I have spent the past 12 years of my life writing biographies of rich and influential men and in that time I have come to realise that we all owe this and future generations a duty to share with them nuggets of our lives.
But we live in a country where people’s life stories are full of ellipses; vague diversions that refuse investigation or illumination, so I was happy to hear that he had written a book, but I was also a bit saddened by the fact; I would have loved to write his biography because since I encountered him as a young Editor at Hints magazine, I have always found him to be an enigma, one I would have loved to sit with and unravel.
But here we are.
It was the ancient historian, Herodotus who in chronicling the unhappy life of Constantine, a life filled with religious extremism, court intrigues, family feuds and wars, declared that we should – “Count no man lucky until he is dead.”
Herodotus is an important figure when it comes to biographical accounts because he was described by Cicero as “The Father of Histories”; the first writer to perform systematic investigation and chronicling of historical events. And for those who do not know, History is the Greek word for inquiry or narrative account.
Herodotus would not have been so quick to make that assertion if had met the Guv’nor, Ken Calebs Olumese, whose life and book – The Autobiography: My Niteshift Coliseum Odyssey we are considering because the testimonials that come at the tail end of this book speak of a man who at age 80 is happy, content and surrounded by the love and adulation of family, friends and fans despite adversities that include two devastating fire incidents that razed his home and nightclub and near fatal armed robbery attacks on his beloved wife and himself. Those were adversities from which he rose bigger and better like the fabled phoenix.
Born on May 27, 1944 or to borrow from the embossed message on his invitation card, “established in 1944”, the man who has been described as Nigeria’s 38th and only unimpeachable governor arrived Lagos in the early 70s and in that yawn of time has not just planted his feet firmly in the city but made it his own. He is the only Governor in Nigeria whose tenure is not circumscribed by constitutional limits.
Ken Calebs Olumese’s account of his rich, exciting, influential and very unusual life has been put down thanks, as he says, to the persistent urging of his daughter, Mrs. Cynthia Yinkere, and it is that unusual thing; an account of one man’s four score odyssey and his emergence as what the novelist Maik Nwosu described as “the Minister of Night” in his novel, Alpha Song.
Those who watch CNN must be familiar with the programme; “From Passion to Portfolio.” Ken Calebs Olumese belongs to that lucky tribe of men who are able to make a good living by building a portfolio from their passion.
As he confesses , “this book is different from all the other autobiographies” and reading it one will be confronted with the story of a man who all his life has danced rapturously to the drum beats, as the Igbo people say, of his own personal chi.
When his father sought to send him out for mentorship to the home of Venerable Osemekhian, whom his father described as a “higher mentor”; the young and stubborn Ken unable to dissuade his father, performed a disappearing act that truncated his father’s plan and got him a good hiding.
When he purposed to go to the USSR for further studies, he perfected the plan and only divulged it to his sister at the 11th hour maybe because he needed her to “roger” him.
Later in life, as the pull of enterprise began to tug at his heartstrings, he would resign from a well-paying job as the top Nigerian employee at the French company, Roussel Eclaf Pharmaceuticals, to become a night club owner. The opposition as he said was stiff even though “my family had always known my passion for entertainment; I had a running battle with them, especially my wife, Tina, over the idea of venturing into the nightclub business. …The objection was understandable. Nightclubs, in their estimation (which is true) have a high mortality rate.”
It would take the intervention of his brother in-law Professor Nwankwo Anezi Okoro without whom there may be no book or it would be just a book about a successful medical sales man who rose to the pinnacle of his organisation.
Everyman’s story is a tale of the road taken and the road diverged from. I am not sure whether The Guv’nor is aware of the poet Robert Frost or his poem, “The Road Not Taken.” But in that poem, Frost seems to have anticipated the tale of The Guv’nor’s life long before he was born:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
His love for nightclubbing led him to rub shoulders with legends like Marvin Gaye and Mohammed Ali and brought him into contact with men and women of means and power. As testimonial after testimonial makes clear, all civilian governors of Lagos state were hosted at the Grand House Reception (GHR) at Niteshift and a roll call of GHR guests run the gamut from rebel leaders to ex-presidents, world class technocrats to ranking politicians. Everyone wanted to be hosted at the Niteshift Coliseum except maybe the trio Baba Iyabo, the Evil Genius and the man from Daura who are conspicuous by their absence.
The story Ken Calebs Olumese tells in this autobiography is, however, a somewhat incomplete story. It chronicles a slice of his life and not the full life in its presentation as a perfect melding of the public and the personal and it is easy to see why. It is the story of the man who gave us The Niteshift and The Niteshift Coliseum.
Even though the book riffs on his birth, education, his life as a husband, father and in-law, the focus is on his public profile and the place of Niteshift as a pre-eminent spot in the history of Lagos nightlife.
To be clear, Ken Calebs Olumese did not invent nightclubbing neither was he the pioneer in Lagos but he redefined it and in doing so wrote the manual for others to follow.
As the Notorious Big raps in his classic “Ten Crack Commandment” Ken Calebs Olumese “wrote a manual/a step by step booklet to get your game on track” and the aspiring culture or entertainment entrepreneur will find his autobiography a primer or manual on how to set up, run and sustain a night club.
There is a telling detail that deserves mention; the Guv’nor despite his wide circle of loyal friends never had a business partner, not at Niteshift nor at his other businesses – “Kensman, the gift the store and ‘Big Time Music’, the recording company.
Considering the book from that perspective this review will pay attention to the business lessons inherent. First, understand the business you wish to get into. You may not be able to visit nightclubs in various countries but research is critical so all those nights Ken Calebs Olumese spent junketing from nightclub to nightclub across world capitals were not just for the fun of it; he was paying attention to what worked and what did not work and those insights would be useful when time came to set up his own.
Another is branding. As someone who has spent his adult life in the communications sector, I understand the power of personal and product branding. The right colour, the right logo and the right ambience can make the difference between success and failure in business.
For the branding of Niteshift, The Guv’nor needed a logo that would encapsulate his brand and he got it from a young lady, by the name of Mary-Anne Akpo who was introduced to him by Ray Ekpu.
In naming the club, he sought for a name that would yield itself easily to a theme song and then he went about rechristening the designations often found in night clubs. For his bouncers he called them First Men because as he says “(I really hate that word)”. The ladies were dressed in “oriental ornamental”; the toilets were called vanities and I remember my first time at Niteshift when after doing my business I had been offered hand cream and powder to freshen up by the man manning the vanity.
The DJ was called a music presenter because branding wise, The Guv’nor wanted to differentiate Niteshift from a discotheque (where music is played by Disc Jockeys)”and his booth was called a cockpit from where he piloted the flight at a cruising altitude defined by the Guv’nor. Guests in different sections of the club were served drinks in colour coded cups- silver, gold or platinum. Every attention was paid to details.
Another key attribute of business success is location, location, location. The Guv’nor wanted Niteshift to be on the mainland even though there were a number of successful night clubs operating already on the mainland. A roll call would include, as Nduka Otiono, lists in his testimonial “Omieba Dan Princewill (Daniel’s Nightclub), Jerry Anazia (Ace, Party House, and later, Ozone Nightclub); and Sylvester Adinma Oforgu (Silver Shadow Nightclub – where the celebrated deejay Stagger Lee presided and where Majek Fashek rehearsed).”
Ken Calebs Olumese lived in the Opebi/Ikeja axis and was familiar with it and as the search for a suitable location proceeded it was Tony Oghenejode who “located a first floor in a building on Opebi Road” and that was how Ken Calebs Olumese’s “dream of a nightclub crystallized from 21, Opebi Road, Ikeja.”
Admitting that he did not think the location ideal at the time, Oghenejode convinced him that it was and the rest is history. Niteshift would call 21 Opebi Road home for almost a decade before issues with the landlord forced them to relocate to Salvation road in the same Opebi.
Finally, the clientele! Who do you want to patronise your business? Ken Calebs Olumese was clear that he wanted a club defined by excellence and a discerning clientele. As he writes “membership of The Coliseum was free but discretionary, exclusive and non-transferable…The membership comprised high-profile individuals in society….”
I did not apply to become a member. I think it was Ichie Azuh Arinze who told me and my friends that we were being inducted. We arrived at the club and received our membership cards from the Guv’nor and I remember how I would walk in and the music would pause so that me and my friends could be acknowledged.
The roster of those whom the Guv’nor and his resource team sought out and invited as members of Niteshift is indicative of the man’s acumen and ability to identify men and women who would become leading lights in their various sectors. In that sense, the Guv’nor can be called a prescient judge of character and he was agnostic in that regard reining in professionals from the world of business, rising and established actors, trail blazing writers and journalists and anyone in whom he saw the spark of genius or excellence.
But beyond that was the man himself. The Guv’nor is a man of excellent taste and style who once owned 24 bespoke suits as a corporate mandarin but once he pivoted to the nightclub business he rebranded. His hair was coiffed and groomed thanks to STA-SO-FRO. His perfume has remained Azzaro since 1970; his choice of drink thanks to Dele Giwa and Ray Ekpu is cognac and he only flies first or business class because of his fear of flying. Not given to loudness or ostentation, the Guv’nor does not wear jewelry save for his wedding band and has always maintained a one-car-in-the-garage rule.
We may all know Ken Calebs Olumese today as the Guv’nor of Niteshift but before Niteshift the man had worked as a journalist, civil servant, sales rep and company director. He had a ring side seat at Festac 77 where in an inspired stroke of genius he solved a thorny problem that would have put a spanner in the works at FESTAC.
That story deserves some space because it speaks not just to industry but to grace under pressure, the application of social capital and an innate ability to be innovative:
At the final executive meeting of the Secretariat, it was observed that the official Invitation Cards were numbered, supposedly, to compliment the seating arrangement at the National Stadium, Surulere, where the Opening Ceremony was scheduled to hold. But, it was discovered that the seats at the stadium had no numbers….it was only a few days to the Opening Ceremony. None of the big-time contractors was prepared to do the job under such a time frame. When it became a very huge challenge, I requested to speak for the very first time, at such a high-profile meeting where I was supposed to be seen, but not heard. I volunteered to get the whole stadium seats (55,000) numbered in seven days. I knew I could get this done because I had contacts with young local sign writers, who I normally interacted with at nightclubs and entertainment centres. I was given the job and I named my prize which was instantly approved. In view of the urgency attached to the job, the approved fund was also released to me after that meeting. I eventually contacted and assembled four local sign writers and went to work: Two signwriters from 6 am – 8 pm and the other two, from 9 pm – 6 am. I completed the job in a record three days! On January 15, 1977, the Opening Ceremony was successfully held at the National Stadium. That is the story of seat numbering at the National Stadium in Surulere.
Tony Okoroji describes Ken Calebs Olumese as “the conductor” of a “well-oiled orchestra” and nothing could be farther from the truth and members of that orchestra extend from family to work. His sons-in-law and relatives have only kind words to speak about him while his friends and acquaintances do not seem to run out of superlatives.
I have alluded to Ken Calebs Olumese’s ability to cash the cheque of social and cultural capital and I will dwell on that for a minute.
As you read this book, especially in his chronicle of men and women who have impacted his life (and it is an exhaustive list), what comes across is a man who has always been at the receiving end of magnanimity but it is a false narrative borne out of Ken Calebs Olumese’s self-effacing nature.
Here are a few examples – after his house was gutted by fire, Ray Ekpu stepped in and accommodated his wife and children while Tex Egbedi of Texen, Lanre Ogunlesi of Sofisticat and Stella Obasanjo brought new clothes for him and his wife.
When Niteshift Coliseum was engulfed in flames Bode Olajumoke paid for the replacement sound system worth a princely $35,000 and as the Guv’nor writes “paid for the two plots of land where I now live in Ikota Villa, in Lekki, Lagos and asked me to repay later.”
Dr. Amos Adamu whom he had just met months prior “sent 25 tons of assorted high-tension-iron rods and 200 bags of cement” and many others chipped in and when it was ready to open, his friend “Francis Kofi Okpu, flew in from Munich to install the equipment which took three months to complete. The same man had flown in to install sound equipment at the old premises at his own expense after helping Ken Calebs Olumese obtain generous discounts.
His friend “Berkeley Jones, a member of the then popular band, BLO” did the interior décor of the first iteration of Niteshift. When he needed an office, Sule Abiola “who had an office at 5, Ogundana Street, off Allen Avenue, Ikeja dropped by my house at 31, Allen Avenue. I was not at home. He left an envelope with my wife with a cheque to cover the first year’s rent for the Niteshift club.”
When he needed legal counsel; “Mr. Sofunde, filed a ‘stay of action’ motion at the court. He undertook this, according to him, as a personal friend and” and the members of the resource team “an assemblage of quality men and women from different professions who, without being paid a dime,” contributed time, resources and expertise.
To receive Jerry Rawlings at the airport as guest of the Grand House Reception, the Guv’nor had his friend, the academic and diplomat, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi to smoothen the protocol. He also provided the very detailed and insightful foreword to this book.
At every fork in the road, Ken Calebs Olumese had a hefty cheque to cash out of the inexhaustible bank of goodwill and social capital.
But what about him? Was he just a freeloader, cashing out and never giving? No, says his daughter and many others.
According to Ray Ekpu, “one of my nephews who got the scholarship studied for a few years in Cuba and then crossed over to the United States where he is today. The gratitude goes to Ken Calebs Olumese.”
His in-law Vincent Otiono writes “Uncle Ken gave me the singular opportunity to assist in incorporating Niteshift Entertainments Ltd, the holding company that owned the Coliseum. For this, and many more opportunities, I’m immensely grateful.”
His daughter Cynthia recalls that they had a sticker at home with the inscription “Givers Never Lack” which defined her father’s inability to make a fist because his palm was always open to give. According to her “I also saw him evoke the power of relationships and networks, which I have thoroughly imbibed. He is an expert to this day at harnessing social capital, being loyal to friends, helping people grow by leaning back and giving them a hand up.”
For Cassandra, his second daughter, “Daddy loves helping people sort out their issues, he is a big giver, in cash and kind, and at the time of this writing in 2024, he and by extension, his family are still enjoying goodwill from so many who have been beneficiaries of his acts of kindness over the years.”
Jennifer Agbonlahor, another daughter describes him as “kind, generous, supportive, available and present” while to his nephew Ognonnaya Anezi Okoro The Guv’nor is a “teddy bear and a “pleasant, kindhearted gentleman.”
Reading through this autobiography what shines through is Ken Calebs Olumese’s inability to hold a grudge or be vindictive. When he was almost sacked because of a gang-up at Roussel, he fought back thanks to his ability to keep records and document things and after he emerged victorious he writes that “the majority of staff showed remorse and asked for forgiveness, which I did from the bottom of my heart.”
Aside family and friends, many artistes and comedians “blew” because The Guv’nor offered them a platform at Niteshift and so have many fashion designers like Mudi of whom the Guv’nor elaborates and by so doing underlines a major attribute of his. “I wear only Mudi Africa now or nothing. Regrettably, most people do not appreciate the value of sustaining longstanding business relationship.”
His relationship with the Nigerian media demands a book all of its own. The Guv’nor is a master of public relations who Reuben Abati has described as “colourful, charismatic, decent, debonair, affable, and quite astute in making friends, and building bridges….”
There is something to note in this autobiography; throughout his narrative, Ken Calebs Olumese refrains from anger or rage; but there four seeming exceptions; the first is regarding Dr. Egbuna who promised to assist his wife and never did; the other instance was the Mr. Swindle incident; the third occasion when Adams Oshiomole promised to attend the Grand House Reception only to disappoint at the last minute and then the issue with his 21 Opebi road landlord whom he describes as “shylock.”
As I begin to conclude, let me say that I know it is bad form to accuse an 80 years old man of not telling the truth but it looks the Guv’nor told a small fib in his book when he noted that he always keeps two copies of documents; one at home and the other in the office. Well according to his daughter, Cassandra, her father keeps six copies of every document!
His wife, Mrs. Celestina Olumese has also been a bit economical with the truth; in her beautiful testimonial she concludes with “I thank God who blessed him with reasonably good health” but The Guv’nor’s Esan brother is quick to object as any SAN worth his salt must.
Mike Ozekhome, SAN CFR counters with “the Guv’nor is still as sprightly as a spring chicken. He does not use prescription glasses, nor a walking stick; not even a cane. He possesses elephant memory which is razor-sharp; and so are his wits.”
And dwelling on his wife for a minute, let me offer a quick advice to all the bachelors in this hall – do not propose to your wife the way Ken Calebs Olumese proposed to his wife. It may not end well.
Every good thing must come to an end and so I must wrap up this review of a man of integrity and goodwill whose life has been defined by the laudable attributes of resilience, consistency, grace under pressure, loyalty and perseverance and what he has described as his “ruggedity”.
His book is a chronicle of a life lived in full and at full gush but it is at its core, a cautionary tale, one that riffs on selfless giving, loyalty and devotion to friends and family; attributes that we must be careful to take heed of.
This is because we live in a selfish world, where everyone is self-made and unwilling to acknowledge kindness. We live in a fraught world where people who have been recipients of kindness or generosity go straight to buy a dagger with which to stab their benefactors in the back.
Just look at our politicians!
Ken Calebs Olumese is not that kind of man and our presence here bears witness to that fact.
The core message of his book and his life is simple; we need more men of integrity in a country where many people have sold their soul to filthy lucre from government patronage to the rentier economy and petty crimes. Ken Calebs Olumese shines as a beacon of what integrity looks like in the midst of this moral miasma.
But be warned! Living like Ken Calebs Olumese comes with consequences. You will lose fair weather friends (the Nigerian Breweries story is an example) and maybe government patronage but worry not; the man of integrity will always sleep well at night and believe me, you will live to be 80.
I want to celebrate a longsuffering but loyal Gunner, (Up Arsenal) before noting my own issues with this book because no book is ever perfect. I know it was produced in a hurry and so will gloss over the editorial lapses in the hope that they will be dealt with in a subsequent reprint but I wish the story about the NADECO route was expanded as well as a reason for why he never had business partners. I also wish that the chapters were longer and more detailed so we can come away with more life lessons
An anecdote from ancient Rome records that when gladiators stepped into the arena at The Coliseum, they would stand and salute the emperor – Hail Ceasar, we who are about to die, salute thee.
I will amend that: The Guv’nor, we who are about to groove, salute thee!
***Toni Kan presented this review at the 80th anniversary party of the Guv’nor, Ken Calebs Olumese in Lagos on Saturday July 27, 2024.
