ONE HUNRED PERCENT IN SUPPORT OF A BIG CELEBRATION OF KEN CALEBS OLUMESE

Today, in Saturday Breakfast, I want to thank all those behind the trending social media post, "The Guv is 80!" announcing the 80th birthday celebration of the great Ken Calebs Olumese, scheduled for July 27, 2024. They have my 100% support. Olumese is not a politician, a money man or a big pastor. He is in no position to offer me an appointment, a contract or cast and bind on my behalf but more than any of the politicians, money men or pastors, Ken Calebs Olumese is my man.

Several years ago, I put a call to a number of people whom I believe have the "can do" spirit and the deep appreciation of the unsurpassed work that the Edo born, Ken Calebs Olumese had done in creating friendship across Nigeria and energizing the social development of the Nigerian nation under the banner of "Niteshift" created by him.

I had done a review of the unique concept of Niteshift in a three-part series published in Saturday Breakfast that I called "Bring Back the Niteshift". The series received significant reaction from many people touched by the imagination and creative energy of the guy we all love to call "the Guvnor".

So, the guys I called on the phone responded and for several evenings after work, we huddled at the Boardroom of the former rented COSON office in Opebi Ikeja, not far from Niteshift Coliseum. We ate some chicken suya, downed a few drinks and talked. There was Mayor Akinpelu, publisher of Global Excellence Magazine; Azu Arinze, Publisher of Yes International Magazine and Steve Ayorinde, who had edited the Punch and Mirror Newspapers. There was also Kunle Bakare, Arinze's former boss and publisher of Encomium Weekly; Patrick Doyle, my broadcaster and film maker friend and Victor Eiremokhae, lawyer and former police officer who had remained close to Olumese after many years.

At the meeting, there was complete agreement that Niteshift was a historic Nigerian concept which should not be allowed to die. We concluded that we owed it to our children and to those who visit Lagos, to preserve the concept that for many years brought Nigerians together without any thought of tribe, religion or political affiliation. Yes, we decided to engineer the setting up of a 'Niteshift Trust' with a Board made up of eminent Nigerians that would preserve what Olumese had built. We thought that Olumese should be a consultant to the trust for as long as he wished.

Different assignments were given to different members of the group. Patrick Doyle and I were mandated to visit Ken Calebs Olumese, brief him on our ideas and get his buy-in. We did as we were instructed. As I left the meeting with the Guvnor, I got the feeling that he was elated. A few days after, I had to travel out of the country but I kept calling everyone connected with our plans from wherever I was. Not too long after, my guy, Steve Ayorinde, was appointed Commissioner for Information in Lagos State. He became extremely busy. My brother, Patrick Doyle also became extremely engaged shooting epic movies like "Madam President". Kunle Bakare, Mayor Akinpelu and Azuh Arinze had a fight in their hands keeping their magazines afloat and paying salaries in a rapidly changing world of magazine publishing and a nation in deep recession. Keeping in touch with Victor Eiremokhae with whom I was entrusted with developing the legal framework for the 'Niteshift Trust' was near impossible. Victor who is ordinarily someone you can bet on, any time, any day, was clearly involved with his own challenges.

Bottom line is that our big ideas never got off the ground. I believe that every human being is measured by his fidelity to the words that come out of his mouth. On this one, I failed. It was difficult for me not to feel shame at not following up on the promise we made to Ken Calebs Olumese who never prompted us to float the idea of the Niteshift Trust. I had to publish a Public Apology to the Guvnor on Saturday Breakfast.

Ken Calebs Olumese is a unique Nigerian. While many of his peers deployed their energies and relationships to grab political offices or to put themselves in positions where they would manipulate the weaknesses of Nigeria to rake in billions for themselves, Olumese deployed his incredible passion, creativity, style, hard work and exceptional inter-personal relationships to promote love and friendship among his countrymen. Niteshift was not a night club. It was a family. Few people went to Niteshift just to listen or dance to the music carefully mixed by Segun Roberts or Eddy Jay Omodiagbe. Many went to Niteshift to relate with others, make friends and learn. There was always a serious intellectual input at Niteshift delivered with style and precision.

Some will tell you that Olumese was a businessman. I don't think so. Making money never seemed to me to be his core objective. At Niteshift, Olumese was much more of a giver than a taker. There are many in Nigeria today, who found love, built friendships, molded their careers and got their wings to fly, at Niteshift.

Almost everybody who has been anybody in Nigeria in recent times, in some way, enjoyed the hospitality and warmth of Ken Calebs Olumese. At Niteshift, there was a Grand House Reception for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria's current President. I am not sure that President Muhammed Buhari was ever at Niteshift but I know that Niteshift hosted his predecessor, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Niteshift also hosted former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. Olumese held a Grand House Receptions for MKO Abiola, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana and Muhammed Ali, the 'greatest'. There is a long roll call of would-be governors who passed through Niteshift, whether on Opebi Road or on Salvation Road, on their way to their different State Houses. A good part of what has become known as Nollywood was nurtured by the "Glamour Boys" of Niteshift. The Nigerian music industry also became a great beneficiary of the Niteshift spirit. Put simply, Nigeria, most probably, will never have another Niteshift.

I still believe strongly that our nation owes Ken Calebs Olumese a big national honour. This truly great Nigerian richly deserves it. Let us do the right thing.

Thank you, all my friends who in a big way, are celebrating my guy, the Guvnor no one can impeach, the unassailable Ken Calebs Olumese.

See you next week.

THE VERY POOR PROPAGANDIST AT ACCESS BANK (1)

Two weeks ago, I published a piece in Saturday Breakfast in which I asked, "WILL ACCESS BANK CONTINUE LIKE THIS?" In the 14 years that I have served Saturday Breakfast, no one has accused me of publishing libel or distorting facts. I do not write out of malice or publish falsehood to impugn anybody's character or to destroy anybody's reputation.

I have very rarely responded to any comment or any reaction to any piece I have published. My attitude is that any article I write is a keynote address and any of my readers has the right to dissect the piece anyway he or she chooses, agree or disagree with me or do a rejoinder, if he or she so wishes. I am a staunch believer in the freedom of speech and I am comfortable with my words being impeached with facts.

I however react when it is clear to me that someone has assumed that freedom of speech is freedom to spew nonsense. I have gone to court over and over again to protect my integrity, the greatest asset that I have. That is why I may be the one Nigerian, living or dead, with the highest number of victorious judgments in defamation cases from our courts.

I have decided to react to a widely circulated and lengthy article titled "Herbert Wigwe, Access Bank and the danger of a single story" credited to one Etim Etim who claims that the late Wigwe was his "boss, brother and friend". The article has been brought to my attention by several people. I am not impressed by the attempt of Etim to suggest that his shallow piece drew inspiration from the talented author, Chimamanda Adichie. I would not have credited Etim's propaganda article with a response except that in his article, he placed me in a group of people whose "cruelty and depravity" in spawning "falsehoods against an innocent man even in moments of immense tragedies and pain is unfathomable". Etim Etim went ahead to put me among the people he says "are out to inflict pain by fabricating lies and malicious propaganda against the dead. Their intention is to destroy the memory of the dead banker, inflict pain on his aged parents, business partners and damage the reputation of the businesses he left behind".

I do not know if the all-knowing Etim Etim read two of the opening paragraphs of my article, "WILL ACCESS BANK CONTINUE LIKE THIS?". In the paragraphs, I wrote the following: "Today, it is with a heavy heart, a very heavy heart that I write this special edition of Saturday Breakfast. I do not celebrate the misfortune of anyone because in our life's journey, each of us will meet our ups and downs. I cannot celebrate the death of anyone because some day, each of us will die. I have no idea when it will be my turn and how it will happen.

"In Igbo land where I come from, to bury a child is considered about the worst thing that can happen to anyone. In my part of the country, a parent is not even allowed to see the corpse of his or her child. I can therefore imagine the excruciating pain that must come from an aged mother and father burying their cherished son, a daughter-in-law and a grandson, all at the same time. I therefore join the many who have extended their condolences to the Wigwe family of Isiokpo on the recent helicopter crash in California which resulted in the deaths of their son, Herbert, his wife and son. I pray that the good Lord will give them the fortitude to bear the loss".

Yes, I wrote in the article that I am not a hypocrite or a sycophant who will pretend that there are no lessons to be learned from what has happened or that no big mistakes have been made. I don't know if Etim Etim, the poor propagandist at Access Bank, is seeking to buy favour from the new managers of Access Bank by whitewashing the crystal-clear errors that even a blind man can see. It is possible that Etim is seeking promotion in his career with the carcass of my reputation as part of his CV. What is certain is that he has set out to distort my credibility with blatant falsehood. Etim Etim may have heard of me but he clearly does not know me. If his gambit is to shut me up, somebody should tell him that it will not work!

In response to my question about the propriety of naming the emerging university at Isiokpo, "Wigwe University", Etim Etim, the public relations 'guru', wrote, "Why did Herbert name the university after his family? This is as silly a question as it can get. Organisations and institutions are named after their founders as a mark of honour or memorabilia to the memory of the founder or the family. Herbert is proud of the Wigwe family he hailed from, and the university was appropriately named to give honour to the family, just as Harvard (the oldest institution of higher learning in the US is named after John Harvard); Yale (named after Elihu Yale); Obafemi Awolowo University; Ahmadu Bello University, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, etc are named after great personalities".

What Etim Etim refused to see with his tasteless propaganda is that in NONE of the cases he referred to was a university named by the founder after himself or his family while he was alive. If he had spent a little time to do simple research before rushing to publish what he must have thought was a PR masterpiece, he would have found out that the great Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts was neither established nor named by Rev John Harvard. It was indeed the Great and General Court of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay that approved the money for the establishment of the school. In 1639, the institution was named Harvard University, in memory of John Harvard who had provided in his will that upon his death, the school be given half of his estate and his entire library. It was the noteworthy bequest that led the school to honor him by taking his name.

In similar manner, the other ivy league university in the US, Yale University, in New Haven Connecticut, was not established by Elihu Yale. It was in 1701 that the Connecticut legislature adopted a charter "to erect a Collegiate School." The school became known as Yale College, seventeen years after, in 1718. It was renamed in honor of the Welsh merchant, Elihu Yale, who had donated to the school the proceeds from the sale of nine bales of goods together with 417 books and a portrait of King George.

Coming home, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) and Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) are all Federal Government owned institutions named after national heroes following their deaths. Obafemi Awolowo University used to be known as University of Ife. In 1962 when Ahmadu Bello University was established, it was called the University of Northern Nigeria. UNIZIK was established after the death of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

A university is not a trading company. No serious university anywhere in the world is likely to be named Etim Etim & Sons University. Bishop David Oyedepo did not name Covenant University after himself. Pastor Enoch Adeboye did not name Redeemers University after himself. Pastor Kumuyi did not name the Anchor University after himself. The one exception is Igbinedion University in Okada. If Etim Etim considers that a great example, it says a lot about his values.

To further drag my name into the mud, Etim Etim has deployed blatant falsehood and half-truths from the pit of hell to mislead his patrons. He has turned facts upside down and stated in his mischievous article full of tautology that "Tony Okoroji's claim that Access Bank has deliberately withheld COSON's funds is a deliberate fabrication and obfuscation of information just to hoodwink the public and impugn the characters of those involved. The fact is that some members of COSON - Premier Music, Ivory Music and Pretty Okafor - have sued COSON and the bank seeking to restrict the accounts of COSON. The case is still in court, and as a senior lawyer in Access Bank's Legal Department told me, ''in keeping with the legal doctrine of Lis Pendis, the bank as a responsible corporate citizen cannot take any steps that will tie the hands or foist a fait accompli on the court''.

No!!! The case was struck out by the Court on February 6, 2019, more than five years ago! (To be continued).

See you next week.

WILL ACCESS BANK CONTINUE LIKE THIS?

For close to 14 years, I have served Saturday Breakfast every Saturday morning without fail. I have written about my good times and my not so good times. I have celebrated love and happiness and have shared with you my moments of pain and sadness and even the deaths of colleagues, close friends and family members. I have dealt with issues related to the creative industry and have poured out my heart about Nigeria, our country, which continues to slip from bad to worse and is rapidly turning into a horror movie.

I have written about politics and leadership at home and abroad and how the actions of a few affect the lives of many. In the last few weeks, I have delved into the intricate matter of copyright, its twists and turns, a subject to which I have dedicated a substantial part of my life because of my strongly held belief that intellectual property will play a critical role in the future of mankind.

Today, it is with a heavy heart, a very heavy heart that I write this special edition of Saturday Breakfast. I do not celebrate the misfortune of anyone because in our life's journey, each of us will meet our ups and downs. I cannot celebrate the death of anyone because some day, each of us will die. I have no idea when it will be my turn and how it will happen.

In Igbo land where I come from, to bury a child is considered about the worst thing that can happen to anyone. In my part of the country, a parent is not even allowed to see the corpse of his or her child. I can therefore imagine the excruciating pain that must come from an aged mother and father burying their cherished son, a daughter-in-law and a grandson, all at the same time. I therefore join the many who have extended their condolences to the Wigwe family of Isiokpo on the recent helicopter crash in California which resulted in the deaths of their son, Herbert, his wife and son. I pray that the good Lord will give them the fortitude to bear the loss.

I am however not a hypocrite or a sycophant who will pretend that there are no lessons to be learned from what has happened or that no big mistakes have been made. I have read many tributes and reviews in which the late Herbert Wigwe has been described as a great banker.

My understanding of banking is that it is really a very conservative profession. Bankers are supposed to know that the money they control does not belong to them. The money belongs to their customers who entrust their money to the banks to protect and return to them once the demand is made. Bankers are not supposed to exhibit a lifestyle which may suggest affluence or wealth or that the money in their hands is unsafe. For instance, a good banker is not to be seen at any party spraying money effusively. Unfortunately, Nigerian bankers are today struggling for celebrity status on Facebook and Instagram with Davido, Burna Boy and Flavour!

I am not so sure if it has become acceptable for a "great" banker in a poor nation like Nigeria, to be associated with sprawling mansions, private jets, chattered helicopter rides and very expensive Super Bowl tickets.

When I saw the repeated advertising of 'Wigwe University' on CNN, I was worried. My first question was: "Where did all this big money come from?". My second was: "Why was the university not named 'Grand University', 'Excellence University', 'Progress University' or any of a thousand names that can be found in the dictionary?" Why not Isiokpo University or even Access University? I am in the creative industry and understand the pitfalls of unbridled self-promotion.

It is no longer news that in the past six years, I have been engaged in a never-ending battle with Access Bank over money belonging to innocent Nigerian musicians in Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) held by Access Bank. I was begged by bank officials to open the account. We did not borrow one kobo from Access Bank. We do not owe Access Bank one Naira. Till today, nobody has explained to me how COSON money became Access Bank's money. Astonishingly, Access Bank has looked for every silly reason to hold on to our money, trade with it at no cost to the bank while the money rapidly loses value. If not for the deft management of its leadership, COSON would have been shut down and our staff dispersed into the labour market because of the treachery of Access Bank.

During the COVID 19 lock down, COSON distributed stipends in millions of Naira to its thousands of members across Nigeria. Just recently, we began distributing palliative royalties in millions to our members across the country to help them, in whatever way, to cushion the shock and challenges of the present Nigerian economy. We could not lay our hands on our members' money at Access Bank to distribute to them. The beneficiaries of this distribution are not just the famous musicians you see on TV. Majority of them are struggling Nigerians. Some are widows whose husbands died as COSON members and some are orphans. That does not appear to matter to the people at Access Bank.

I have been to court at least 25 times because of Access Bank, sometimes on the witness stand, other times facing cross-examination by their big-time lawyers. Justice Hassan of the Federal High Court (now at the Court of Appeal) on February 6, 2019, struck out the frivolous suit which Access Bank was hiding behind, to seize the money belonging to its loyal customer. We thought that our nightmare was over. For where? Officers of Access Bank deployed every subterfuge imaginable and kept shifting the goal post, to hold on to the money belonging to COSON members. On May 4, 2022, Justice Yellin Bogoro of the Federal High Court ordered Access Bank to return the money belonging to COSON and its members and to pay damages to COSON for the "illegal and unlawful" freezing of COSON accounts. Did that Court Order move Access Bank? For where? For some reason, Access Bank behaves like it is above the law. We even had to demonstrate on the streets about our treatment by Access Bank.

What is happening in Nigeria is not banking. It is bare faced robbery. You may hear about the COSON experience because of the nature of COSON and its determination to recover its money. There are thousands of Nigerian individuals and institutions whose funds are trapped in banks and who will never get their money back and who lack the ability to complain. A lot of them are widows and orphans whose bread winners have died with their money left in banks. It is their money that Nigerian bankers are deploying in Ikoyi mansions, state of the art automobiles and celebrity lifestyles.

Why is there so much hunger in the land? One of Nigeria's biggest problems is that less than a hundred unproductive people have cornered over 90% of the money in Nigeria by manipulating the system. Millions of Nigerians are suffering and scrambling for the crumbs. Why is the national currency in a free fall? For many years, some of our so-called bankers have just been engaged in the round tripping of the dollar. They buy foreign exchange at special rates from the CBN and sell it at the black market and in a few hours make obscene profits. The exchange rate goes up like an Olympic pole vaulter and inflation sky- rockets. Some of these people have more money than their states and have absolute contempt for the rule of law and if we must face it, have become serious security risks.

Did you notice how quickly Access Bank publicly announced a replacement for Herbert Wigwe? Wow! Does that not tell you that all the show is vanity?

In my battle with Access Bank, I have stated clearly that Access Bank may continue to operate without a conscience. They can go on ignoring the decisions of our Courts but the money they think they have made with their misbehavior will be phantom money that cannot be spent on anything good or enduring. In a meeting I once held with some of their representatives, a young man who is a senior member of staff in the legal department of the bank boasted to me that they have the resources to take COSON to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court and by the time they are done, the COSON money will have no value anymore. What they may have forgotten is that there is the Court of the Almighty where no one escapes justice.

There are several gentlemen at Access Bank that I kept reaching out to, pleading with them to release the money belonging to COSON members that Access Bank has been holding for no just cause. One of them was Abdul Imoyo, Access Bank's Media Relations Head. They all ignored my plea. Sadly, Imoyo died in December, a week before last Christmas. A month and a few weeks later, the tragic events in California happened.

I have never been to a juju priest before neither have I ever prayed for the death of anyone. I however worship the God of Justice and I am certain that if Access Bank does not change its ways and immediately lift the pain and suffering it has imposed on its customers including COSON members, the bank might think it is growing bigger but the God of Justice who is not afraid of anyone, will do justice. Have you ever witnessed a tiny pin burst a mighty balloon?

See you next week.