You don’t believe us, read excerpts from his latest interview with News of the People at his 5oth birthday ceremony. “I will not lie to you. The day I became a born again, that was my happiest day. Now I realise this life is to worship God.
I thank God because it’s a big opportunity. It’s only God that can make one get to that age.
I thank God for His mercy over my life and I am grateful to God for the door of understanding that He opened to me.” Oh and yes, God connected him to his wife!
“God connected me with my wife. I saw my wife in New York at my school’s Cafeteria, and I told my friend who was beside me, that is my wife. We returned to eating our food and by the time we raised our heads, it was the lady who was standing in front of us. She asked if we were Nigerians, and we answered in the affirmative.
Then she asked us to go to room 202 that we were trying to gather and all that. Eventually, we introduced ourselves and I discovered she lived two buildings from my house and that was how God did it.
I thank God because, my parents didn’t care [that she is Igbo]. When I took her to my mother, she greeted her but she could not respond, then I told my mum that my wife did not understand Yoruba. She held her head and prayed for her. That was all.”
Interestingly, he admitted in the interview that it was Christianity that brought him to Fuji music.
“It’s what brought me to Fuji music. I don’t know. I remember I had a lot of Islamic clerics who came to pray for me and when they left, I would still go to my room to read the Bible.”
And the time he had to choose between the religions he was practicing
“I think my conviction was in the Bible. It got to a stage that my children would be laughing. They would say, ‘Daddy, choose one’. But I did not want to pick like you said, because of Fuji. It has Islamic origin, my background, how would my family feel? I didn’t want to offend this; I didn’t want to offend that but I discovered that religion or belief has nothing to do with your musical life and no one says we are listening to your music because of your personal life or so.”
“I see life as a very simple thing now; I am not in a haste or say I must have this, I must have that. The important thing to me is that I need to enjoy myself. That is key. If care is not taken, you will just keep on looking for this, you want to become that, till you get to your old age and just die or you begin to regret when you get to 70 or 80 that I have never been to Dubai for holiday, I only go there to perform or I have never been to London for two weeks holiday, I only go there to perform. When you go to a place to perform, it’s your work, so you must arrange a date that oh, I am going to London for holiday. I take my children on holiday and it’s not work, work, and work. Now that I am 50, I will do more of that.”
Carry on Baba, God’s got you!
http://www.kemifilani.com
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