Exponent of OSU Melody

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

By Tayo Adelaja

Published: March 17, 2008

Exponent of OSU Melody

A student musical band at the Olabisi Onabanjo University in Nigeria has a history. Adeolu Adekanmbi is the nucleus of it, Adetayo Adelaja writes. 

It was in 1991 that Adeolu Ebenezer Adekanmbi was admitted into Olabisi Onabanjo University (known then as Ogun State University) at Ago Iwoye to study Philosophy

He embraced his admission into the university with a strong intent to write a new story of his own life but ended up in rewriting the history of the university.

Adeolu had attained local stardom as a musician in his immediate environment, finding it difficult to take a walk down the alley without having to respond to the calls of admiration from crowding fans.

He started well.

Initially, his aspiration was to be a physician.

“But I always noticed that I’m deeply in love with music and as I grew up my perspective on ambitions changed. As a young boy of 11, I had started achieving a lot in music. I won laurels for my school in state-organised competitions. While in secondary school, I was chosen to lead the tenor part for the state choir. That brought me into limelight in my state,” he recalled.

He cannot forget in a hurry, that moment in Abuja in 1988, during the Gala Nite organised by the organisation, Better Life for Rural

Dwellers of Nigeria, when he led the Lagos State contingent to perform in the presence of more than 10 heads of state, including Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida of Nigeria who was Nigeria’s military president.

This led to a popular demand for him to go into full scale musical performance and forget university admission which he had been striving many years to achieve. He decided against such proposition.

To him, ambition for further education does not in any way translate to the end of musical dream. It can only enhance it.

He therefore, became an OSU undergraduate in 1991.

“I observed that most musicians in Nigeria and in the world, especially the hip-hop stars are school dropouts or stark ignoramuses and they are treated as such. They see them as Alagbe (beggars). I didn’t want to be numbered among such a crowd. I wanted, and continue to want, to be different,” he said.

As he schooled at OSU he plied his musical trade. And so his fame began to expand on the campus as he was loved by all in the university community who found his type of music unique.

Before long the student union government of the institution, during a special ceremony, gave him the award of Ogun State University Music Ambassador,” presented to him by the former vice chancellor of the University, Professor Yinusa Oyeneye.

Yeah, the award is well deserved. Adeolu founded the “OSU Melody” an orchestra of sparkling stars of young talented undergraduates of OSU at the time.

Reminiscing on the humble start of the band, which came to stay in the university he said:

“We’re just about 10 young men that started the band. I remember the likes of Joseph Adagba, Tosin Ogunname, Mayowa Odusanya, Muyiwa Oyelola, Dipo Ogun, Femi Morafa, Jide Beyioku, Damilola Fashina and Soji Akinbayo (now a lawyer), that made the band what it was and gave it the image it has today in the university, long after us. My dream for the band was that it should be a lasting one in the university. That is why I gave it the name of the institution. I wanted the band to remain as my contribution to the history of the university like other campus clubs providing entertainment for the student populace year in, year out.”

Adeolu was born and bred in the vicarage in the late sixties to a clergy family. His early years in the vicarage and church influenced his choice of career in life.

“The love I have for music aroused my interest in the Palmwine Drinkards club or The Kegites. The club had an effect on my music and my life. As a socio-cultural club, it cut across all ethnic barriers and thus broadens my music and scope about people. In the club, we see each other as brothers and sisters, as we usually sing of our Unity-in-Diversity” he said.

But Adeolu is disappointed. He has discovered that all that glitters in the entertainment industry in Nigeria is not gold.

“The encouragement level is low. To get along in the industry, you must have the resources yourself. No promoters or marketer is ready to invest in new entrants. This has led to the drawbacks in the industry,” he observed.

 Today, he is yet to be fulfilled. He thinks he has a lot to offer but was sadly constrained by the lack of funds to forge ahead.

 Email This Post