A footballer’s encounter with Emir of Kano

Odegbami

This is not the script of a movie. It is true life. I received an innocent verbal invitation from Tony Awe to attend an event at Ikeja Club, an elite social club in Lagos. I know nothing about the club, but I know Tony. He is my friend of many years at the Lagos Country Club.

For some weeks, Tony was ‘harassing’ me to honour his invitation. He got the Secretary of the club to add his voice to the pressure.

Tony became so insistent that I had no choice but to give up another event slated for the same day in Abeokuta, in order to honour his invitation.

It is Friday night. The event is slated for 6pm but Tony calls and advises me to arrive at 7. I dress very casually in a simple dark-grey kaftan and head out at 7. It eventually takes me about an hour to get to Ikeja and to locate the famous social club I had never visited. On my way, my head is a total blank, but I am thinking. I shall spend an hour at the event, enough time to take a small bottle of my favourite drink, listen to some music (if there is one) and go back home early enough to catch ‘Spice and Friends’ on Eagle7 Sports Radio, Abeokuta.

Access to the Club’s premises in Ikeja is horrendous, with the road repairs going on in that part of Ikeja. It takes me a little while, but I finally find Ikeja Club. I enter through the back entrance. The event had not started. The venue is dressed up for a big party, obviously. KSA does not play at small parties, and he is on the bandstand this evening. I go and pay homage to him.

‘The great Olympian’ (as KSA fondly calls me) and ‘The Chairman’ (as I fondly call him) have not met in ages. So, we hug and kiss and chat over nothing. King Sunny Ade likes me a great deal. I like him too.

One of the organisers sees me. He