And I remember that he (Fela) used to say he does not want cocaine or heroin in his shrine. He recalled that it was only Orlando whom Fela allowed to play at his African shrine. Some people take Indian hemp and go mad, but when these people take it, they became more alert and sang songs that made great sense.” One other reason he never bothered about Orlando’s smoking habit was because “He was never a troublesome person. It was a celebrated case, if you’d recall.” They (security men) also went to Chief Edebo, one of our friends who lived in Ibadan to inquire about me, but they missed me narrowly, as I left through a footpath. Do you know that Nigerian security officials went to King Sunny Ade to ask him if I smoked? But he told them that I only drank. Nobody would have believed that I didn’t smoke or sniff cocaine, because I was the closest person to him. If I was around, I would have been taken away too. “I was in Kano when I read it in the papers that a top musician was arrested for cocaine. He said the cocaine saga that culminated in Owoh’s time in police cells and prison and which led to the song on Alagbon was real.

Musese recalled vividly his boss’s most trying time. I spent over 30 years with him as a manager before he died and I can tell you he was a great man.” Whenever we were travelling and I was wearing knickers, I would put it in my stockings for him. Orlando had a secluded area in Decca Studio’s compound where he would sit and smoke, and whenever it was time to start recording, he would come into the studio and start recording without rehearsal.”Ĭontinuing he said, “I never bought Igbo for him once in a while, I drank beer anytime I had money, but he always had his stuff in stock. Even as he smoked, he knew what he was doing. “He was smoking ‘Igbo’, so what! I supported his smoking of Indian hemp because it did not affect him. Here he raised his voice, betraying subdued anger. He was very appreciative and told virtually everybody about what I was doing.”īut why did he never try to stop Orlando Owoh’s hemp-smoking habit? Why did he practically support and even defend him despite the fact that he himself never inhaled the banned weed? We asked.

But because I had some money with me, having just come back from Italy, we started hiring instruments. First, he had no instrument in fact, he had nothing. “Orlando Owoh was a great man no doubt, but he faced so many obstacles in back then. Musese who spent over 30 years with the late musician said it was not easy managing him.

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