Nehru Odeh: Why I'm Still at the Top of my Game - Tubaba

Nehru Odeh: Why I'm Still at the Top of my Game - Tubaba: Innocent Idibia, aka Tubaba, has been a superstar for more than two decades, yet his fans can’t have enough of him. Recently he was...

Why I'm Still at the Top of my Game - Tubaba

Innocent Idibia, aka Tubaba, has been a superstar for more than two decades, yet his fans can’t have enough of him. Recently he was honoured with the award of the fellow of the Department of Music, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife. In this Interview with NEHRU ODEH he speaks about why he was honoured, what the award entails and how he has been able to remain relevant in the Nigerian music industry.  

Congratulations on your recent award as a fellow of the Department of music, Obafemi Awolowo University. How do you feel?

I feel good. I feel very blessed. I feel grateful. I feel so much gratitude. It was a dream when we started this thing. It’s massive now. It gives me great joy and happiness and gratitude to know that people have been observing and have given me this honour to let me know that Guy, we dey see you since and we respect wetin you dey do. So it gives great pleasure and happiness. I thank everybody.

You have really achieved great feats in the music industry. Did you e envisage that oneday you will be made a fellow of the department of music and honoured this way?

 You know sometimes you dream, you see stuff but you know reality is still real. When we started, the aim and the dream was to make something out of it, go somewhere, grow with it and make a good mark. As it is unfolding, you just thank God that people are actually recognizing, people are actually paying attention, people are actually appreciating what you do. That is the best feeling anybody, any musician can get, to feel that people are actually appreciating and respecting your works.

What does being made a fellow of the department entail?

First of all, like now, now, nobody fit talk say I no finish school again (laughs). So I mean, every once in a while I get to go to the school and deliver some lectures and stuff. We fit start to dey sell handout sef. You know that kind thing. Mr Lecturer (laughs). But that is basically it, and just being a good ambassador of the peoe that believe in you. I donated a recording studio and I hope they learn from it. I hope it helps. It’s a whole lot of music theatre. The other thing that it entails is, like I said, to be a good ambassador, to just come and exchange your knowledge once in a while with young guys and girls in the school.

You’ve been on the music scene for more than two decades now.  And you are still very relevant. How have you being able to be relevant, to still be on top of your game and l compete favourably with younger artistes?

I think it is just by special grace, and the music, the fans keep you alive. I tried to give my fans music that they would say this music he set, he tight, we enjoy am. And that keeps them alive. And it keeps me alive. And we are happy ever after. I still push myself. I still work and still know that there is a whole lot I can still achieve. And then I just keep my head straight. I respect everybody, as I dey respect myself.  

When is the digital studio going to start functioning?

In a couple of months’ time. Like three months or there about. I can’t really say. I mean na the people go dey work na dem go know .

Are you going to make sure that another Tubaba comes out of that project?

I hope so. That’s the reason. I hope a whole lot of young guys use it and make something out of it

 

Nehru Odeh: · Copies of my book,The Patience Of An Emba...

Nehru Odeh:



 ·

Copies of my book,The Patience Of An Emba...:   · Copies of my book,The Patience Of An Embattled Storyteller are available at: Shop D20 in the ongoing Nigerian Internation...

 ·

Copies of my book,The Patience Of An Embattled Storyteller are available at:

Shop D20 in the ongoing Nigerian International Book Fair.

Venue: University of Lagos, Nigeria.

The book fair holds between 7 May and 12 May 2018

How I Lost My Virginity - Excerpt from my novel manuscript

Dusk was falling gradually; and I was out in the streets, on my way home. I can’t remember where I was coming from. All I know is that I was sauntering, home, thinking of the lady who had just broken my heart. She had eloped with an oil worker to God knows where. Then a sudden drizzle met me on the way. Initially, I had thought it was a mere drizzle until it showed a sign it wasn’t. The downpour came suddenly with anger, and everybody in the streets was running helter-skelter. I looked about me, at a loss what to do. I wanted to take shelter in a nearby building to avoid being drenched by the rain; but I wasn’t fast enough. Suddenly everywhere was flooded; a canvas of brown, muddy water the colour of tea. And as I waded through it, a tidal wave was pushing me backward. I looked about me and saw Port High Life Street, a street notorious for its many brothels. I entered it and stopped at a long, unpainted building lined by rooms facing the road. I flung a red curtain aside that stood between me and the unknown and entered a room lit up by a red incandescent bulb. And I was transfixed, as though I had just entered the underworld. Everything about me had taken on a strange red colour, and I realized I was lost. Few seconds passed; I fidgeted, trying to find myself.

‘Welcome,’ a female voice said. That was reassuring. I stood mopping at a squat lady with an impressive chest. Her white bra couldn’t hold her breasts in place; they were struggling to get out of the prison they were in. It seemed some mass of flesh was trying to burst out of the cups. She also wore a white skirt that barely reached her knee. The white shirt looked like amber red in the glow of the red light.  I should say she had an impressive chest and a fabulous behind. Her hips were a spider’s and her behind a mass of protruding flesh. She was Nicki Minaj.

‘I say welcome, customer’ she repeated. Customer? Am I a customer? Has she seen me before? I thought.

It was raining hailstones outside, and the sound of it pattering on the roof was drowning our voices. The sound of the rain pattering on the roof was sexy. It inspired many salacious thoughts.  “Sit down na,” she said holding my crotch, and moaning. ‘Abi you nor wan fuck?’  As she kept fondling my crotch not only did I have a hard on I had a hard time controlling my penis, which was pushing so hard that it was about  bursting out of my trousers,  I needed to let it out of its prison, to free it. I needed to free myself. I needed somebody to free me.

Nehru Odeh: What My Novel Is About

Nehru Odeh: What My Novel Is About:                                                                   What My Novel is About  What is Truth? Man, from the beginning o...

What My Novel Is About

                               
                                  What My Novel is About 


What is Truth?

Man, from the beginning of time, has been preoccupied with the search for truth. And the question, what is truth? has been a fundamental question. Still, is there anything like truth? If there is, then what is truth? 

Man’s search for truth is the basis not only of religion, philosophy, science, societies but also the foundation of knowledge. 

Truth is so important to human existence that even if it doesn’t exists, man would definitely create it. Man believes it is the basis of existence; he believes it is the basis for social interactions, relationships and society. Without truth, it is believed we will all die, society will crumble and there will be chaos and anarchy.

Man believes that without truth, there is no reason for living. And that is the reason truth is perceived in some circles in terms of absolutes, in terms of the supernatural, in terms of primal cause, in terms of knowledge, in terms of morality, of right and wrong, in terms of mutual coexistence.

Anything that is true, they believe, is right’ while anything that is not true is wrong. This must be so if we are to survive on a planet that seems indifferent to the fate of man.

But the question is there anything like truth? When did man first conceive truth as an idea? Is truth the creator of society or the creation of society? This is what I shall discuss here as I try to read my newly completed novel and analyze what it is about.