Charles Okogene
If my oga, Mr. Oni Olusola Gbenga, Harry Iwuala , Ebere Wabara, are surprised at my love for Roots Niteclub Ipodo, they will respect me that I also frequented Optimum Niteclub. Located in the bustling Idumagbo Street or Avenue, (I have forgotten now.) Without doubt, Optimum was the busiest club house in Lagos Island in the ’90s that advertised frequently on the air waves of the then RN3, the frequent modulated (FM) station in Nigeria that had the likes of Bisi Olatilo.
This is Idumagbo Ave where the club was located then
Though, I do not know the owner of the club that operated 24 hours, seven days a week, all I know is that the man who manned the club’s wheel of steel (resident disc-jockey) whom I first met at Floating Bukka where the likes of Ras Kimono and many reggae acts of his era started, was a man called, Chuzzy Moses; now resident somewhere in America or Europe.
Now back to Optimum; it boomed with scarlet ladies that patronise the place in their huge numbers and scantly dressed. It was a free entry club but you must ‘shayo.’ For a first timer, you must have the heart of steel to venture into the first floor of the building where it was located. Yes, you must have a lion heart to be there because of the high pitched reggae music that the DJ slammed non-stop from the music box and the large crowd of ladies and men in there, especially in the afternoons. That seemed to be a place where all the ‘nwa bois’ come every Sunday to spend the ‘change’ they made from ‘apriko’ runs.
That was Optimum in those days when life was good in Lagos and when one was not afraid to move about in the city during the unholy hours.
The only challenge then was the fear of men in black (policemen) who might harass one with the charges of ‘wandering’ until the one time minister of justice and attorney general, the late Alhaji Bola Ajibola, expunged it from our law books.
