K1 And The Captain -By Uzoma Chukwuocha

You had to have been living under a rock in the 90s not to have known about some prominent artists and entertainers who held sway at the time. In Reggae, you had Majek Fashek, the rainmaker, Ras Kimono, Oritz Wiliki, and the likes.

Highlife had its Kings, so did the other genres of music. In Lagos and throughout Western Nigeria, Fuji music was akin to a religion, and its practitioners were revered. These included Chief Collington Ayinla, Sir Shina Peters, the Afrojuju King, Mr. Adewale Ayuba, and a certain King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, who ended up outdoing the rest by sheer persistence and doggedness. KWAM 1, as he was later to be known, found a way to keep evolving and reinventing himself as the times and trends changed.

As his music and fashion evolved to defy time, so did his names. So the man you know today as K1 The Ultimate is not just a passing trend. He is a reincarnated soul of true art. He is a walking legend who threads in the shoes of the greats like Victor Olaiya, Sir Ebenezer Obey, Chief Sunny Ade, et al. He is He, who was King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, who reigned supreme as KWAM1, who is today K1 The Ultimate, and will always be tomorrow in our collective memories.

Speaking of collective memory, that is history. What we will most be remembered for. We make history every day that we live, and just a small fraction of it is preserved for posterity. This is largely true for some of us who do not live our lives under the glare of public scrutiny. Those who do not have this luck are called celebrities. They have benefited from public admiration; hence, they must endure public scrutiny. To whom much is given, they say, much is expected.

The event of August 5 at the local wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, involving K1 and the captain of ValueJet airlines is one of such events where a well-loved celebrity was expected to walk tall, but instead crawled on all fours and on his tummy too. In this event, according to public accounts, K1 had allegedly doused the captain of the airline with the liquid in his cup when she had tried to stop him from boarding with a liquid he brought by himself. This, by the way, is following aviation rules worldwide. K1 was said to have escalated the situation by allegedly blocking the path of the airplane to stop it from Taxiing.

The Public outcry, following this ignominious display of crassness, was swift and loud. From the passengers inside the airplane to the passengers online and on social media, who were virtual spectators as it all unfolded.

As expected, there are only a few ways to come back from such a fall from glory than to issue a public apology. Yes, K1 did just that, but in doing so, he ended up putting his soiled foot further into his mouth.

The best apology, they say, is a changed behavior. We hope he will not repeat similar behavior in the future.

The worst apology, however, I believe, is the one that sidesteps or tactfully minimizes the victim or the offended, while in the same process pandering to political figureheads. That was exactly what our dear K1 did in his 2 minutes 56 seconds pre-recorded video speech.

You had a 176-second speech. You had three days to work on this with your team. You could not find out her name, and address her directly?

K1, my brother, the President, the aviation minister, will both be OK. So will the FAAN, NCAA, but when you physically assaulted that captain, you assaulted every hard-working and underappreciated woman in Nigeria and the world over. You offended every man who loves their daughter, sister, wife, and mother. They all see themselves and their loved ones in that hardworking woman you insulted and assaulted.

You lauded the good work you have done in uplifting our dear country in all your years in entertainment.

This woman carries the lives of Nigerians in her palms every single time she climbs into that cockpit. Those of your fans and loved ones included. She just does it quietly and is not celebrated for it like you are. Many women are like her in our country. The least we can do is to appreciate them.

To insult and assault them is beyond the pale, and to further demean them with a non-apology is uncivilized at best or toxic at worst.

I believe you and your team would have reached out to her for the sake of civility or to mitigate legal liability, but in the spirit of public good, do the right thing and appease her publicly, like you appalled her publicly.

She has a name: OLURANTI OGOYI. When you call her by name, the thousands of other nameless women in similar situations would hear their names in hers.

You cannot name every woman who is overworked and underappreciated, and often insulted and assaulted at homes and workplaces in Nigeria. They are all represented by this one woman. So please say her name. CAPTAIN OLURANTI OGOYI.

You can turn this around. We have seen you defy time, reinvent yourself, and bend history to your will.

Lead again, and the people will follow.

Uzoma Chukwuocha

A published author, a freelance writer, a free thinker

@uzorcentric
Uzoma Chukwuocha
uzz11@gmail.com