Sir Victor Uwaifo
Sir Victor Uwaifo, the “Guitar Boy,” shares his life experience in this interview
How come you are still musically active at over 73?
Victor Nwaifo and music are one. Victor Nwaifo and arts are one. I am still all over the place. I just released a new single called“Bobozi,” on the Hypertek label and I did duet with Tuface. Now as I speak, I anchor a thirty-minute TV programme running in four stations, EBS, Benin; ITV, Benin; Silverbird, Benin and NTA, Benin. The programme runs for 13 weeks and no programme is repeated. They are all 13 different programmes and that will show you that I have enough energy and repertoire to sustain me for even 72 programmes if need be. Victor Uwaifo and fine and applied arts are one. Victor Uwaifo, the curator and the Museum Palazzo are one. Victor Uwaifo the poet, philosopher and inventor are one. Victor Uwaifo, the architect and visionary are one. So, there is none you can take away from me. It is like asking me to stop breathing.
As a child, what did you dream of becoming?
Well, as a child, I dreamt of so many things. It was very eventful because I tried so many things. I was the avant-garde of my contemporaries. I would have become a world high jump record setter. I was a high jump record setter in secondary school and that record still stands today. I was also into inventions. I used to make cages, aircraft and cars. So, I was into engineering without knowing. So, there was a day I made a car with bamboo and plywood. When there was a strong wind, it would move. I thought there could be something more than that that could make it move. So, I poured kerosene and set it on fire and it moved a bit. With that, I realised that an automobile would need a spark or ignition to move, even though I had never seen one before. The aircraft I designed was covered with foil paper and a propeller as the wings, which we used to play with then by running against the wind. When there was a strong wind before it rained, the aircraft moved to the point of almost taking off from the ground. There was a time one colonial white man was driving along the road and saw the wonderful design and gave me one pound to appreciate me. So, I was always into one design or the other; I designed my chapel and the aircraft at the Palazzo Museum. I used to fly a kite with a whole bundle of thread. I flew one on one occasion so high that it vanished into the cloud. The news went round the town that I had flown a kite that became invisible. The kite was later found about five kilometres away near Ikpoba River many days after. I used to also shoot down birds from the Iroko tree with a catapult with precision. It was a whole lot of adventure. These things sharpened my acumen and have helped me in life.
From primary school to secondary school, I was already playing music professionally with some notable bands. I graduated from the Yaba College of Technology 51 years ago. After making money, fame and touring round the whole world in music, I went back to school. I enrolled at the University of Benin for Fine and Applied Arts. I made First Class Honours, did my Master’s and got it within two years. From there, I was appointed as Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism in Edo State. When my tenure ended, I went back to the classroom and I am still there till now. I have been an academic staff for eight years and I was the first academic staff to be honoured with a doctorate award. I am a PhD scholar; I am a professor of Fine and Applied Arts, a visiting professor to American Heritage University. I write, sing and sculpt. Of course, 31 years ago, I was given a national honour by the Federal Government of Nigeria during the civilian regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, as a musician. It was about 20 years later that others started getting national honours. But it opened the way for all of them. I was the first to make a gold disc in Africa, with the hit song Joromi and till now, it is still very relevant and very enduring. It was followed up by ‘Guitar Boy’ and other successive hits.
Who taught you how to play the guitar at 12?
I started playing the guitar early in life before 12. I made my first guitar with crude plywood and strings. It sounded fine and I took it up from there. In my time, my father had a gramophone record and I had a gramophone. If you had one at that time, you were above the upper middle class or something like that. So, I used to dance to the gramophone music and songs from Latin America. At a point, I thought there was something special inside the gramophone because the trademark was a dog singing into the gramophone. I thought there was a dog inside; I searched for it but I could not see it. Later on, I said I should be able to play like these people. The Spanish guitars were very entertaining and soothed the nerves. So, I decided to build a guitar for myself and I started trying my hands on it. It was later on that I also went down to some palm wine guitarists and took a few lessons from them. I had a brother who gave a few lessons on the rudiments of music; he was a chief magistrate and a church organist. I also bought some books and started learning how to play the guitar the classical way. I knew all the chords formations, the harmony and progressions. Later on, I developed my style. Highlife was reigning then and before I knew it, I was playing for some group. I formed a group in Benin called the Edo Songsters and Radio Nigeria in Ibadan used to come to Benin to record my groups. Some of my friends who were part of the group are still alive today. In fact, when I celebrated my 50 years on stage, I invited them to re-enact our youth days when we were singing together as the Edo Songsters. Music took a greater part of me. But I thought that there was something I had not completed. So, when I finished, I thought I should go back to school because at Yaba College of Technology, I had a distinction; I was the best student and I also had Lintas West African Scholarship as the best student. At the University of Benin, I also became the best student and I read the valedictory speech after making a First Class. So, there was no dull moment in my time.
You started formal education in Benin, what led you to St. Gregory’s College in Lagos?
I attended two primary schools, Holy Cross, Benin and Baptist Primary School, Benin and two secondary schools, Western Boys High School and St. Gregory’s College, Lagos. In 1959, I lost my father. So, that prompted me to move to Lagos to join my brother, who later travelled abroad. So, I continued from there. Getting into St. Gregory’s College then was not a joke; you had to be very brilliant. I found my way into the college because after going through a test given by the then priest, Mr. McCarthy, who is now late, I passed and later became an asset to the school. I was the school’s high jumper and I formed a band.
Some musicians suspend their education for music. But you did not. You even went ahead to become a professor. How did you manage to balance the two careers?
I do not think that I will allow one thing to suffer for the other. The passion for music and education were high because I wanted to prove that the man that has a sense of music is the man with an extra sense. So, he could become anything, if he wanted. So, it is not because you are into music then other things will suffer. I believe the sky is wide enough for all birds to fly and they will not collide so I gave it that thought. I do not think it is an excuse that you go into music and allow your education to suffer. No, it is more than that. Life is not all about music. You should be able to have a second look. Have you ever asked yourself why you have two eyes? It is so for you to have an alternative.
How did the name “Guitar Boy,” come about?
I was working for the then Nigerian Television Service, now the Nigerian Television Authority and we were at the Bar Beach in Lagos. Television was a night business then, not now when you can watch television both during the day and at night. So, we used to work from about 5 or 6am, when the television station opened and closed at 10pm. At the close of work sometimes, I found my way to the Bar Beach, which was just a walk from the NTA and stayed there till late. Many people used to come around there to swim. Some spiritualists would come around also to pray. But that particular day, I stayed late into the night and I was playing my guitar at the quiet beach to get some inspiration. So, in a distance, I saw a very glittering figure. I did not see it quite well. But as it got closer, I discovered that it was a creature. I wanted to run away because everybody had gone home and I was alone under the moonlight on my camp bed and it was very late. Then suddenly, I saw in front of me, a creature. She called out as I was about to move saying, “If you see mammy water, never you run away.” That is a mermaid in our local parlance. She said, “Guitar Boy” and I screamed. It was that scream that I transposed into my guitar when I was recording. That was the first time I ever pulled a string and the first time in the whole world that someone ever did that. That was another form of creativity. Then, she went on saying, “Never run away. Sing a song of love with sweet melody.” By the time I got to my senses, she was already floating away and I was singing along. So, when I got home, I assembled my band and rehearsed the song. It is the shortest lyrics I have ever come across in life; “Guitar Boy. If you see mammy water, never run away,” just like that. For almost 50 years, it is still evergreen; children yet unborn will still come and meet it. It was even adopted as a coup in Ghana at one point. It was coded “Operation Guitar Boy.”
Why did you establish the Museum Palazzo?
The museum is an establishment that will speak for me for the rest of my life and after. It is a record of events; the past, the present, the missing links and then even the future. It gives a reason to say that I have done something that will outlive me. There are too many things I have done. It would take a whole library to analyse me and my achievements from all the different aspects of my life.
Would you describe your being a commissioner as a venture into politics?
As a matter of fact, they were looking for the best at that time. I had already supported the governor when he was a chairman. I was one of his sponsors. He did well as the chairman of Oredo Local Government Area. So, when he put in for the governorship race, I came out to support him even on stage in all the campaign trips. When he won and wanted who would be the Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism, which was carved out then for the first time. I had the quality; I am a musician, a fine and applied artist and a graduate with First Class Honours, which was more than what was required. So, I became the first commissioner of that ministry and drew a blueprint, which is still there till date.
Which of your songs would you adjudge as the best?
I do not have any one which is the best among others. As a matter of fact, the one that gives me joy is anything that is the newest. The newest is “Bobozi.” That is the one we have today and you will hear more than that before the end of the year.
What about between “Joromi” and “Guitar Boy”?
All the songs have different sensibilities. You cannot compare one with the other. It’s like trying to compare rice and pounded yam and plantain or fresh fish, stock fish, snail meat and bush meat or even orange, pawpaw, pineapple and coconut. All of these have different tastes which you cannot describe to somebody until he tastes it himself. One man’s meat could be another man’s poison. If you are talking about commercial success, that is a different thing entirely too. For instance, something you think gives you happiness may not sell. You feel it but people who buy the product will determine the commercial success and if something is successful, it means you were able to interpret their minds at the same time. So, if something sold a million, it means you were able to interpret a million people’s thinking at the same time. But it does not make that thing the best because of the commercial success. I do not have anything that is the best because I believe the best is yet to come.
How did you cope with women and fame?
When you have discipline and moderation, you can structure your life. It is like you have a vision you can look at. I do not mix business with pleasure. I have never smoked in my life. I do not drink, until recently when I take one or two glasses of wine which is good for the body, when I am eating. Even though I played in night clubs where people smoked and drank, I was just playing because I had to play for a living at that time. I did not like the smell of the cigarettes and I never smoked. Women were not my problem. I had the discipline and the vision. I disciplined myself and set my own rules. Apart from the biblical commandments, I had my own commandments.
What would have been a weakness for you as a famous musician?
Nothing would have been a weakness for me. I wanted to be myself; I have not taken drugs in my life. Music is enough intoxicant. So, if you take more to stimulate you, anything can happen. You can go insane.
If you are not a musician or a professor, what would you have loved to become?
I have always wanted to become a scientist that would invent something that would astound the whole world. The art is also a very strong discipline that adds to the store house of knowledge in science. Imagine the man who designed the first flying machine, Leonardo da Vinci, in the renaissance period, was an artist. He was not just an artist. He was also an engineer and a pilot, visit Rome to study the life and times of Leonardo da Vinci. He even recommended himself to an engineering company to do some work as an artist. The artist works on visions. You can see some designs that come into reality. For, instance, fictions are creations of the artist. So, science and art have been working hand in hand. What profession is more than art? If I have the second chance and I come through the same place where I was born, I will still do the same thing all over again because I have lived a fulfilled life. I am a fulfilled man. I do not think any other profession is better than art and music because in the end, all that you want is fulfilment and joy and I have both.
When do you think you will hang your boots?
I can never hang my boots because if my hands are not moving, my brain is still very active. Although I do not have to do everything myself, since I can employ people and direct them, but if you allow any part of your life to rest, they will just wither away. You still have to give each part equal attention. It is just like saying you will stop bathing, brushing your teeth, polishing your shoes or washing your clothes. I cannot hang my boots because it is like telling me to hang all my activities that give me joy. It means you are telling me to stop breathing also.
So to you, music is like a marriage?
Yes. Just like I said early on, Victor Uwaifo and music are one. Victor Uwaifo, the visionary, architect, sportsman, bodybuilder and arts are one.
Do you have any of your children toeing your path?
Well, I did not follow anybody’s path. I was born into a music loving family and my children were born into a music loving family. Every one of them can play one musical instrument or the other. I made sure I taught them and they went through other training. Even my son, Alexander Uwaifo, who is now a producer, was my student in the University of Benin. I taught him at 300 level and I did not look at him as my son. I treated him the same way I treated other students, as a sculptor too. But he is now into music and production. Among my children, I have an engineer, a lawyer, an accountant and a pastor. So, it is not a must that your children must take after you because they have their lives to live. Any of them who comes up with a new idea will be encouraged. I think it is selfish to choose their career paths because it means you are living their lives. I do not belong to that class of people who think their children must take over from them. Except if you clone them, there is no way somebody can be you. If they succeed in becoming musicians, will they be sculptors, inventors, engineers, architects and visionaries? I think a genius comes once in a lifetime. A successor is most unlikely.
You look strong and healthy for a man over 73. What would you say is the secret of healthy living?
I believe in moderation and discipline. I abstain from those things that affect health. I do not smoke and drink. When I drink wine, I drink with moderation. I am not susceptible to women. I am not always under the urge to have a woman. I apply some disinterestedness in judging the things that I like. A horse could be beautiful even without winning a race. So, it is not tied to any race. A flower could be beautiful but you may not like to have it. So, the flower you will like to have is the flower you will like to have. I have celebrated my silver jubilee with my wife. I am a catholic, a communicant and I have a private chapel in my house. So it is a matter of spiritual uplift to try to follow the footsteps of Jesus to overcome your weakness. Living a life, you need things that are beneficial to your life, not the ones that are injurious. So, moderation is the key. For instance, if you drink too much of water, eat too much of pounded yam or consume too much of what you like, then there might be a problem. Exercises are also important. I work out every day. I do push ups and still back flip. I build my muscles up to give me stamina. If you see me on stage, you will know that apart from the music intoxicating me, I have the stamina. To get the stamina, you must build it up because it is not easy to be on stage for hours. In those days, I used to play for hours at night; once I started playing from 9pm, I would not stop until 5am. There was no break. I have been on stage for 60 years playing. I built that stamina over the years.