agbameta:

eaglechild:
The Liberty Stadium now renamed
Obafemi Awolowo Stadium is a historic
25,000 seat football stadium based in the
city of Ibadan, Nigeria. It was the first
stadium to be built in Africa. Ibadan also
boasts of the first radio and television
stations in Africa. The first live broadcast
was from Ibadan by Madam Anike Agbaje-
Williams the first face on television in
Africa.

Why are u pple fond of laying bogus claims.
What do you mean by first stadium built in Africa?
Pls Africa does not span from Adoekiti to Oshogbo.
There are much older stadia in Egypt, etc.
First face on which television?!
Next you'll tell me Ekiti has the highest number of professors in Nigeria.
I was enjoying the pictures of shoeless folks on shorts trekking about till u came and spoilt it with your claims

ba7man: That's still no excuse for him/her to always display his/her daftness with such alarming consistency.

naptu2: Mapo Hall



[img]http://www.nigeria.gov.ng/2012-10-29-11-09-25/photos/image?view=image&format=raw&type=img&id=50[/img]

naptu2: Mapo Hall



[img]http://www.nigeria.gov.ng/2012-10-29-11-09-25/photos/image?view=image&format=raw&type=img&id=50[/img]

eaglechild:
The Liberty Stadium now renamed
Obafemi Awolowo Stadium is a historic
25,000 seat football stadium based in the
city of Ibadan, Nigeria. It was the first
stadium to be built in Africa. Ibadan also
boasts of the first radio and television
stations in Africa. The first live broadcast
was from Ibadan by Madam Anike Agbaje-
Williams the first face on television in
Africa.

Why are u pple fond of laying bogus claims.
What do you mean by first stadium built in Africa?
Pls Africa does not span from Adoekiti to Oshogbo.
There are much older stadia in Egypt, etc.
First face on which television?!
Next you'll tell me Ekiti has the highest number of professors in Nigeria.
I was enjoying the pictures of shoeless folks on shorts trekking about till u came and spoilt it with your claims

TheBookWorm: There was a country...

Does this mean Nigeria has regressed?

naptu2: [img]http://2.bp..com/-oaDH6S9oZ2Y/UW4xV6ASb4I/AAAAAAAAiYU/hHsKjUVp5jw/s400/first+tv+woman+africa.jpg[/img]

Anike Agbaje-Williams:  A Broadcaster, The first person, male or female to appear on Television in the whole of Africa. This was at WNTV-WNBS Ibadan on 31 October 1959.

WNTV was later taken over by the Federal Military Government (when state governments were banned from owning broadcast stations) and is now NTA Ibadan.

I watched a beautiful interview with her in 2009, to celebrate 50 years of television in Nigeria. She never missed a day of work and was broadcasting even when she was pregnant.

agbameta: [img]http://1.bp..com/-ye9aKjrrx2U/TsdTYwui8NI/AAAAAAAAAfc/1L-pWAdZDHs/s1600/Baba+THE+ASSIZES+COURT+TINUBU+SQUARE+LAGOS%252CBUILT+1906%252CDEMOLISHED+1960%2529.jpg[/img]


The Assizes Courts of West Africa, Tinubu Square, Lagos, built in 1906, demolished in 1960.

[size=14pt]In 1960, Ibadan was the centre of music not Lagos –Orlando.[/size]
ADENRELE NIYI 01/10/2012 01:35:00

Described by music pundits as the last of Nigeria’s titans in the highlife music genre, Orlando Julius Aremu Ekemode has packed 51 years of active music career under his belt. His flashback to the 1960s Nigerian music era reveals the far-reaching impact of a vibrant and artistically–inclined society. The springy musician shared even more compelling insights in an exclusive interview with ADENRELE NIYI last Saturday at his 69th birthday. Excerpts:

From the perspective of a 17-year old at the time Nigeria gained her independence, can you recollect your emotions and the experience at that time?

Well, that particular time of our life was great for me; I was already playing in a band. I was in Ibadan when Nigeria gained independence but I had been in the city since 1957 because of my passion for music. What I really wanted to do was music but it was not easy to play music and earn money. So I was working in bakery and at night I would go out to play music because by that time, Ibadan was the mega-centre of music as a result of things Chief Obafemi Awolowo (the Premier of Western Nigeria from October 1, 1954 to October 1, 1960) did. First, it started with free education which helped a lot of Nigerians. Then he brought the first TV station in Africa, Western Nigeria TV (WNTV), to Ibadan; he built the Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, the first big stadium in Africa and Cocoa House, Ibadan, the first skyscraper in Africa.

Those things were great and people come from Lagos and other parts of the country to be part of the change. Ibadan was the centre of music not Lagos. All the big names in music were in Ibadan and the ones in Lagos were coming to Ibadan.


Was there a special performance on that day?

Yes, there were many big performances in Ibadan; the mood was great I was with Eddie Okonta’s band and we performed at Paradise Club; not just our band but lots of bands performed. I was doing music and visual arts too; I was commissioned to paint the Nigerian coat of arms for various institutions in Ibadan that wanted to display it in their offices or public places. It made the 1960 celebration great for me because I was not just making money from music, I was also making money from art.


What kind of picture did the Independence give you about your future as an artist?

I know my talent is God-given and I was happy to use it in a way that would please Him. I had already studied music made possible through Awolowo. As the Premier of Western Region he didn’t have that chance of putting music in school and our Prime Minister didn’t do much about music in school too. Awolowo had a meeting with his political party the Action Group and they decided to contribute some money to buy musical instruments enough to set up about 30 bands. The instruments were put in AG’s headquarters in Oke Ado in Ibadan. The place was like a stadium; very big.

Whether you were from Akwa Ibom or Calabar, Sapele, Kaduna, Sokoto or even Cameroon, you were welcomed there to learn how to play music for free! No money paid. and that was great because by the time we entered 1960, the celebration was great already been cooking we’d already been playing. That was how we learnt how to play musical instruments like the saxophone, guitar, and drum set. Many of my colleagues and friends that we all received this training together are playing in some of the big bands we know today.

Your generation of musicians had the opportunity to study music for free and 52 years down the line we still do not have a College or School of Music in Nigeria. Do you think the government has failed in that area?

It is sad; yes they have failed. In Nigeria, it is only private schools that have music in their curriculum and kids in such schools are from rich homes. For some of those kids whose parent let them take music in school, the parents aren’t really thinking of allowing them to become musicians but just to have the knowledge of music.

In Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah (President from 1951 to 1966), a very close friend of Obafemi Awolowo, made sure music was compulsory in all schools; both public and private. Some budding musicians were even given scholarships to go study music in the UK and US. By that period of our independence, Ghana had so many successful bands. It is really sad that we have to go through what we are going through in Nigeria.

A veteran musician once said said that musicians were viewed as school dropouts who weren’t given much respect. Did you face that kind of stereotyping at home or publicly?

Yes, they were a lot of people that looked at musicians that time as unserious people. But everybody cannot be lawyers or doctors and by the time you were being played on radio, people began to love and follow your music. We took our job serious and we could be found entertaining at engagements, in the universities. I even played at Awolowo’s birthday in the 70s. I also played for Chief Rotimi Williams during his 25th wedding anniversary.

Sometimes, the Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) played my music on radio early in the morning and people woke up to the melody of our songs. Our music was such that both young and old could embrace; what we sing about makes sense. We talk morals –to be honest, do good and work hard. We don’t talk about girlfriends and partying as our kids do now in their love songs.

But such songs were around then.
Yes, but it was a different kind of love song to what we have now. Love songs of those days were mature, serious and respective of the women. My composition **iwo ololufe mi ye jowo ma ko mi si le** (my lover, please do not forsake me) is different in meaning from a lyrics of “I want to sleep (have sex) with you” which we have these days.

By that time we write songs of morals like; mu ra si ise ore mi (work diligently my friend) or e ma se ika mo, e je ka se rere (stop your evil deeds; do good deeds instead), when people hear, they learn.

In your 27-year sojourn abroad, what was the central message of your music and how did you project this country’s image?

I left Nigeria in 1974 but before then, while playing in local clubs I was able to meet James Brown and many musicians who came to Nigeria on playing visits. Some of them jammed with our band and afterwards, we exchanged addresses. They wrote me and I’ll write them too. They were interested in seeing us perform in their country and so invitations came. Before ‘74 I visited Germany, U.K and U.S and some record companies, promoters and booking agencies to show my work. I finally left Nigeria for America because of the volume of invitations I was receiving to record.

Foreigners don’t understand my language but when they hear the music and the translation of what it means in English it gives them a good thing to feeling about African music. My kind of music and composition helped me move ahead. I played at big festivals in America with big names. I met Hugh Masekela (legendary South Africa trumpeter, singer) and we did a studio album about Africa together where I put my song Asiko. When people heard those songs, they thought about places mentioned and wished to go there.

So it was not just about Nigeria, it was an African message you were putting out there?

Yes. As a black man from Africa, it is a new environment. Theirs is a community of White people and African Americans, but they were all very happy to see us and hear us play. Both the blacks and whites have their culture even though they are in the same country. But I was able to share our culture with them through my songs. In fact, that was how I found my wife.

Would you say your music truly represent the African culture?

Well, I’m not been prejudiced, but our children are copying hip hop and it is showing more of American culture than African. That makes it hard for Nigerian artistes to move higher than where we, the older generation, are because of what they are singing. We do things differently; our music is live recording but the younger generation’s music is studio sequence; not live.

Live music is the real thing in big countries all over the world. Also, old people who are used to our kind of music cherish it; they still want to hear us. It is not prejudice towards the young ones. But it would help Nigeria if we do our thing our way. Sometimes you can copy a little but make sure that your down beat and foundation is your own; indigenous.

What have you learnt from your wife, Latoya in terms of cultural integration?
One thing I see about her and other Americans is their rich educational background. In America, music is compulsory in schools and they learn instruments too. By the time I met her, she had been trained in music, dancing and she was a teacher.

I met her through one of Nigeria’s great music ambassador, Ambrose Campbell. I went to Ambrose’s house in Hollywood in 1977 (shortly after my band released the popular song Going Back to My Roots and it was where I met her Latoya for the first time.

Later, I came to Nigeria and returned to the U.S. Seven years down the line, we met again when my band in California was looking for a dancer/singer to join us. A friend of mine who was with us at Ambrose’s house remembered Latoya was a singer and dancer; he got me her number. We spoke on the phone and she was interested in the opening. That was how she took a plane to San Francisco to meet the band; and the rest is history.

naptu2: Leyland (Ibadan), like all the other auto factories that were set up in the 1970s (Pan, Von, Anamco, Steyr, etc), stopped producing because of the economic decline in the 1980s. It was subsequently taken over by a local company (Eba Odan Commercial & Industrial Company Limited) and is back in business. This is their website.

http://leylandng.com/

pro01: Population explosion is one of the major sources of the woes we're now facing. Everry tomfool just goes about shooting spermatozoa all over the place at the slightest opportunity - without a source of decent livelihood or a plan on how to cater for the resultant offsprings. Wetin one poor man dey carry 5-6 children do? We need to find a way to regulate this abeg, otherwise things would get even worse.

Nigeria's population was about 40m in the 1960s (much of which resided in the rural areas by the way). . . . compare that to the current 200m-plus population, and you would begin to realise where the problem lies.