One of Nigeria’s renowned Fuji music stars, King Wasiu Ayinde Omogbolan Anifowose Marshal also known as K1 De Ultimate ,has shared insights on various topics, including his wife, band, and sacrifices.
The 67-year-old chief and award winner affirmed that his marriage to Emmanuella Aderopo remains intact. He acknowledged that like any marriage, theirs has its ups and downs, but emphasized that he enjoys a wonderful marital life with Emmanuella. He highlighted that disagreements are inevitable in marriages, but both husband and wife know how to resolve them, emphasizing that disagreements do not signify the end of their union, this he disclosed in a recent interview with The Nation.
K1 hinted that while naysayers and rumour peddlers are going about town saying his marriage has collapsed, he enjoys a wonderful relationship and marital life with his wife.
He further said the reason many wonder why his wife is not always in Ijebu Ode with him is because she’s overseeing her business in Ikeja, Lagos after he invested heavily into the business to expand frontiers. He further said his wife comes home to him in Ijebu and doesn’t need to inform anyone about that.
“On my birthday recently, my wife was with me and we had a wonderful time with the entire family together. It was a quiet and close-knit celebration because I didn’t want to bother anyone with festivities having supported and had a lavish one in 2023.’’
On his band and the members, K1 explained that contrary to what is being peddled about, he is the one that is being enslaved considering the sacrifices he makes for his band members regularly. He noted that he loves his band members but treats everyone equally.
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“I love my band, I love myself, I established my band and wanted the best for myself so if overlooking people’s shortcomings is what will keep my band moving, I would rather do that than firing band members at will because of little mistakes or errors. And when band members err, once they realise their mistake and return to apologise, it’s fine and we move on and that isn’t a bad thing to do as humans because I offend God and people, who forgive me when I appeal to them genuinely.
“The recent development is as a result of people for you. Ayankunle has been a former member of the band, who is a consistent trouble shooter. He has gone and returned several times. I would tell you that of all the members of my band, it is only Ayankunle that has gone and whenever he wants to return, he would get people or close associates to beg me and I would accept him back over seven times.
“Mr Monsuru Matti is our welfare manager and he pays the band members through the bank. The sharing formula is 40 for me and 60 for the band of 28 members and out of the 60 of the band and my own 40, we take out 10 each to make 20 and that is what we use to pay the management, so I end up taking 30 while they take 50. It is very wrong and misleading for anyone to say or assume that I enslave my band members even after everything I have explained to you.
“It’s a statutory order in my band to continue to pay members of my band who died in active service. We always pay their families whenever we have a show. Now when we travel abroad, we pay the 11 remaining members of the band and the ones that are dead the same amount we paid those that travelled and we won’t pay them in any other currency aside the currency clients paid us. So, if we perform and we are paid in dollars, we pay everyone in dollars and when we are paid in Naira, we pay everyone in Naira.
“Ayankunle complained that his passport is being withheld, let me tell you the story. He ran away from the band in England while we were on tour. He ran away from the band with his passport, alongside two other members of the band. And the remaining members of the band and I returned to Nigeria. This was many years ago.
“He took his passport with him when he fled. We subsequently learned that during his overstay, he gave his passport to someone to present at the embassy for a renewal. At the time, visas were not picture-based, so they took the passport there. The British High Commission discovered the fraud and seized the passport, demanding that he appear in person. However, he was unable to do so because his passport was still held by the British High Commission and not mine. It’s impossible for me to carry people’s passports through immigration at the airport and not get asked questions. These people have their passports with them, and I don’t carry their passports with me,” he said.
