Having slipped into oblivion from 1977, following the destruction of his house in the infamous ‘Unknown Soldier’ crisis at the late Fela Anikulapo’s “Kalakuta Republic”, Rolling Dollar was given up as dead until his resurrection as a performing artiste started at the 1997 World Music Day concert at the French Cultural Centre in Ikoyi, Lagos. It was the late music impresario, Mr Steve Rhodes, who first presented him on stage, with the assistance of Mr Muyiwa Majekodunmi, then proprietor of Jazzville, Onike, about the most active and influential live music centre in Lagos at the time.
Even though his performance that night was reportedly lousy, Rolling Dollar was nonetheless the revelation, as many people were surprised to realize he was still alive. It turned out he had been sharing a dingy face-me-I-face-you room with his family at Idi Oro, Mushin in Lagos; and that was where the late Rhodes practically exhumed him from. As it would happen, Mr Jahman Anikulapo covered that event for The Guardian newspaper and, as he recalled, Rolling Dollar could not even walk properly and had to be propped up to mount the stage. At the end, he could only do two songs — one of which was his now famous ‘Won Kere Si Nomba Wa’, which he did solo on the guitar.
After that 1997 return, Steve Rhodes again presented Rolling Dollar a year later at another concert at the Glover Memorial Hall, though he was still frail. But his fortunes changed in 1999 when the Goethe Institute, under the directorship of the African music-loving Renate Albertsen Marton (now deceased) asked Jahman Anikulapo to coordinate a highlife concert for them. Veteran broadcaster and music columnist for The Guardian, Mr Benson Idonije, who was contacted to present the concert decided to feature Rolling Dollar. That night, it was the late German who bought a new set of dresses with which Rolling Dollar was kitted.
Titled “Great Highlife Party”, Rolling Dollar appeared in the concert alongside other veteran highlife musicians who were by then out of larger public attention. They included the guitarist Alaba Pedro (now late); Tunde Osofisan, a retired civil servant who was however the lead singer and sometime composer for the late Roy Chicago and Chris Ajilo (composer of such classics as ‘Eko o Gba Gbere’). A year later in 2000, Rolling Dollar was also featured among other largely forgotten highlife maestros like E.C Arinze (‘It’s Time for Highlife’); the late Rex Lawson’s memorial band fronted by his wife and the trumpeter, David Brown.
By this time, Anikulapo had become Deputy Editor at The Guardian where he also doubled as the Arts Editor, and he helped to give the two shows a huge media profile. Together with Idonije, who was using his column to promote the old man, that effectively placed Rolling Dollar back in public reckoning. But I understand the first person to invest faith in the musician is a young lady called Ebun Olatoye (now Mrs Feludu), who had started some project with the Hafsat Abiola-led Kudirat Initiative for Democracy, (KIND). On her own, Mrs. Feludu decided to manage the resurrecting career of Rolling Dollar and indeed found him some gigs, including at the reading tour of Chimamanda Adichie’s debut novel, ‘Purples Hibiscus’. That day, Rolling Dollar shared the stage with Bukola Elemide (popularly known as Asa), who was just coming on the scene, fresh and unknown.
With the ceaseless media promotion led by Anikulapo who effectively used his vantage editorial position at The Guardian to pursue his passion for the arts, highlife promoters who began to cultivate Rolling Dollar included Jazzhole Records, which eventually recorded some of his works; and Mr Kayode Samuel of Eko Star Records, a London-based music promoter who would later push Rolling Dollar’s record through the UK and US circuits. The Committee for Relevant Art, (CORA) led by Mr. Toyin Akinosho also collaborated with Ojez and Benjay Promotions owned by Benson Idonije to give Rolling Dollar a professional new lease of life.
In 2001, the idea of the Great Highlife Party (GHP) was sold to the proprietor of Ojez Restaurant in Iwaya through his then media consultant, Mr Odafe Oghoghome. Tagged “Elders’ Forum”, the monthly concert which ran for two years drew many high society people, including Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, the late Ambassador Segun Olusola, Mr. Rasheed Gbadamosi, Mrs Francesca Emanuel, Mrs Taiwo Ajai-Lycett and others. With Rolling Dollar as the star act, it was not long before he caught the attention of the former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who gave him a house in Abule Egba.
By his own account, Rolling Dollar entered an aircraft for the first time in his life at age 76, just ten years ago yet before he died last week, he had travelled to virtually all corners of the globe. Now, here is the lesson: No matter the cards life may deal us at any point in time, there is no greater joy than knowing that we have something that makes us who we are; and that when we focus on this ‘something’, which could be a talent or a calling, we will ultimately come to a full realization of our true essence and finish well – as Rolling Dollar did. May his soul rest in perfect peace.
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