It is said that death is a necessary debt every mortal must pay. But when and how the creator will demand the payment is what the debtor does not know. The bible even told us that it is appointed on to man to die but once and after that, judgment.
The above is what is happening to band members of fuji music acclaimed king, Wasiu Ayinde Marshal 1 (K1).
The high flying musician who recently caused a stir with his open endorsement of and donation of a campaign bus and with the promise to donate additional 14 buses to Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), is currently feeling the import of above statements.
Within a space of two weeks, he has lost two prominent members of his band to the cold hands of death.
The first was his lead chorus singer, Dipo, and just yesterday, Sunday, December 9 2018, his saxophonist, Joel Ajayi, hit the bucket. The intriguing thing is that the cause of the death of the two young men remains unknown except the unconfirmed reports that Dipo died of low blood pressure while Joel gave up the ghost after slipping into a coma that lasted several days.
While the crux of this report is not about the cause of the deaths, which by all standard, is not limited to K1’s band as many Nollywood stars have also bitten the dust this year; the article is mainly about how the band leaders do not take interest in the health status of their band boys.
The question is, how regular does big bands( by Nigerian standard), like top artists like Femi Anikulapo- Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Chief Ebenezer Obey et al, expose their band boys, off and on stage, to medical examination to determine their status as per killer diseases like hypertension, blood sugar level, blood pressure among others.
These boys work hard every weekend alongside their band leaders to provide happiness for their fans/clients. While the band leaders travel abroad at every little health issues, they are left with little or no awareness as per the dangers, to their health, of some of the social vices like smoking, drinking and womanising some of them indulge in. A good example is K1 who goes for a medical checkup in Canada every year. They (the band boys) are not provided with health insurance, not even retainer-ship health centre where they can go and avail themselves of Medicare. And even at that, they are poorly remunerated to seek Medicare on their own.
And as long as this trend continues, the boys will continue to drop dead in their prime as a result of common ailments like high or low blood pressures.
It is unfortunate that K1’s boys are experiencing the gale of death and Nigerians with their inherently superstitious minds might be tempted to believe that there are more to the deaths, more so now that it is coming in quick succession than meets the eyes.
More will definitely die except the bandleaders begin to take the health status of their boys seriously.
