By Charles Okogene
The story I want to tell today involves Aigbe Lebarty and myself.
Not many still remember him but those of us that benefitted from him one way or the other, still remember him years after his death.
For a quick intro, he was a musician, a unionist, the leader of Nigerian Union of Musicians (NUM) that gave the then Performing Musicians Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN) led by Chief Tony Okoroji a hell of a time; in fact, he was the main opponent Okoroji floored to become PMAN’s president in his 30s. He was also the elder brother of Felix Lebarty of the ‘Ngozi Give Your Love’ fame. Now you know him.
My relationship with him started intimately after that crushing defeat Okoroji gave him at the poll. My Daily Times office in Agidingbi Ikeja became his second home just as I never missed checking him out at his office , the building owned by G. A. D Tabansi, the owner of Tabansi Records that gave the world Majek Fashek’s ‘Send Down the Rain, any time I was in Ikeja. In fact, his office was directly opposite a storey building where the Elizade Motors took off as the sole distributor of Toyota in the 1970s and adjacent to JC’s Klass Niteclub.
Aigbe loved journalists and we loved him especially those of us in the music and musicians reporting. He was always looking for ways of helping us improve our knowledge and appreciation of music. One day he organised a-week long training for journalists on the entertainment reporting on how to play the keyword, understand musical keys and notes so we can review music properly. That was Aigbe for you!
Another thing he did that surprised me was his attempt at taking us, entertainment writers, to Abuja to visit the Maradonic one, IBB. He got the owner of the then Chachangi Airlines to donate a jet for us for that trip; how he achieved that feat nobody can tell till date. The trip was, however, aborted at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport by the then National Security Organisation (NSO) operatives at the airport for that was how the present DSS was known then; they refused us entry into Abuja; rather, they turned us back at gun point to the plane that brought us from Lagos. That again did not dissuade Aigbe from seeing the gap toothed military president of Nigeria then; after all, quitters do not win and winners never quit. The next thing he did with his men like Uvo at NUM, was to think up a musical award that he had proposed of inviting IBB himself, this was shortly after the Okoroji led PMAN had staged an unbeatable one that IBB himself attended, donated N10 and a parcel of land to PMAN. This again did not succeed fully, as the award never held, but IBB, the master dribbler gave NUM N5m, two vehicles, a Jet 5 bus and a saloon 504 car.
And what did Aigbe do with the cash in his bank account and the vehicles? He re-located to his country home in Benin but not without confiding in myself and the late Amadi Ogbonna of his plans before it was hatched and pleaded with us not to make it public. He left Uvo and his other executives sulking like a day old baby before they were thrown out of their so called office of MUM by the owner of the building. That however did no diminished my closeness with him. Severally, Amadi and I visited him in his Benin abode and were accorded a heroic reception till he passed on as a result of diabetic related ailment.
Aigbe Lebarty, rest in peace as I remember you today!
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