi!

Fatai Rolling Dollar tiwa!

Sun re! O d’igba o….

By Dr. Ola Balogun is a film maker and musician.