Day Akala united Pasuma, Osupa

Written by Duncan Wednesday, 23 March 2011

THE history of the Nigerian music scene is replete with bickering  and quarrels among most of the major players in the  industry. From the legendary fight between the King of World  Beat, King Sunny Ade

and the Juju miliki maestro, Chief Ebenezer  Obey, to the celebrated feud between the late Fuji music icon,  Chief Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and  Chief Kollington Ayinla, music lovers in the country had been  treated to lewd songs, with the ‘enemies’ struggling to outwit each  other in the quest to satisfy their fans.

In the contemporary fuji music world, the genre was polarized  between the camps of K1 the Ultimate, Wasiu Ayinde and Saheed  Osupa, with the two sides struggling over who is the real king of  fuji music. The division eventually led to further polarization of the  fuji music family as Osupa had his own followers, while the camp  of K1 has Wasiu Alabi Pasuma, Rasheed Ayinde  Merenge and Taiye Currency as its main backers.

The crisis was further escalated by the battle for supremacy  between Pasuma and Osupa and which dated back to the late 90s. Until two weeks ago, the relationship between them was that of cat and mouse as hardly would they  meet publicly without their fans engaging in fisticuffs. The hostility  between them was recently brought to the fore at one of the  ongoing rallies of the Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic  Party (PDP), held at Iwere-Ile in Kajola Local Government Area of the state.

Prior to the rally, Pasuma had been one of the regulars  performing at the PDD rallies in other parts of the state. Since the  commencement of the campaign, he had been playing along with Taiye Currency, Merenge, Femo Lancaster and 9ice. However, someone seeking to end the persisting  hostility brought Osupa to Iwere-Ile to perform. This turned out to be a bad experiment as the event  nearly turned into a fiasco between Pasuma and  Osupa’s fans, but for the timely intervention of Governor Adebayo  Alao-Akala.

Unknown to many, the governor was determined to put  an end to the animosity between the two fuji acts. He privately arranged for the two to be brought to one of his  rallies. An  aide saw an opportunity in the rally held at  Gbagi  Market last Monday. While the  governor was  addressing market leaders, the organizers  of the rally had succeeded in making the impossible happened.

Directly opposite the market was located a primary school,  venue of the rally. Before the arrival of Okala, Pasuma and Osupa were sighted singing together. But this remained at the realm of conjecture as the  surging crowd didn’t believe that what they were seeing was not a television play. However,  immediately after mounting the rostrum, Akala  asked that the two fuji acts should be brought to him, with the  people oblivious of his intention. Without saying a word,  and to the consternation, but open admiration of those at the rally, the  governor  suddenly raised the hands of the two of them. The crowd came alive, bursting into ecstatic  frenzy in response to seeing two of their music idols being united by the event of a political rally. The two were later to treat the  crowd to good tunes from their repertoires.

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