Tosin Ajirire
For fuji icon, Wasiu Ayinde Marshal popularly known as K1 De Ultimate, President Muhammadu Buhari has exhibited uncommon courage in his fight against corruption. And for this reason, he’s supporting his re-election bid come 2019.
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The musician, who recently paid a courtesy visit to the president in Abuja, said he’s carrying Buhari’s support on his head because it’s the first time Nigerians are seeing someone coming twice to fight “the cabal that refuses to let this country move forward.”
He explained further: “For the first time, we have someone who looks the cabal in the face and tells them enough is enough. He had tried this when he first came as a military ruler.”
Speaking to a select group of journalists recently at Oyo Amala Restaurant, Omole, Lagos, K1 said he has no regret throwing his weight behind Buhari, as he’s entitled to his opinion and he always follows his mind on any issue.
Hear him: “I follow my mind on any issue. The truth is that each and every one of us, either you participate actively or not, is a politician. If you are a man, and it is time to marry, you become a politician, because if you have more than a woman in your life, you have to play some politics in making a choice.
“As a man, born by a woman, once you get married, you have to play politics between the two. And when you begin to have children, and you now have a daughter, then, the politics becomes strong because you now have three women in your life. You need to show us where your love lies – your mother, wife or child.”
While extolling the leadership quality of former Lagos State governor and National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the musician explained that his firm belief in Buhari might have been influenced by his close relationship with Tinubu, who he described as a well-focused politician.
“I supported Asiwaju (Tinubu) when he was in government. It was based on his focus and approach. I have asked myself why I’m going in this direction. The answer is that any time I am not at shows or in a studio, and I interact with friends, we always discuss the development and happenings in society. One thing will lead to the other, and I felt why not seek an opportunity to push these discussions to the main political space, to the people who make decisions for all of us? And I discovered that when you give political office holders good advice, they listen.
“I remember my area in Okota, Lagos. And this takes me to why I seriously support Tinubu. There was
no development in the area in then. Everybody would just go there and buy land and start building. One day, local government officials came and started demanding this and that. I said, ‘Take it easy with us. If you want to get something from us, you shouldn’t force it on us. Show us the way. Do something for us. There is no gutter here. No drainage and you come here to collect tenement rate. You can collect it only when you have done some things. This prompted the government to do all these things there. Today, the people of Okota have cultivated that habit and they see my relationship with government as an opportunity to push matters of the development of our area. Today, I have become the bridge between the government and the people.”
But would the fuji artiste someday drop the microphone for full participation in politics? His response: “Right now, I’m contented as a musician. But I would continue to participate actively in politics. I have been doing that for ages. The reason I chose to do so in the past is the same reason I do now. When you see things happening around you and you do not talk, it means you are not there… Life is not just about making money, you can make money for yourself and spend it; it ends there. But it is when you are able to share the money and your ideas with others that you really exist. That is when you can make society better.”
Meanwhile, K1 has congratulated the governor-elect of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi over his momentous victory in the last Saturday election.
Speaking shortly after Fayemi was officially announced by INEC as the winner of the keenly contested election, the musician said the victory was well deserved, coming against all odds by the incumbent governor, Ayo Fayose and his protégé, Prof. Olusola Eleka, who was Fayemi’s opponent.
He, however, advised Fayemi to be magnanimous in victory, while also making sure he delivers to the Ekiti people the much-needed dividends of democracy that have been lacking in the state.