One day, during a
meeting with LIFE & BEAT in a popular eatery in Lagos, while he
sipped from a glass of orange juice, the celebrated highlife musician
unveiled a few closely guarded secrets.
Fatai
Olagunju, aka Rolling Dollar, is a reporter’s delight any day. One hour
with him and he would have taken you through three decades of West
African music.
“My father was the first man to
drive from Nigeria to Gold Coast (now known as Ghana) in 1929. I got the
name ’Rolling Dollar ’ in my school days in the early 1930s. I used to
be in the school football team. Whenever we were about to play football,
I would go to the pitch with some dimes (American) in my pocket. My
sister regularly gave them to me. It was her way of motivating me to
face my studies.
“I always spent the money on
food during break time. Every time my teammates saw me with the money,
they would said to me ‘Fatai, bring your dollar, let us roll it. Head or
tail?’ That was how I got the name and it has stuck since then,” the
seasoned musician said.
When conversation shifted
to the source of his incredible energy at 85 years, he simply smiled
and said, “I have only God to thank for this. I have no special health
programme or prescription that I follow. I don’t take herbs or special
drugs to give me energy. I am natural and that is why I can sit here and
tell you it is God’s grace. But I don’t abuse food or drinks. I free my
mind from worries. The things that I cannot change, I hand them over to
God. He created me, He knows my beginning and ending, as well as my
strength and weaknesses.”
One thing gives this
spritely artiste joy, though: the fact that providence had used
well-meaning Nigerians to lift him from poverty in his old age.
“There
is this prayer in Yoruba, which says, ’Kaale so mi ju owuro lo’ (Let my
old age be prosperous). In my years of need, I used to say that prayer.
Now everything has come to pass. I suffered a lot, but God used Asiwaju
Bola Tinubu to elevate me and change my status. I am immensely indebted
to this great man called Tinubu. God used him to turn my defeat to
victory. Here I am today smiling. My name is everywhere again,” he said,
smiling broadly.
Interestingly, the old man confessed that he is hooked on sex.
“My
weakness is sex. Music is my drug and sex is my therapy. Even at my age
I cannot stop having sex. My youngest wife knows this. I am strong and
very agile in that department and sex has never weighed me down. If
anything, it helps me to release tension. Mind you, I am not
recommending it for anybody because what is good for my system might not
be healthy for you,” he said.
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