‘ I still miss my absconded band boys’ –Ayefele

Yinka Ayefele is a brand in the Nigerian music industry, he is one fine artiste that has done well for himself in the area of his blend of gospel/secular music. In this interview with Cityinfo in his Ibadan office, the musician reveals what late billionaire, Alhaji Arisekola Alao did for him, how he still misses his band boys, his fulfilment and  his experience from his female admirers...

Dr. Yinka Ayefele, M.O.N

You couldn’t just go into publishing in a day, how did it start?

My interest is not just in publishing alone, I have a dream of owning a radio station and I have been on it for the past 7 years. Now we operate a very effective internet radio and I can authoritatively reveal to you that we have the highest listeners in Nigeria today as far as internet radio is concerned. Ayefelefreshradio.com brought about the aspect of publishing and that was how Fresh Magazine started. Fresh Radio is all about fresh news and happenings in the society, so it prompted me to work on having a magazine that will talk about fresh news, fresh happenings, events, sports and various things. We don’t deal in publication alone, we have a printing press and I can tell you that we are the only company that have the Direct Imaging machine in Ibadan today, that is where we started from, our machine do a complete job that makes everything stress-free. We handle all kind of printing through the Optimum Resolution which is the printing press and part of Fresh News magazine, they are all part of Ayefele Fresh radio which altogether form Yinka Ayefele Incorporated.

Looking from where you started to where you are presently, are you fulfilled?

I give God all the glory, I am fulfilled but I still believe God is taking me to greater heights because i’m not there yet. I’m aiming higher and God will surely take me there. King Sunny Ade has been there since and he is still there till today and tomorrow, so I just don’t want to be there yesterday or today, I still want to be a reference point after I’m gone.

You seemed to be very close to late Alhaji Arisekola, what was your relationship with him?

I didn’t know him, I only met him when one of his wives, late Alhaja Risikat Alao introduced me to him. This was the period people were donating the needed funds for me to travel for treatment abroad and fortunately someone took me to Alhaja Risikat and she called ‘Aare’ that if that was the only help he intended doing for her that he should just do it for me and he agreed. I was in my house when they brought the visa for me and my wife, he footed all our expenses to London, we were in Javis hotel for four months and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, he paid all the bills. He even included weekly allowances and other things but he warned me not to talk about it to anybody and that was what I called ‘oro shi n bo to ba di ojo iwaju’ (I save the revelation for the future). I wanted to say it but he warned me not to. That picture you saw at the reception was taken on Easter Sunday at an event in UCH, Ibadan, it was the first time I saw Alhaji danced like that to my songs, after the performance he called me to his table and told a photographer to take the picture and frame it for me. When I heard about his death I was also in London and I recalled our last conversation and his unusual behaviour and I thought he probably had a premonition of his death because he got so friendly that day that I also joked that I wanted to become a King in Ibadan and that he would have to approve it. His death came as a shock, he was such a nice man.

‘oro shi n bo to ba di ojo iwaju’, your fans must be eager to hear that in the next album, is there any plan towards that?

I wouldn’t want to do what he doesn’t like when he was alive. Alhaji didn’t want me to talk about it, so I would rather not. I can only talk about it this way in a conversation and not in a song, I must respect his wish. I wasn’t the only person he was nice to, a lot of people are saying good things about him and I pray that God rewards him wherever he is now.

Your wife is been kept out of public glare, many would have loved to see her with you once in a while, was this deliberate?

That has been her normal routine, I don’t instruct her on what to do or what not to do. Its either you find her at home, in her shop or in the United Kingdom. She attends the parties they invite her to.

How is your last album?

Its one of my most patronised albums, it has sold more than the others maybe because people have been expecting it to see what it would look like without my band boys that absconded in America, so it makes the album a hot cake that is fast selling.

How many of them absconded and how did you take their action?

They were 3. Gbenga Ojoyido my keyboardist, Dare Olusola one of my back-up singers and Solomon Motimoke popularly called ‘Yatty’. They only did the right thing at the wrong time, we can’t be together forever but I think they did that at the wrong time and in a wrong way. I got them multiple entry visas and they could have come back and decide to go back again, I would have been happy if that was what they did. One of them even have his passport with me till today and I was calling his wife to come and collect it because I can imagine what they are passing through at the moment, someone told me some days ago that he saw them working at the train station, its saddening. Though they may have their reasons but I know most of the youths today are misled by prophets, we have to be careful in whatever we do. As I’m talking to you my saxophonist and one of my guitarists are in America, I got them two years visa.

What if they come back and apologise, would you forgive and take them back?

We offend God and he forgives, why not? What I’m after is their well-being, and if they come back I will even support them to form their band, it will make me happy for them to be successful and people will call them ‘Ayefele boys’. I have tried severally to reach them on facebook but they chose not to reply. I even heard Yatty was in Ibadan recently, but I didn’t see him.

Do you miss them?

Of course! They are my brothers, we started this band together a long time ago and I miss their roles and that is why I feel for them because they were part of the few that laboured for this image and they suppose to reap from the fruits. What they did means they would just start all over again, some of the guys I have with me that are enjoying things were not part of the first band I started with and now they are enjoying the benefits. I think God has a way of doing things, maybe if they didn’t leave these new guys might not have the chance.

Election has come and gone in Ekiti, as an Ekiti indigene how did you see it?

I was away in London during the election and what I heard was that it was one of the best elections ever held in Nigerian history, so I’m happy for the winner and also commend the spirit of the loser.

But you were more closer to Governor Fayemi than Fayose and you even played more for him?

I never played for Governor Fayemi more than once and that was when he did his mother’s burial but I’ve always played for Fayose even when he was in government. I’m everybody’s friend, am I not your friend?

Most of the time people call you a flirt, maybe because of your good look, how do you react to it?

I have many lady admirers and it’s left for me to maintain and protect my integrity, I can’t negotiate my integrity for fun. I know my limit when it comes to women but I love them because they constitute a huge part of my fan-base.

How do you relate with your female admirers?

I deal with them as fans, nothing more than that. If you want more than that I will post you, I wouldn’t say no, but I will evade you.

Do you often meet women you admire?

Yes, I can admire you even when I’m on the stage but not to the extent of having to ask you out.

You have a lot of female admirers, how far has a fan gone crazy with you?

I can’t finish talking about that if I should start. There was one that said God sent her to me, she pretended as a prophetess, there was another white woman from South Africa that came to my office to see me and she grabbed me screaming ‘I touched him!’ Such experience is countless.