The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 624 (May 29 - June 11 2024)

Page12 TheTrumpet MAY 29 - JUNE 11 2024
Opinion
Celebrating Ken Calebs
Olumese, The Guv’nor, at 80
By Reuben Abati
Yesterday, May 27, one of
Nigeria’s iconic figures in the
entertainment sector turned
80: Ken Calebs Olumese, an Esan man
from the university town of Ekpoma
as he likes to describe his home town
of which he is proud, as if every other
town these days does not have a
university but in those days when a
university was established in Ekpoma
(1981), it was such a thing of pride and
achievement that Olumese took upon
himself as a personal badge. But the
real story about him and his life is his
immense contributions to the cultural
space in Nigeria, the impact that he
has made in turning music, art, song,
food, drinks, space and dance into
entrepreneurial tools for the promotion
of social cohesion, inclusion,
solidarity, creativity and pure fun. He
was the Don Cornelius, without the
controversy, of the night club scene
and entertainment arena in Lagos in
the 80s and 90s. He was colourful,
charismatic, decent, debonair, affable,
and quite astute in making friends, and
building bridges and relationships. In
the Opebi, Ikeja area where he ran a
nightclub that was famously known as
Niteshift Coliseum, he was a lord of
the territory, father of the kids on the
streets and friend of the gentrified
class with an understanding of the
register of social and communal
survival beyond the pale of regular
entrepreneurship. He moved with a
swag. He strutted with poise. He was
the Guv’nor: who never went on
transfer, or had to seek seasonal
elections, or go on break, he was his
own constituted authority running an
entertainment empire. The phrase
Guv’nor was first used in the 1840s, a
variant of the more popular noun -
Governor, but over time, it would gain
resonance as the title of a film in 1935,
and as the nickname of a number of
sports figures – Diego Costa, Bobby
Abel, Paul Ince, Lenny McLean.
When Ken Calebs Olumese
established the Niteshift club in Opebi,
Lagos in 1988, he took the title as
label, brand and cognomen, and thus
began a fresh chapter in the
entertainment story of the city of
Lagos.
Ken Calebs Olumese did not invent
nightlife in Lagos, but he helped for
about two decades to shape and enrich
Ken Calebs Olumese (Photo - Reuben Abati on Instagram)
it. The people of Lagos, being Yorubas
are naturally fun-loving, and having
fun at night time has been part of their
culture even before the Victorian times
in the 19 th century, aspects of which
have been examined at great length by
Professor Michael J.C. Echeruo in a
book titled “Victorian Lagos.” The
city that became known as “The
Liverpool of West Africa” in the 19 th
Century, an emerging commercial,
port city was also a community of
persons and cultural developments,
including the media, culture and
nationalism. Lagosians love the good
life. They enjoy the thrill of evening
fun be it at the beach, or at the clubs,
or on the streets of Ebute Metta where
there used to be a party every evening,
or anywhere else where the people
could dance to highlife. By his own
account, Ken Calebs Olumese arrived
in Lagos in the late 60s or early 70s
just like many of these persons from
the hinterland who continue to troop
into Lagos on a daily basis. Thousands
arrive daily from all parts of Nigeria,
very few go back to where they came
from, indeed over time, they become
part of the Lagos ecosystem, get lucky
and excel. In Olumese’s case, when he
left Ekpoma, he lived in Benin. He got
involved in the Socialist Movement,
which was quite a rave in Nigeria’s
70s, the season of the cold war. He
would eventually gain a scholarship to
study Medicine in the Soviet Union.
Many young Nigerians went to the
Soviet Union at the time. The then
young Ken Calebs Olumese returned
with a degree in Microbiology. By
1977, he, with the help of his kinsman,
Chief Anthony Enahoro, played some
role in the arrangements for FESTAC
77, his first major direct involvement
in cultural diplomacy. He was also
closely associated with the likes of Dr
Tunji Otegbeye, trade unionist,
medical doctor and leader of the
Socialist Workers and Farmers Party
of Nigeria (SWAFP). The most
notable part of that phase of his return
is not necessarily FESTAC 77,
however but the fact that he eventually
ended up as a Sales Representative
with the French Pharmaceutical
Company - Roussel, where he rose
through the ranks to become the
Director of Administration and
Finance. Olumese was like the rest of
us: waking up in the morning,
pursuing the nine to five hustle,
struggling like everyone else to raise a
family. He had a good career.
It is one of those ironies of life that
he would eventually become famous
through his hobby, rather than his
vocation. In 1988, he decided to set up
a Night Club at 21 Opebi Street with a
corporate office at 5, Ogundana Street,
off Opebi Road, marking Olumese’s
transition into the arena of
entrepreneurship, from selling
pharmaceutical products, to the retail
of songs, food, drinks, and whatever
brings joy. He had been a prolific
nightlife denizen himself. He turned
his interest into a passion and his
passion into business. When Olumese
arrived on the nightclub scene in Ikeja
and Lagos in the 80s, there was
already a thriving, habitual ecosystem
in place. From Idi-oro in Mushin, to
Jibowu, Ayilara and Ojuelegba, there
was a buzzing axis of nightlife
entertainment. In Ikeja, Ipodo,
Awolowo Road, Allen and Opebi
streets came alive similarly at sun
down. There was a gentleman called
Omieba Dan Princewill, he ran two
clubs – City Tavern and Daniel’s.
There was the colourful, stand-up
comedian, John Chukwu who owned
a club called Klass, with Eddie Jay
Omodiagbe as Dee Jay. There was
Ozone owned by Jibola Shitta-Bey on
Allen Avenue. There was also at some
point, De Roof, Singer’s Cruise, Bread
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