Emotions were let loose on Saturday as the third and final leg of the Wale Olomu Memorial Awards and Roundtable (WOMA-R) came to a rousing finish.
The publisher of First Weekly magazine, Ekundayo Asaju; editor of Ovation International magazine, who is also Special Adviser to Akwa Ibom State governor, Michael Effiong (both former colleagues of Olomu at the defunct Fame Weekly magazine), and Olomu’s old fiancee, Taibat Adebisi Yussuf paid glowing tributes to the deceased for being a pace-setter in journalism, and for his immense contributions to the entertainment industry at large.
Warm congratulations flowed freely, both online and offline, as the awardees – Fortune O’tega, Toyin Ojeyomi (a.k.a. Papa Tee), Bola Abimbola (all based in United States of America), Collins Enebeli (a.k.a. Mavin Grandpa), Nelson Brown, and Wale Oluwaleimu – salute Olomu for his doggedness, steadfastness, amongst other qualities.
Olomu’ss younger brother, Dayo thanked the organisers of the awards for remembering his late brother, and keeping the flag flying. He said: ‘I can’t thank you enough FAJ (Femi Akintunde-Johnson) and other members of the committee for this great initiative”, Dayo said.
The third set of awardees who received Special Recognition Awards in diverse fields include Brown and Papa Tee (music production), Oluwaleimu (stage and event management), Enebeli (artiste management), Abimbola (percussion), and O’tega (instrumentation).
In the previous two weeks, nine people were awarded Special Recognition Awards (SRA)s and one Lifetime Achievement Award. On 9th December, Zubby Enebeli, Amos Mcroy, Mike Nliam and Kayode Samuel were awarded the SRAs in backup vocals, instrumentation, movie soundtracks and artiste management respectively.
Then, on 16th December, DJ Vinny, Diran Olajoyegbe, Femi Ojetunde and Manny Eke also got the SRAs in disc jockeying, studio management, music production, and backup vocals; while Waka Queen, Salawa Abeni received the Lifetime Achievement Award for sustenance of indigenous music.
The climax of Roundtable Chats on ‘Business of Music: Artiste versus Label Relations, Accountable Royalties and Other Matters’ had legendary musician, and multiple award-winning music producer; Mr. Olaolu Akintobi (a.k.a. Laolu Akins); veteran reggae musician/chairman of MCSN (Musical Copyright Society Nigeria), Orits Wiliki; gospel music star, Kenny St Best (a.k.a. KSB); and United Kingdom-based leadership development strategist, former promotions and artiste manager, Dayo Olomu sharing their experiences in the area of artiste management and marketing, while advising young artistes to be more professional, less desperate and follow due process in their dealings within the Nigerian music industry which is still largely structureless.
Earlier discussants in the past weeks were Chief Tony Okoroji (chairman of Copyright Society of Nigeria; Kayode Samuel and US-based influential music producer, Femi Ojetunde.
