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OPINION: KWAM 1, Eccentricity And Big Man Syndrome
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3 weeks agoon
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By Festus Adedayo
At the risk of being labeled thanatophobic – a preoccupation with death or its anxiety – the grim reality is that, last Tuesday, Nigeria’s music world would have lost veteran Yoruba Fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde. Being Muslim, it is in order to say the man popularly known as KWAM 1 would have been buried same Tuesday or early Wednesday. He would have been killed over a mere tiff with an airline official over allegation of carrying liquour on board an aircraft. There is no grimmer way of putting the potential calamity than this. It is a signpost of the paper-thin divide between life and death.
A footage of the musician hurriedly ducking the wing blade of a taxing ValueJet aircraft on the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, with a potentially disastrous consequence, left everyone gasping for breath. KWAM 1, in his usual haughty display, had engaged the airline’s personnel in a needless altercation over his obvious breach of airline protocol. So, how do you label what the musician demonstrated that Tuesday; eccentricity, Big Manism, suicidal inclination or substance intoxication?
Looking for a musician or artist who is not eccentric may be akin to searching for the teeth of a hen. Name them: Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Oscar Wilde, David Bowie, Lady Gaga, Captain Beefheart and in Nigeria, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Wole Soyinka, Davido, Wizkid, Portable and many others. They all have one thing in common: they are eccentric. They are weird, unconventional, against-method and display rare traits, mostly for attention and in support of their trade. For them, acting unconventionally is a private code, a badge of identity. Lady Gaga’s is in her flamboyant fashion and performances. The truth is that, eccentricity, what Americans call ‘wacky’, is the lifeblood of music, musicians and the art in entirety. For most of them, it is intentional eccentricity, a bold effort to wow the audience through appearance or presentation. The media also feeds off their wacky lifestyles, raking millions from their unconventional public images.
Michael Jackson is an example. Michael lived a bizarre life with a unique public persona, unusual lifestyle choices, as well as weird dressing and dancing styles. He deliberately cultivated a mysterious and flamboyant image with rumours and speculation enveloping his entire life. He took eccentricity to a new high as one who was not only eccentric but who was gloriously audacious. He decorated himself with clothes that charmed his vanity and was just like Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray, the character in his The Picture of Dorian Gray, who didn’t want to lose the purity of his youth to age, who then admonished that, “when your youth goes, your beaty will go with it…time is jealous of you and wars against your lilies and your roses”.
Michael Jackson abhorred decaying flesh and wanted longevity. To achieve this, he lived in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, conducting extensive plastic surgeries on himself which included cosmetic procedures of rhinoplasty (nose jobs), cheekbone, forehead lifts and lip-thinning. After this, he was afflicted by vitiligo, a skin condition whose feature is pigment loss, prompting his fans to accuse him of skin bleaching. He also lived like a recluse in his Neverland Ranch home designed with amusement park rides. In the zoo, he collected exotic animals. Michael’s invitation to children to stay with him in the Ranch fueled speculations and accusation of his being a pedophile. This landed him multiple accusations of child sexual abuse, leading to prolonged legal battles which significantly impacted his mental health and public image.
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In the odd life they live, odd ways they dress, queer acts they display and their unusual performative actions on stage, artists and musicians demonstrate how eccentricity can be used as a powerful tool to shape musical identity.
Musicians’ lyrics also bring out the eccentricity in them. In 1986, New Jersey-born American singer-songwriter and pianist, Gwen Guthrey, burst the bubble of a prude world when she sang her very controversial and materialistic track, “Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ on But the Rent”. It was raw talent combined with artistic bravura. For a world that was not used to such realistic outburst from the female to the male gender, that track, especially its matter-of-factly pronouncement, “You’ve got to have a j-o-b if you want to be with me/No romance without finance” shocked the world. Guthrie was to die of uterine cancer on February 3, 1999, thirteen years after the song. Same audaciousness went for reggae musician, Winston Hubert MclnTosh, one of the now deceased trio of Jamaican reggae group, the Wailers. Popularly known as Peter Tosh, against the grain of global public morality, Tosh’s first major hit after the separation of the band was an iconoclastic album he called Legalize It, released in 1976 with CBS Records. In it, Tosh uncompromisingly beatified the banned narcotic drug, Indian hemp, lauding its health benefits and the widespreadness of its abuse. The album sleeve had him smoking the marijuana chalice pipe in a countryside hemp plantation.
It is same for Marvin Gaye. Described as shy, fearful and ambitious, yet also capable of great passion and charisma, his eccentricity is in a complex interplay and conflict between his artistic vision, personal struggles and unconventional approach to music and life. He was a non-conformist who pushed boundaries, both musically and personally, and which sometimes manifested in his erratic behaviour of a troubled personal life, childhood abuse and his struggle with insecurity. He struggled to balance social commentary with eroticism in his songs, especially in his world classic track, ‘Sexual Healing.’ This unwittingly revealed his multifaceted personality. He also struggled to balance his feeling for his father, a strict and reputedly abusive religious figure and his love for his mother. He was eventually shot twice by his father after he intervened in an argument between his parents. He was pronounced dead upon being rushed to the California Hospital Medical Center on April 1, 1984. His father later pleaded no-contest to a charge of voluntary manslaughter in an Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, California, USA court.
Like Wasiu Ayinde, Tosh, the 6.4-footer dreadlocked singer was arrogant and self assertive. For instance, immediately his colleague, Bob Marley died, Tosh shocked the world in an interview where he made the allegorical claim that Bob peaked in his musical career while he (Peter) was decorating the stage. The truth is, Tosh was too assertive, too hot to handle and never hid his disdain for what he called “Babylonian” lifestyle of hedonism. Tosh also believed in marrying words with action. Towards the latter part of his life, he cut a queer image of a revolutionary ready to carry arms. With his imposing height as he adorned a black beret, with a guitar that had the shape of an M16 assault rifle, Tosh didn’t mince words in projecting the narrative that he was a musical militant. He told those who underrated him that he was “like you are steppin’ razor” and asked, “don’t you watch my size” as “I am dangerous!” In comparison to others, Tosh said “I’m the Toughest,” an apparent reference to the trained karate belt holder that he was. He was once asked by an interviewer why he never smiled. His reply was, since he sang revolutionary songs, not love song, nor a tea party, there was no reason to smile.
While putting up eccentric shows, however, many of the musicians and artists have met their waterloo. One of KWAM 1’s Yoruba musical ancestors, Ayinla Omowura, was not as lucky as he was on the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport tarmac. As KWAM 1 woke up that Tuesday morning in Abuja, on May 6, 1980, the Apala songster also rose at cockcrow in his Itoko, Abeokuta, Ogun State home. By midday, he was history. For the Egba-born musician, a trivia, a needless beefing over possession of a motorcycle in a barroom brawl, extinguished his hugely billowing musical career fire.
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Eccentricism comes in various forms. To some, it is in a violent lifestyle. For some others, it is acting like a child, what is called infantilization. Its victims deny their maturity and treat themselves as helpless and dependent. Many of them express their bohemianism through consumption of drugs. Apala music Lord, Omowura, Awurebe’s Dauda Epo Akara and Fuji’s Ayinde Barrister – the latter, up until a point when he left the craze before his death, consumed marijuana heavily. Omowura once walked into an Abeokuta High Court smoking the banned substance. For yet some others, it is arousing sexual desire or excitement in others through their looks, while to some others, it is blasphemy.
Take for example, The Beatles, a famous American Rock music band, widely regarded as the most influential Western popular music ever. It was formed in Liverpool in 1960 with a core lineup of artists like John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Lennon had sparked controversy in a 1966 interview with British reporter, Maureen Cleave, when he said The Beatles were even “more popular than Jesus”. He further said, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will be proved right … Jesus was alright but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
The Lennon comment resulted in a huge backlash and created an uproar which led to wide protests against the band. US religious and social conservatives were outraged. Even the Ku Klux Klan joined the fray. The controversy it sparked was such that The Vatican issued a protest letter. The Beatles’ records were also banned by Spanish and Dutch radio stations and on South Africa’s National Broadcasting Service. When the backlash became too severe, a press conference was organized for Lennon to make a clarification and he said, “If I’d said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it.,” but at further promptings from reporters, he grudgingly said, “If you want me to apologize, if that will make you happy, then okay, I’m sorry.”
The bohemian nature of The Beatles was to come out more later. They provoked a great furore in June 1966 with the cover of their Capitol LP with the title ‘Yesterday and Today.’ The album sleeve had them dressed in a butcher’s overall with raw meat and mutilated plastic baby dolls splattered on it. They grinned from ear to ear. On a tour of the Philippines the month after this furore, they unintentionally snubbed Imelda Marcos, the nation’s First Lady, who had arranged a breakfast reception for them at the Presidential Palace. Angered, the Marcos organized a nationwide riots against them. Seeing that their lives were hanging precariously in a balance, the Beatles fled the Philippines. In 1970, a legal row ensued in the band leading to its dissolution on December 29, 1974. In 1980, Lennon was murdered and in 2001, George Harrison died of cancer.
The eccentricity of Oscar Wilde, Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, poet and critic came in a different form. He was, to date, one of Ireland’s most dramatic and eccentric writers. As brilliant and ecumenical-minded as Wilde was, he was a homosexual, a heinous crime of the world of the 19th century. Extremely talented, having been educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford, Wilde, son of a successful surgeon father and writer, literary hostess mother, wrote a popular string of comedies like The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) and Salome (1896). His real life was marred by drama and tragedy as well. While married to Constance Lloyd and with two sons, in 1891, his gay affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, nicknamed ‘Bosie’, was revealed by Bosie’s father, the Marquis of Queensberry.
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Wilde’s eccentricity is said to be a deliberate self-creation of his public persona. Famous for his flamboyant clothing, unmatchable wits, and unconventional lifestyle, he cultivated all these to carve an image of an aesthete and a dandy. Dandyism is characterized by the philosophy of placing great emphasis on appearance, fashion, and sophisticated style. This creation of an eccentric persona ultimately helped Oscar to express his artistic ideals, as well as becoming a tool to critique the rigid social norms and conventions of the Victorian society of the 19th century.
In April 1895, Oscar sued the Marquis for libel. During trial, however, evidence adduced revealed details of his private life as a homosexual. Imprisoned for two years at the Reading jail after being convicted for gross indecency, in prison, he wrote a long letter to his gay partner, Douglas which was posthumously entitled De Profundis or Letter to Sir Alfred Douglas. In the letter, he wrote, “I, once a lord of language, have no words in which to describe my anguish and shame… I disgraced (my parents’ name) eternally. I had made it a low byword among low people. I had dragged it through the very mire. I had given it to brutes that they might make it brutal, and to fools that they might turn it into synonyms for folly…the two turning points in my life were when my father sent me to Oxford and when society sent me to prison.” Upon his release, Oscar lived the rest of his life in Europe, writing his last known work in 1892 with the title ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’. He died in Paris on November 30, 1900.
Nigeria has its huge supply of such bohemian characters. Fela smoked marijuana everywhere with abandon, wore underwear in public and married 27 wives in a day. Davido, Wizkid and their clan frighteningly scarify their arms, necks; wear dreadlocks and hang on their necks dangling, hefty ornamented laces like prisoners’ chains. Burna Boy, a jailbird once held in a UK slammer for gang-related stabbing. wears violence on him like a necklace while Portable is brash, crude, violent and in love with disorder. But, in which of these atypical behaviour can we locate Wasiu Ayinde and his disorderly portrayal last Tuesday?
I once met KWAM 1 some two decades ago in a friend’s home. Like many of those bohemian musicians, he was brash, haughty, nutty, naughty and crude. From my examination of artists and musicians, society’s kitschy acceptance and love of their display of unnatural, artificial, even fake lifestyles fuels their eccentric behaviour. Consumer culture is in their favour. Marketing of contemporary popular music draws from this tradition that requires artists to be eccentric. It is a culture that began as Dandyism back in the 19th century. Its theme was to exalt bohemian artists, and in the words of Susan Lee Sontag, an American writer and critic, to lift up “glorified otherness/the queer, being distinguishable as an important part of artistic expression.”
On stage, wowed and giddy female audiences have reportedly removed their undies and flung them at musicians.
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The Pioneer Head of the Civil Service of the Federal Capital Territory, Mrs Grace Adayilo, is dead.
The late Adayilo reportedly died in the early hours of Monday, 1st of September, 2025.
The Special Assistant on Media to the HoS, Anthony Odey, confirmed the reports to our correspondent in a short text.
“Yes, please,” the text message read.
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Odey, however, gave no further details surrounding the circumstances of her death.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu approved the appointment of Grace Adayilo as the Head of the Civil Service of the FCT on the 6th of October 2024, with the appointment taking effect immediately.
She made history as both the first HoS and the first female HoS of the FCT.
Before her appointment, Adayilo served as the Permanent Secretary of the Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat.
As of the time of filing this report, no official statements have been made by the family or the FCT Administration.
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JUST IN: Finnish Court Jails Simon Ekpa Six Years For Terrorism Offences
Published
3 hours agoon
September 1, 2025By
Editor
The Päijät-Häme District Court on Monday sentenced Nigerian-born Finnish, Simon Ekpa, to six years in prison for terrorism-related crimes and other offences, according to official court documents seen by BBC News Pidgin on Monday.
The 40-year-old former municipal politician from Lahti was convicted on multiple charges, including participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation, incitement to commit crimes for terrorist purposes, aggravated tax fraud, and violations of the Lawyers Act.
The court ordered that Ekpa remain in custody.
According to the judgment, between August 2021 and November 2024, Ekpa attempted to promote the independence of the so-called Biafra region in southeastern Nigeria through illegal means.
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“He used social media to gain a politically influential position and took advantage of the confusion within a key separatist movement in Nigeria to play a significant role in it,” the court statement stated as reported by BBC News pidgin.
Ekpa denied all the charges against him.
The court also found that Ekpa was instrumental in founding and developing the separatist movement into a more organised structure, working alongside others.
It was revealed during the trial that armed groups were established under the movement, which the court classified as terrorist organisations.
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“Ekpa equipped the groups with weapons, explosives and ammunition through his contact network. He also urged and enticed his followers on X (formerly Twitter) to commit crimes in Nigeria,” the court said.
The trial was conducted over 12 sessions between May 30 and June 25, 2025, with a panel of three judges unanimously delivering the verdict.
Finnish authorities arrested Ekpa in December 2024 on charges linked to terrorism.
He was held on probable cause and suspicion of publicly inciting people to commit crimes with terrorist intent.
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The alleged offences were said to have occurred between August 23, 2021, and November 2024, primarily in the city of Lahti.
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation also initially arrested four other men in connection with the case. However, charges against them were later dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Ekpa, who previously served as a municipal councillor in Lahti, is widely known for his controversial role in the Biafran separatist movement.
His online broadcasts and social media activity have drawn both support and condemnation within and outside Nigeria.
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JUST IN: Doctors Issue 10-day Ultimatum, Threaten Strike
Published
3 hours agoon
September 1, 2025By
Editor
The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors issued a 10-day ultimatum to all relevant government agencies on Monday, warning that its members would embark on a nationwide strike if the demands were not met.
NARD disclosed this in a communiqué signed by its President, Dr. Tope Osundara; the General Secretary, Dr. Oluwasola Odunbaku; and Publicity and the Social Secretary, Omoha Amobi, issued after its Extraordinary National Executive Council meeting, which was held virtually on Sunday.
In July, NARD had issued a three-week ultimatum, but in the interest of industrial harmony, the NEC granted the National Officers’ Committee an additional three weeks to engage with all relevant stakeholders, after which it would reconvene to reassess the extent of implementation of its demands.
In Sunday’s meeting, the E-NEC condemned the failure of the Federal Government to fulfil its promises, noting with dismay that a substantial number of resident doctors remain unpaid for their 2025 Medical Residency Training Fund, and the refusal to pay the outstanding five months’ arrears arising from the 25 per cent/35 per cent Consolidated Medical Salary Structure review, as well as other longstanding salary arrears.
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It also condemned the government’s failure to pay the arrears of the 2024 Accoutrement Allowance.
“The E-NEC expressed displeasure over the unjust downgrading of the membership certificates of the West African Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, as well as the persistent non-issuance of membership certificates by the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria.
“The E-NEC condemned in strong terms the failure of the Kaduna State Government to honour its commitments to members under ARD Kaduna and Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital, despite earlier agreements and signed Memoranda of Understanding. The E-NEC condemned the failure of the Oyo State Government to address the challenges faced by members of ARD LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Ogbomosho, despite an ongoing indefinite strike action in the hospital,” it noted.
It, however, commended state governors who have demonstrated commitment to the welfare of doctors by paying the 2025 MRTF.
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Meanwhile, the doctors said that if their demands are not met by September 10, 2025, they would embark on a nationwide strike.
E-NEC, however, demands the immediate payment of the outstanding 2025 MRTF to all eligible resident doctors by the Federal Government, as well as the settlement of the outstanding five months’ arrears of CONMESS, alongside other longstanding salary arrears.
The Council also demands, “The immediate payment of the arrears of the 2024 Accoutrement Allowance. The E-NEC demands the commencement of payment of specialist allowances to all doctors without further delay, given their indispensable role in delivering specialist medical care across the nation. The E-NEC demands that the MDCN immediately restore the recognition of the West African postgraduate membership certificates to their rightful status and calls on the NPMCN to commence without delay the issuance of membership certificates to all deserving candidates, in line with international best practices.
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“The E-NEC demands the immediate implementation of the 2024 CONMESS and resolution of all outstanding welfare concerns in Kaduna State, noting that the indefinite strike by our members has already resumed and will continue until these demands are met. The E-NEC demands that the Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Governor Seyi Makinde, immediately resolve the welfare concerns of resident doctors under the employment of the state government, particularly those at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Ogbomosho.
“The E-NEC urges all State Governors to prioritise the welfare of doctors in their state-owned hospitals and training institutions, ensure the timely payment of MRTF to their resident doctors, and take proactive steps to curb emigration while maintaining industrial harmony.
“The E-NEC extends the ultimatum by a final 10 days to all relevant government agencies to meet these demands. Failure to do so within this period (expiring on Wednesday, 10th September 2025) will leave the NEC with no other option than to embark on a nationwide strike action.”
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