Ade Wesco

By Odolaye Aremu

Ade Wesco was a budding star. He had the voice, the looks, he was unnecessarily shy and he almost had the sound. Almost- because his sound was entirely not his. The sound belonged to someone else. It belonged to the one and only Oladipupo Owomoyela a.k.a Orlando Owoh. And in life, a good copy is always going to be a bad original! Only very few people have gone on record to parlay copycatism into something substantial. And when we copy, we starve ourselves of the needed nutrition to really grow into our own unique individuality.

You are actually doing You a major disservice; as You are only sourcing to the original product, the cheapest publicity ever! Ade Wesco was great at being unlike himself that most people when they heard him then and perhaps now subconsciously counted his works as Orlando’s.

Kayode Ige sounded eerily like I.K Dairo; down to all his notes, rhythms and to his musical phrasing. Weirder still he played accordion too.

Ahuja Bello’s career rose and died under the looming shadow of King Sunny Ade. The gentleman, though musically brilliant on his own was unfortunate to have borne a striking physical resemblance to Sunny in his younger days too! He was skinny, slightly tall, a guitarist, sounded like Sunny and he had distinctive tribal marks- except that the doppelganger is from Iseyin, and the original from Ondo. And where KSA appears dark, Ahuja is slightly lighter.

Take this as an admonition brethren, Wasiu Ayinde, (still not a fan) started his journey as a Fake Barrister, but he was smart along the way to have dumped the fakery and resorted to being himself. It took him more than a few tries but he is Wasiu now! He is recognizable by just that name: WASIU! To the point that he is now an internationally acclaimed brand of undiluted craziness.

In whatever venture you find yourself; win or lose, good or bad: BE THYSELF!
Being one’s self is effortless and it comes naturally. And for those naysayers hoping to pick my points apart- I am Odolaye Aremu Of Fidicity, I am not in anyway related to my late namesake, a great forerunner who once bestrode Ilorin like a damn Colossus! Never planned to be him or like him and I can never be him beyond what we both share- that darn beautiful name only! For the most part I can’t carry a tune to save my own life, and I doubt if Baba Fatimo would have been able to read for or act my part too!

-Odolaye Aremu, a lawyer, writer and social critic, writes from Fiditi