By Charles Okogene
If there was anything or place, in the 1990s, that made me fell in love with Ipodo, it was *Roots Nite Club ; it was tucked right inside the heart of Ikeja almost sharing fence with ‘oko o lo ojun.’ Hope I got the spelling right?
It was also a walking distance to Pepple Street where Fela Anikulapo-kuti communed with his ancestors Fridays and Saturdays while Femi , his son, takes over Sundays for Sunday Jump. It was also close to Klass Niteclub and the residence of baale or oba of Ikeja.
It was owned by a fine customs’ gentleman/officer from Edo State (forgotten his name now) but was managed by my senior friend, the late Terry Jackson Alumona from Nsukka in Enugu State. Jacob Ajumba was the PR man who brings to me, press releases of the club’s monthly programme.
Then I used to refer to Jacob as Jake the Fat man in reference to an NTA channel 10 drama programme with a character that goes about with a puppy and by that name. Roots was my third favourite club after NiteShift Coliseum, Afrikan Shrine in that order.
It was our watering hole; the late Amadi Ogbonnaya , Mustaph Abdullahi , Smart Ariwodo , Uzo Chikere . We met there almost every evening for Udeme to see the sky.
Mustaph Abdullahi and I were very close to Alumona because of a column we maintained in Evening Times, in which we highlighted happenings in major clubs then. Titled Night Clubbing, the column gave us edge over our other colleagues in terms of access to most clubs. While most of our colleagues had it tough gaining entry to most clubs, such was the privilege we enjoyed in the seven days a week club just like Optimum Nightclub Idumagbo Lagos Island, which was open 24/7 with Chuks Moses as the resident DJ. Moses is now in Europe.
I thoroughly enjoyed Roots especially its goat meat pepper soup. That was night life in good old LASGIDI.
