People! Celebrating a creative colossus at 80

A few days to Christmas of last year, 2023, I had a great time with Mr. Ken Calebs Olumese in his beautiful home in Lekki, Lagos. It was on a cool Sunday evening.

Although I had not seen him in a while, we had kept in touch via phone calls and WhatsApp messages.

Because I didn’t want to wait till his 80th birthday bash before seeing him, and I needed to apologise to him in person for neglecting to invite him to my last book presentation in May 2023, so I rang him up and informed him I would be coming to see him.

He deserved such reverence, for there are only elected 36 State governors in Nigeria. But there are three other governors as well.

The Governor of Central Bank, who is also constitutionally recognised by virtue of his role in fiscal matters. There is also is my friend, the prolific Nollywood director and kinsman (by state) to Mr. Olumese, Lancelot Odua-Imasuen, who enjoys the sobriquet of ‘The Governor’ among his motion picture industry peers.

The third and only legitimate, albeit unofficial, “Guv’nor” of Entertainment and Night Club Economy in Nigeria is Olumese, this great man from Edo State, who redefined the concept and business of night clubbing in Nigeria.

And so last December when he ushered me into his cozy living room, I had no other way of addressing him than how he has always been saluted by all and sundry – The Guvnor, Mr. Ken Calebs Olumese; with emphasis on THE GUV’NOR!

It was a happy moment and a reunion of sort as I had not seen him in person since about 2018 when he last visited me in office while I served Lagos State as Commissioner for Tourism Arts & Culture.

Although he had stopped drinking spirits, he had a wide array of choice liquor at his private bar. And knowing him, there was no need trying to decline his offer. He would hardly take no for an answer. I presented him with an autographed copy of my book, ’30: Three Decades Of The New Nigerian Cinena – A Bystander’s Verdict’. Expectedly, we spoke about many things, including his 80th birthday which officially came up on May 27th, 2024, although the main celebration and a book launch are scheduled for this Saturday July 27th, 2024.

For a man born on Children’s Day, this Guv’nor is a story teller. His power of recollection is impressive. He is unpretentious with facts and there is so much to learn from him. I listened with rapt attention as he narrated the story of his comfortable abode and how life is treating him in retirement, at old age.

I nodded in appreciation to how he deeply appreciates the importance of networking, friendship and goodwill and how he connected those attributes to many of his life’s successes. My visit was a friendly one. It was no interview session. And so we chatted freely, no holds barred.

It was the voice of a happy, fulfilled and contented man that I heard all through the few hours I shared with him. I felt something refreshing in hearing an almost 80-year-old man confessing to being very comfortable and at peace with soul and his Creator.

In his car, he drove me round some areas in his neighbourhood where illegal constructions had led to some demolitions of many structures. The Guv’nor was always well informed about his surroundings and development in the news. He understands and appreciates the importance of propriety and staying on the right side of the law at all times. And he was thankful for the foresight to plan ahead.

One name stood out among several that this enigmatic man of the arts & entertainment holds in high esteem; that of Dr. Bode Olajumoke, through whom he seized the opportunity of owning a parcel of land, abd ultimately a befitting home, in the heart of Lekki in Lagos. Talking about true friendship and brotherhood between those two.

When I see men age gracefully, I’m genuinely happy for, and perhaps, envious of them.

Ours, like many in this part of the world, is a society marred with various socio-economic challenges that can be very telling on health and finances. Survival is a battle with several hurdles. And so for men who scale through with minimal scratches, the need to celebrate with them becomes doubly necessary.

And this is why, for me, my heart joins that of the Guv’nor in shouting PEOPLE!!!! (pronounced as piipuu!) IT IS TIME TO CELEBRATE THE NIGHT SHIFT COLOSSUS!!!

For the initiated, ‘People’!!! of course was one of Guv’nor Olumese’s favourite ways of drawing the attention of club patrons. It was a lend-me-your-ears call. A customised way of saying the party was about to get started.

For more than 30 years, the Guv’nor bestrode the night club scene in Lagos as the undisputed generalisimo.

He chose to stay in Opebi, on the Mainland part of Lagos, thereby debunking the myth that it had to be located on the more affluent Lagos Island of Ikoyi, Victoria Island and much later, Lekki, before a classy night club could thrive.

Like the talented Masked Man, Lagbaja, who in the 90s and 2000s with his last Friday of the month shows at the Motherlan’ venue, also in Opebi, and the great Fela Anikukapo-Kuti (with his African Shrine) before him, Guvnor’s Nite Shift club was the go-to hang-out place for executive night crawlers on the Lagos Mainland for many years.

With his background in advertising, Guvnor Olumese knew how to attract quality crowd. And more importantly, he knew how to keep them coming. No young entertainment-inclined journalist of my generation in the 1990s could stay away from Guvnor’s LED lights except you couldn’t keep up with the rules that demanded respectable presence.

And the rules got stricter when the Guvnor left the rented apartment of Night Shift for the more expansive, classy and permanent multi-purpose edifice in 1999, within the same Opebi axis.

That was where the business got transformed and The Night Shift Colisem was born; and with it The Glamour Boys of Nigeria (GBN), a select group of young and upwardly mobile professionals who considered Niteshift Coliseum and Guvnor Olumese as their 5 & 6. It was at the Coliseum that I would soon have the privilege of hosting my Bachelor’s Eve in December 2001, courtesy of the Guvnor’s generosity.

I hope that the larger story of Nite Shift Coliseum would be told some day, except many of the dramatis personae would prefer to plead the ‘Fifth Amendment’, and submit that what happens at the Coliseum, as a night shift activity, must stay and buried at The Coliseum.

It was one hell of a place. A joy giver, fun provider, entertainment merchant, a meeting place and a business enterprise of note.

Spouses of regular patrons of the Coliseum were conversant with its unique offerings too, especially when their hubbies won’t return home sometimes till about 8am or 9am, because they had been ‘detained’ by the Guv’nor.

Detention at the Coliseum meant that you were one of the favourites of the Guv’nor, chosen to keep his company after the club session would have ended. That sleep-depriving session could last anytime between 5am and 9am – 10am …with more booze, coffee and sometimes breakfast served, on the House.

On a good day, the Guv’nor would personally call one’s wife on phone to inform her of one’s detention status and then announce to her the monetary sum he would send to her through you the detainee.

Even if a wife was angry, the Guvnor’s ‘sorry, don’t be annoyed package’ was always a good compensation to assuage the most hardened hearts. So much so that many wives sometimes looked forward to their husbands being detained once in a while at The Coliseum.

I was a proud detainee on several occasions!

For 30 years, the Guv’nor was part of my adult, professional life and we maintained a near father-son relationship in nearly all of those three decades. He was present at my bachelor’s eve; at the naming ceremony of my son, ObaWanle, in 2009, and at least at two of my book presentations, among other engagements.

When I had the privilege of serving as the Director of Communications for the Akinwunmi Ambode Campaign Organisation in 2014/2015 and Guv’nor Olumese had received several requests from different cells of the campaign to have a Grand House Reception organised in H.E Akinwunmi Ambode’s honour, he needed and waited for my direction before that glorious red-carpet event could proceed.

It is on record that no civilian Governor of Lagos State since democracy returned in 1999, either as a candidate or Governor elect; or even as a sitting governor, has ever missed The Coliseum’s GHR.

All Their Excellencies, from Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to Babatunde Fashola, SAN; Akinwunmi Ambode, FCA and the current governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, have all had the Coliseum honours bestowed on them through the GHR.

Perhaps, it will be a thing of prophetic honour that it is under the administrqtion of President Tinubu, in whose Lagos the Niteshift Coliseum birthed and blossomed, that the man who contributed in no small measure into making Lagos an entertainment haven and West Africa’s biggest creative hub will finally be deemed worthy of a national honour.

What a fitting tribute it would be for this people’s Guv’nor who was not just delighted in singing ‘Night Shift’ but actually made the 1985 monster hit by The Commodores his club’s signature tune.

Happy birthday to a man of great fun and kindred spirit, big boss Ken Calebs Olumese.

Ayorinde, CEO of Patrons Media Ltd, author and television anchor, is a one-time Commissioner for Information & Strategy in Lagos State.