If the Deputy Provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, (NIJ), Dr. Dele Omojuyigbe who launched his new book, NIJ’s Inside Story… from my lenses The beaut, the Bend, last Wednesday had been asked for a list of music that should be played at the programme, chances that Asake’s Lonely At The Top would be among is nill.
Dr. Omojuyigbe belongs to the old-school generation who finds it difficult to understand what Asake and his co-pop musicians are singing about and would not bother to listen to them.
However, with the DJ in charge of the music being of the present generation and the majority of those in attendance being students, Lonely at the Top was one of the popular songs that got the audience singing along loudly before the event commenced.
It’s lonely at the top
(Lonely, lonely, lonely)
Money on my mind
(Money, money, money)
Don’t care what they yanning about me in particular
(Ko kan mi, kan mi, kan mi)
Out here on the road chasing my dream because I know
(No one can chase it for me)
While Omojuyigbe may not know the lyrics of the song, his life and career somehow reflect the message to which he can relate.
Being a Deputy Provost, which makes him next to the head of NIJ he will know what it means to be lonely at the top. Losing his wife a retired secondary school Principal, Mrs Oluwatoyin Omolara Omojuyigbe who died on July 9, 2021, must have added to his feeling lonely at the top. May his wife’s soul rest in peace.
Money was on his mind when he started writing books in 2004 to make up for the low salary he was offered when he was hired at NIJ.
On page 17 of his book he wrote;
“I got immersed in the thought of what extra thing I could do to augment the lifeless I was about to earn. I sat down and mused. Suddenly, the idea of writing textbooks came. I grabbed it without consulting anyone.
Don’t care what they yanning about me in particular
(Ko kan mi, kan mi, kan mi)
Out here on the road chasing my dream because I know
(No one can chase it for me)
In chasing his dream of being able to earn enough as he used to do before joining NIJ when he worked at Daily Times, two other magazines, and publishing College Reports, a monthly academic journal for secondary schools, Omojuyigbe published three books between June 2004 and June 2005.
“I wrote through the nights and nights, such that my wife was scared of the huge wage of sleeplessness that I might pay afterward. But I needed survival, ” he stated in the new book which is his ninth one.
Ọ́lọ-lọlade maa n gb’ọmọ lọ (gb’ọmọ lọ)
Bọrọkọtọ idi ṣ’ọmọ lọ (ọ’ọmọ lọ)
Ẹ fi wọn s’ilẹ jẹ kan ma lọ
No dey find anybody na money me I want (me I want)
No dey hear wetin people dey talk (people dey talk)
Wọn ti ge Aṣakẹ l’eti lọ (l’eti lọ)
See life na one no get another one
I go take am do wetin I love.
More than making money, Omojuyigbe’s book-writing commitment is also about impacting knowledge and providing much-needed textbooks for students at various levels.
It’s also about making the best of the only life he has to live as Asake sang and doing what he loves doing.
I’m sure Dr Omojuyigbe would not mind singing:
Wetin you love o
No be wetin I love o
Wetin I love I go do am with all my heart o
The one I’m not sure of which I also don’t understand is :
Ogogoro no be vodka
Mr. Money ginger
But unna know I no dey waste time
Mr. Money ginger
Let’s hear it again from the Grammy nominee in these lines that stress the importance of being determined to achieve one’s goal even if the journey ends as a lonely one at the top:
It’s lonely at the top
(Lonely, lonely, lonely)
Money on my mind
(Money, money, money)
Don’t care what they yanning about me in particular
(Ko kan mi, kan mi, kan mi)
Out here on the road chasing my dream because I know
(No one can chase it for me).
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