Tunde Busari is a former Nigerian Tribune assistant editor and former chairman, Tribune Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ). In 2020, Busari started his own publication, The Tabloid.net, an online and offline human interest newspaper. An alumnus of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife with Bachelor of Arts in History and International Relations, Busari answered questions from the Editor, FOLORUNSHO HAMSAT, about his interest in the late Fuji music legend, Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister on whose activities he personally experienced he has documented in a book titled ‘My Journey with Barry Wonder’. The ‘Baaroyin of Itori’ also spoke about his The Tabloid.net, which he had said was encouraged by his timely understanding of the influence of technology on the media industry.
Your passion for everything about Dr Sikiru Ayinde Barrister’s legacy is almost unparalleled, when and where was your meeting point with him?
My meeting point was his Volume 10 elpee titled ‘E Je K’Ayinde Gb’aye’. It was released in 1976. How he graphically narrated his life experiences, especially his two sons who died and his involvement in a motor accident a few kilometres to Abeokuta, practically gripped my heart. Since then, I became his fan till he passed away 13 years ago.
From the perspective of a non-member of Ayinde Barrister’s family who investigated and understood his affairs, how would you describe his personality away from his stagecraft?
I don’t know much about his private life beyond the information I pick from his friends, band members and those who knew him personally. I can’t use that secondary source to claim that I know him. But what is common among all I have heard about him is that he was a human being who exhibited all tendencies naturally associated with human beings.
You have written a book in Ayinde Barrister’s name; why did you take the pain to do it? Did you start writing the book before his demise, and what was the family’s reaction and contribution to your effort?
I didn’t write the book in his name. I rather wrote my perspective of him right from my first contact with him through his album I just mentioned till the time I published the book in 2021. I wasn’t originally going to write the book but pressure from readers of my views on Facebook actually overwhelmed me, so to say. I started the book in 2020 following the death of my immediate younger brother, Alfa Ishaq Olalere Busari. I needed something that would distract my attention and got it in writing the book. When my father, Baba Imam Busari Akande died three months later, the book was my best companion to cope with the pains of grief. I didn’t involve the family; the book has no connection with the family. It is ‘My Journey With Barry Wonder’, not my journey with Barry Wonder’s family.
The book is your account of Ayinde Barrister as an eyewitness; does the content of the book include secrets he had shared with you?
No. How would a person who never knew I was existing share his secret with me? Impossible!
If you would speak as a journalist and expert in profiling music artistes, why in your honest view do you think successful musicians are usually unable to have their children succeed them successfully?
To be honest here, I don’t know. I am not keen to know.
Would you like to speak on what you know about the settlement of the rivalry between Dr Ayinde Barrister and General Kollington Ayinla?
I learnt they reconciled shortly before the final burial for Alhaji Ayinla Kollington’s mother in 2008.
Some people say the fight was actually on until it was forced to a halt when Barrister suddenly took ill. Is that correct?
I just answered the question based on all I know.
What other profession would you have been into if you were not a journalist?
Honestly, I don’t know. But maybe, Fuji music. (Laughter)
As a well-grounded journalist, in what ways would you say the advent of technology and social media has affected journalism?
Am I? Technology and social media affect the media both beneficially and destructively.
When you’re not busy writing, what else do you spend your time doing?
I read books and sleep. I don’t compromise my sleep.
If you had the opportunity of writing a book on the future of Fuji music without Ayinde Barrister, what would the synopsis read like?
That future is already here. It is playing out already. Anybody can write about what they see in the development or otherwise of Fuji music. But I must say that Fuji musicians are doing their best to sustain the visibility of the genre despite the raid of Hip-Hop and new Afro-beats.
You left the mainstream media to publish an online newspaper, The Tabloid.net; tell us about the challenges and success of being an online publisher.
I currently publish both hard copy and digital editions of TheTabloid.net. If you say we are a baby, yes. We are in the market of big brothers who are as old as 74 years, 50 years etc. The challenge is that we are a baby who needs to work and work very hard to become an adult. When we become an adult, the market will extend the same recognition to us in advert flow and other patronage. For now, we are struggling to grow and pumping money and energy into it. We are, therefore, positive that TheTabloid.net shall grow and outlive my generation. We thank our emerging community of enthusiastic readers who look forward to every weekend edition of TheTabloid.net.
Tell us about your immediate family and the next big project to watch out for from you.
I am married. I’m blessed with children. My next project belongs to God. Thank you.