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Ayinde Barrister: Prophet without honour (3) By Tunde Odesola
Ayinde Barrister: Prophet without honour (3)- Birth, breath and death; three seeds cohabiting in the same pod. Birth-breath-death: Sikiru Ayinde Balogun’s earthly journey in a winged chariot driven by fate, fuelled by freewill.
Fatefully, Ayinde was born by a butcher father and a pepper-seller mother. Utterly, he had no say over the spermatic fluid that shot him into existence.
By freewill, Sikiru was a motor-boy, bus conductor, soldier and musician. He could’ve chosen to be a butcher like his father or be the face behind his family’s ancestral masquerade called Adakeja or be a hoodlum in the Ayeye area of Ibadan, a city renowned for robust oratory and notorious free-for-all, ija igboro laarun Ibadan.
When death ransacked Fuji Chamber in Isolo, Lagos, but couldn’t find Ayinde, death mutated into a flight called fate and headed abroad, looking for Sikiru, whom it gripped by the jugular on St Mary’s Hospital bed in London.
Sikiru begged and sang melody to death, but death was deaf. He cried, but death was blood-thirsty, dragging Agbaje along into a dark, endless tunnel without looking back.
Ayinde is the puzzle called Fuji. His voice is the riddle of the yam flour displayed uncovered in the rain and wind, yet unaffected by both elements, but when the yam flour took a dive into hot water, it became amala, ready for gbegiri and ewedu.
If you ever heard the melody of the billowy octopus thumping a piano underwater, you’ll appreciate the mystery of Ayinde’s vocal cords resonating tunefully when singing but the cords stammer when speaking.
It’s the scientific fate of the male octopus to die after fertilising the female’s eggs just as the female octopus dies after giving birth. In the octopean world, live and let die is the mantra. Before Abinuwaye departed the mortal realm and embarked on the journey to Aljanah fridaus, however, he wrote his name in the sands of time with numerous great deeds.
Testifying to Barrister’s humanity, Galala king, Daddy Showkey, said, “Barrister gave me 250 bags of cement and 500 blocks to start the foundation for my first house in Ojodu in the 1990s. Today, I’ve a shrine in my house for Barrister. I put his picture there and pray to his spirit to guide me before I leave home everyday.”
He said, “Wasiu Alabi Pasuma’s wife had a baby boy one day before my wife had a baby girl. On Pasuma’s child christening, I visited his house and asked him why didn’t he invite Barrister to the occasion. Pasuma said Barrister was a busy man, who wouldn’t have time to come for the christening.
“There and then, I went to Barrister’s house. I went straight into Barrister’s bedroom and I told him about the christening of Pasuma’s child. I also told him my own wife had put to bed, too. Barrister gave me N250, 000 and told me to give a higher amount of money to Pasuma. I won’t mention the amount he gave Pasuma because I don’t have his permission to say so.
“I returned to Pasuma’s house and gave him Barrister’s gift. I told him to give me from his own gift and Pasuma gave me N150,000 from Barrister’s gift. On the day of my first child’s naming, Barrister came at night with a cooling van. He also gave me another N250,000 when my wife had our second baby.”
Showkey went on to say that Barrister, in 1994, when he (Showkey) was a nobody, Barrister sang his praise on stage, and when he went on stage to ‘spray’ him, Barrister told him not to, and Barrister, instead, ‘sprayed’ him, and told his manager to give him all the money people ‘sprayed’ Barrister while he (Showkey) was on stage, dancing. Showkey said the money was about N300,000.
Speaking at the inaugural Barry Day celebration organised by Ayinde Barrister Legacy Group, in February 2013, at Sheraton Hotel, Lagos, a former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Segun Osoba, said despite being very close to him, Barrister never came to seek contract from him when he was governor.
All the personalities, whom Barrister praised in his songs, including Alhaji Adisa Onifade, Chief Buhari Oloto, Alhaji Murhi Gbadeyanka, Alhaji Adisa Osiefa, Asiwaju Tunde Khamis Badmus, Chief Abiola Ogundokun, Chief Oyasola Oyadeji, said Ololade sang their praises free of charge.
Mayegun Musulumi of Iwo, Debo Badru, whose father taught young Sikiru the Holy Qoran, in Iwo, said Barrister did what he preached. He said, “I was the Personal Assistant to Governor Adetunji Adeleke in Osun between 1992 and 1993. Barrister was friends with Governor Adeleke since way back in the US. Whenever Barrister had a show in Osun or its environs, he would visit my house. I was very little to Barrister in everything, but he showed me love.
“When he visited one day, I told him that he should let us go and visit his friend, the governor. He agreed. When we got to the governor, they were happy to see one another. The governor pointedly asked him if he was interested in taking contract, but he said no.”
Juju music icon, YK Ajao, who said Barrister bought brand new musical set for him. “He treated me like a younger brother. He gave me money to build my house. I went to his wardrobe to take any kind of clothes I wanted, though his clothes were not my size. He would ensure I play before him so that the people who came to watch him would ‘spray’ me first. I would play for like only 30 minutes, but would make more money than musicians who played all night,” YK Ajao said.
Waka queen, Salawa Abeni, said while she was married to Kollington Ayinla, and lived under the same roof with Baba Alatika, she defied her husband by buying and listening to Barristers songs. “General Kollington would break the disc containing Barrister’s music, I would go and buy another one, he would break it, and I would buy another. From when I was a kid singer, Barrister had taken up the role of father in my life, Salawa said.
The anchor of Oludasile Fuji, a social media group formed in honour of Barrister, Otunba Tokunbo Okunola, said Barrister was clairvoyant. Okunola, whose group conducted interviews for Showkey, Badru, Salawa, and many friends of Barrister, said Barrister would’ve been richer than any African musician if not for his philanthropy.
For someone who has done so much to put an indigenous music on the global entertainment map, Olayimika deserves immortalisation from Nigerian governments at state and national levels.
But Ayinde-Ogun wasn’t an angel, after all. He was a hypocrite who turned the Holy Quran upside down to justify a shameless act after stabbing his bosom friend, Adisa Pele, in the back by marrying Pele’s daughter, Olayinka, who was carried by Barrister during her christening.
Despite his self-professed subscription to the Omoluabi ethos, Barrister shockingly attempted to justify his ignoble act in his 1997 album, Prophecy, by citing unrelated Islamic event, saying his shameful act was similar to what obtained during the time of Prophet Muhammad (SWT).
Pele, the PRO, Ayinde Barrister and his Fuji Organisation, was in the same car with Barrister in 1976 when he had an accident.
Apart from intensive womanising, Barrister also allowed his philanthropy to affect the earnings of his band boys with his attitude of giving all the money generated at shows and parties out to people.
Also, Barrister, who prided himself as singing meaningful songs, temporarily abandoned his style of Fuji to sing lewd Fuji songs called Saje.
Talking about Barrister’s love for the young to grow, Badru recalled that Barrister once had to sing Obesere’s music when fans were leaving his stage. Badru said Barrister’s stage became enlivened after he sang one or two of Obesere’s songs before Barrister went back to his own songs.
This capitulation reflected the dimming of the sun and its journey homeward.
Adieu, Abinuwaye.
Concluded.
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: @tunde odesola
Twitter: @tunde_odesola
Why Babangida’s Hilltop Home Became Nigeria’s Political “Mecca”.
By George Omagbemi Sylvester | Published by SaharaWeeklyNG.com
Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s birthday visit to Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) in Minna (where he hailed the octogenarian as a patriotic leader committed to national unity) was more than a courtesy call. It was a reminder of a peculiar constant in Nigerian politics: the steady pilgrimage of power-seekers, bridge-builders and crisis-managers to the Hilltop mansion. Jonathan’s own words captured it bluntly: IBB’s residence “is like a Mecca of sorts” because of the former military president’s enduring relevance and perceived nation-first posture.
Babangida turned 84 on 17 August 2025. That alone invites reflection on a career that has shaped Nigeria’s political architecture for four decades; admired by some for audacious statecraft, condemned by others for controversies that still shadow the republic. Born on 17 August 1941 in Minna, he ruled as military president from 1985 to 1993, presiding over transformative and turbulent chapters: the relocation of the national capital to Abuja in 1991; the creation of political institutions for a long, complex transition; economic liberalisation that cut both ways; and the fateful annulment of the 12 June 1993 election. Each of these choices helps explain why the Hilltop remains a magnet for Nigerians who need counsel, cover or calibration.
A house built on influence; why the visits never stop.
Let’s start with the obvious: access. Nigeria’s political class prizes proximity to the men and women who can open doors, soften opposition, broker peace and read the hidden currents. In that calculus, IBB’s network is unmatched. He cultivated a reputation for “political engineering,” the reason the press christened him “Maradona” (for deft dribbling through complexity) and “Evil Genius” (for the strategic cunning his critics decried). Whether one embraces or rejects those labels, they reflect a reality: Babangida is still the place where many politicians go to test ideas, seek endorsements or secure introductions. Even the mainstream press has described him as a consultant of sorts to desperate or ambitious politicians, an uncomfortable description that nevertheless underlines his gravitational pull.
Though it isn’t only political tact that draws visitors; it’s statecraft with lasting fingerprints. Moving the seat of government from Lagos to Abuja in December 1991 was not a cosmetic relocation, it re-centred the federation and signaled a symbolic neutrality in a country fractured by regional suspicion. Abuja’s founding logic (GEOGRAPHIC CENTRALITY and ETHNIC NEUTRALITY) continues to stabilise the national imagination. This is part of the reason many leaders, across party lines, still defer to IBB: he didn’t just rule; he rearranged the map of power.
Then there’s the regional dimension. Under his watch, Nigeria led the creation and deployment of ECOMOG in 1990 to staunch Liberia’s bloody civil war, a bold move that announced Abuja as a regional security anchor. The intervention was imperfect, contested and costly, but it helped define West Africa’s collective security posture and Nigeria’s leadership brand. When neighboring states now face crises, the memory of that precedent still echoes in diplomatic corridors and Babangida’s counsel retains currency among those who remember how decisions were made.
Jonathan’s praise and the unity argument.
Jonathan’s tribute (stressing Babangida’s non-sectional outlook and commitment to unity) goes to the heart of the Hilltop mystique. For a multi-ethnic federation straining under distrust, figures who can speak across divides are prized. Jonathan’s point wasn’t nostalgia; it was a live assessment of a man many still call when Nigeria’s seams fray. That’s why the parade to Minna continues: the anxious, the ambitious and the statesmanlike alike seek an elder who can convene rivals and cool temperatures.
The unresolved shadow: June 12 and the ethics of influence.
No honest appraisal can skip the hardest chapter: the annulment of the 12 June 1993 election (judged widely as free and fair) was a rupture that delegitimised the transition and scarred Nigeria’s democratic journey. Political scientist Larry Diamond has repeatedly identified June 12 as a prime example of how authoritarian reversals corrode democratic legitimacy and public trust. His larger warning (“few developments are more destructive to the legitimacy of new democracies than blatant and pervasive political corruption”) captures the moral crater that followed the annulment and the years of drift that ensued. Those wounds are part of the Babangida legacy too and they complicate the reverence that a steady stream of visitors displays.
Max Siollun, a leading historian of Nigeria’s military era, has observed (provocatively) that the military’s “greatest contribution” to democracy may have been to rule “long and badly enough” that Nigerians lost appetite for soldiers in power. It’s a stinging line, yet it helps explain the paradox of IBB’s status: the same system he personified taught Nigeria costly lessons that hardened its democratic reflexes. Today’s generation visits the Hilltop not to revive militarism but to harvest hard-won insights about managing a fragile federation.
What sustains the pilgrimage.
1) Institutional memory: Nigeria’s politics often suffers amnesia. Babangida offers a living archive of security crises navigated, regional diplomacy attempted, volatile markets tempered and power-sharing experiments designed. Whether one applauds or condemns specific choices, the muscle memory of governing a complex federation is rare and urgently sought.
2) Convening power: In a season of polarisation, the ability to sit warring factions in the same room is not small capital. Babangida’s imprimatur remains a safe invitation card few refuse it, fewer ignore it. That convening power explains why movements, parties and would-be presidents keep filing up the long driveway. Recent delegations have explicitly cast their courtesy calls in the language of unity, loyalty and patriotism ahead of pivotal elections.
3) Signals to the base: Visiting Minna telegraphs seriousness to party structures and funders. It says: “I have sought counsel where history meets experience.” In Nigeria’s coded political theatre, that signal still matters. Outlets have reported for years that many aspirants treat the Hilltop as an obligatory stop an unflattering reality, perhaps, but a revealing one.
4) The man and the myth: The mansion itself, with its opulence and aura, has become a set piece in Nigeria’s story of power, admired by some, resented by others, but always discussed. The myth feeds the pilgrimage; the pilgrimage feeds the myth.
The balance sheet at 84.
To treat Babangida solely as a sage is to forget the costs of his era; to treat him only as a villain is to ignore the architecture that still holds parts of Nigeria together. Abuja’s relocation stands as a stabilising bet that paid off. ECOMOG, for all its flaws, seeded a habit of regional responsibility. Conversely, June 12 remains a national cautionary tale about elite manipulation, civilian marginalisation and the brittleness of transitions managed from above. These are not contradictory truths; they are the double helix of Babangida’s place in Nigerian memory.
Jonathan’s homage tried to distill the better angel of IBB’s record: MENTORSHIP, BRIDGE-BUILDING and a POSTURE that (at least in his telling) RESISTS SECTIONAL ISM. “That is why today, his house is like a Mecca of sorts,” he said, praying that the GENERAL continues to “mentor the younger ones.” Whether one agrees with the full sentiment, it accurately describes the lived politics of Nigeria today: Minna remains a checkpoint on the road to relevance.
The scholar’s verdict and a citizen’s challenge.
If Diamond warns about legitimacy and Siollun warns about the perils of soldier-politics, what should Nigerians demand from the Hilltop effect? Three things.
First, use influence to open space, not close it. Counsel should tilt toward rules, institutions and credible elections not kingmaking for its own sake. The lesson of 1993 is that subverting a valid vote haunts a nation for decades.
Second, mentor for unity, but insist on accountability. Unity cannot be a euphemism for silence. A truly patriotic elder statesman sets a high bar for conduct and condemns the shortcuts that tempt new actors in old ways. Diamond’s admonition on corruption is not an abstraction; it’s a roadmap for rebuilding trust.
Third, convert nostalgia into institutional memory. If Babangida’s house is a classroom, then Nigeria should capture, publish and debate its lessons in the open: on peace operations (what worked, what failed), on capital relocation (how to plan at scale), and on transitions (how not to repeat 1993). Only then does the pilgrimage serve the republic rather than personalities.
At 84, Ibrahim Babangida remains a paradox that Nigeria cannot ignore: a man whose legacy straddles NATION-BUILDING and NATION-BRUISING, whose doors remain open to those seeking power and those seeking peace. Jonathan’s visit (and his striking “Mecca” metaphor) reveals a simple, stubborn fact: in a country still searching for steady hands, the Hilltop’s shadow is long. The task before Nigeria is to ensure that the shadow points toward a brighter constitutional daybreak, where influence is finally subordinated to institutions and where mentorship hardens into norms that no single mansion can monopolise. That is the only pilgrimage worth making.
Ajadi Celebrates Juju Legend Femolancaster’s 50th Birthday in the UK
Nigerian Juju music legend, Otunba Femi Fadipe, popularly known as FemoLancaster, is being celebrated today in London as he clocks 50 years of age.
Ambassador Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo, a frontline politician and businessman, led tributes to the Ilesa-born maestro, describing him as a timeless cultural icon whose artistry has enriched both Nigeria and the world.
“FemoLancaster is not just a musician, he is a legend,” Ambassador Ajadi said in his birthday message. “For decades, his classical Juju sound has remained a reminder of the beauty of Yoruba heritage. Today, as he turns 50, I celebrate a cultural ambassador whose music bridges generations and continents.”
While FemoLancaster is highly dominant in Oyo State and across the South-West, his craft has also taken him beyond Nigeria’s borders.
FemoLancaster’s illustrious career has seen him thrill audiences across Nigeria and beyond, with performances in the United Kingdom, Canada, United States of America, and other parts of the world. His dedication to Juju music has projected Yoruba traditional sounds to international stages, keeping alive the legacy of icons like King Sunny Ade and Chief Ebenezer Obey while infusing fresh energy for younger audiences
He further stressed the significance of honoring artistes who have remained faithful to indigenous music while taking it global. “In an era where modern sounds often overshadow tradition, FemoLancaster stands as a beacon of continuity and resilience. He has carried Yoruba Juju music into the global space with dignity, passion, and excellence,” he added.
The golden jubilee celebration in London has drawn fans, friends, and colleagues, who all describe FemoLancaster as a gifted artist whose contributions over decades have earned him a revered place in the pantheon of Nigerian music legends.
“As FemoLancaster marks this milestone,” Ajadi concluded, “I wish him many more years of good health, wisdom, and global recognition. May his music continue to echo across generations and continents.”
celebrity radar - gossips
Gospel Songstress Esther Igbekele Marks Birthday with Gratitude and Celebration
Gospel Songstress Esther Igbekele Marks Birthday with Gratitude and Celebration
By Aderounmu Kazeem Lagos
Lagos, Nigeria — The gospel music scene is aglow today as the “Duchess of Gospel Music,” Esther Igbekele, marks another milestone in her life, celebrating her birthday on Saturday, August 16, 2025.
Known for her powerful voice, inspirational lyrics, and unwavering dedication to spreading the gospel through music, Esther Igbekele has become one of Nigeria’s most respected and beloved gospel artistes. Over the years, she has graced countless stages, released hit albums, and inspired audiences across the world with her uplifting songs.
Today’s celebration is expected to be a joyful blend of music, prayers, and heartfelt tributes from family, friends, fans, and fellow artistes. Sources close to the singer revealed that plans are in place for a special praise gathering in Lagos, where she will be joined by notable figures in the gospel industry, church leaders, and admirers from home and abroad.
Speaking ahead of the day, Igbekele expressed deep gratitude to God for His mercy and the opportunity to use her gift to touch lives. “Every birthday is a reminder of God’s faithfulness in my journey. I am thankful for life, for my fans, and for the privilege to keep ministering through music,” she said.
From her early beginnings in the Yoruba gospel music scene to her rise as a celebrated recording artiste with a unique fusion of contemporary and traditional sounds, Esther Igbekele’s career has been marked by consistency, excellence, and a strong message of hope.
As she adds another year today, her fans have flooded social media with messages of love, appreciation, and prayers — a testament to the profound impact she continues to make in the gospel music ministry.
For many, this birthday is not just a celebration of Esther Igbekele’s life, but also of the divine inspiration she brings to the Nigerian gospel music landscape.
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