Nigeria’s fast rising Juju musician, Yinka James, popularly known as Adonai, has revealed how the annulment of June 12, 1993 election forced him to embrace music as his career.
He said: “I never planned to become a musician professionally, I believe God just planned it like that in my life. You see, I was an instrumentalist in my mother’s church and when the June 12, 1993 presidential election was annulled, we rioted in our school and it was shut down forcing us to go home on compulsory break.
“Since we did not have an idea of when our school would be re-opened, I and my friends had to look for what we could do to sustain ourselves. I was lucky to be contacted to sing at an event.
“So, we went to honour the engagement and more outings started coming in for us as a group. Before I knew what was happening, I started buying musical equipment.
“Initially, my mother was not really happy that I was playing music. She was afraid of me dragging the family’s name in the mud. I made promises to her that I would not do anything to dent the image of our family.”
Speaking on his most embarrassing moment in the industry, he said: “It was on a Sunday morning and I was billed to be on the band stand at an event that night but there was a heavy downpour that affected the arrangement of our musical instruments which delayed the commencement of our performance.
“Then, one of the friends of the celebrant approached me to ask why we were not ready with our equipment- while explaining to him, he angrily slapped me, I saw stars! This really angered the man who booked us to play for him. The celebrant apologised even though I had been traumatized. But then, at the end of the day, I still mounted the stage to put up a brief performance.”
Speaking on his relationship with other musicians, Adonai said: “In Ibadan here, among the Association of Juju musicians (AJUM), I am one of the oldest youths in the association. We must all come together and there is need for co-operation in order to rid the industry of quacks, the music industry should be professionalized.”
The talented musician gave these submissions while featuring on a weekly program, ‘Ayekooto on Radio,’ anchored by Olayinka Agboola and broadcast live on Lagelu 96.7FM, Felele, Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State’s on Tuesday evening.
On his greatest motivation and his breakthrough in the industry, he said: “It was the day I was opportune to play alongside Sir Shina Peters in Eruwa, Oyo State. He played in the afternoon while I played in the night, later I realised that there was not much difference in the way we played because I was copying him, it was just like copy and paste. Since that day, I thought of being creative and to stand differently in order to create a big image for myself and family.”
The Banking and Finance graduate further stated that he would have loved to pursue a career in Information and Technology (ICT) field if he had not found himself in the music industry.
The musician also cautioned Nigerian youths, especially upcoming musicians to be diligent and to be submissive in order to reap the dividends of hard work, stating that releasing of album may not necessarily translate to wealth.
“Many of our youths and upcoming musicians are not ready to pay their dues. Releasing of album is going to give you fame and not money. Later, fame might translate to giving you wealth. I played music with elderly musicians and I learnt from them, the youths should be ready to learn,” Adonai said.
He, however, urged the government to intensify efforts in assisting young talented musicians who are desirous of pursuing a career in the industry, stating that lack of sponsors has forced many aspiring musicians not to pursue and exhibit their talents.
