Tunde Obe is 50, but he does not look it. He can conveniently cut off 10 years from his age and you won’t argue with him if he says he is 40. This is because this sonorous singer and stylish dresser looks refreshingly young. His face is former fresh and his dark skin glows.
Tunde Obe is the popular singer who sings with his wife, Wunmi. Both are usually referred to as T.W.O, coined from their names. They’ve come a long way, together. The big news is that Tunde clocked 50 on Sunday 26th August 2018 and he rolled out the drums on the 1st of September, 2018 in Lagos to celebrate it. Last week, he spoke to City People Publisher SEYE KEHINDE about turning 50 and his successful career in music. Below are excerpts from the interview.
Congratulations on your turning 50 how does it make you feel?
I am happy. I am excited. But as you know the issue also comes with mixed feelings. As you get older you begin to feel that your own time is going. But I think ultimately it is the course of life. We all pray to live long and be here. I am excited.
My father died at the age of 45/46. My wife Wunmi’s father died at the age of 49. It means a lot to me that I have outlined both of our fathers.
How did you feel the morning you turned 50? What went through your mind and how did you take the reality of that age?
I didn’t feel any different. Me, I am young at heart. I have always been a young in spirit person. It was all about prayers. I went into prayers. I had to first thank God. I had to commune with him. I had to thank God for sparing my life and I started to remember all the things I have achieved in my life, one by one. From Primary School, to Secondary School, to University. And how I have come this far. And I had nothing but thanks for God almighty.
Afterwards, my family members Wunmi’s family members, my closest friends and dear ones, my staff all came around and we just celebrated until midnight of the next day.
You’ve always been very consistent in terms of your lifestyle and the way you take things in your stride over the years. How did that aspect of you develop or evolve?
I think I will blame my father. He made all of us to believe that you are not better than the next man. My father was an Ambassador and he made us grow up knowing that we were not better than anybody else. We had a lot of staff working with us. He will always tell us we are just lucky that we are on this side of the divide.
That has always stuck in my minds especially after he passed away, because after he passed away, things became a little bit difficult for us. I was 10 when my dad passed away.
That was in 1978 from living the life of Rolls Royce, Limos, 5 stars lifestyle, first class tickets, all at a sudden, we came back to Nigeria in a military bomber jet.
They packed us in like cargo. As a 10 years old boy, it was a shock to me. It was my 1st shock in life. It was my 1st sense of reality that things can change in an instance.
Even my father’s body was packed in the cargo bay of the bomber jet. It was a military aircraft. That brought us back and we landed in Lagos from Senegal. He had been in America. And he was now made the Ambassador of Senegal, Mauritania and Gambia. (3 countries), as at the time he died. And we came back very unceremoniously, unlike when we use to arrive with my fathers red passport and 1st class tickets. We once flew on Concorde from New York to London.
We did all those interesting trips from London to Africa. We came to Senegal like Royalty and we left like refugees. It was sad. Anything we couldn’t take with us was lost. We left in a hurry. We has so many things, so many properties that we could not pack at once. We lost so many things we had cars. We couldn’t bring them to Nigeria. We came back to Nigeria with practically nothing. It was a very shocking moment for me in my life. That experience has made me who I am. I don’t look down on anybody.
And I always respect every single person I come across. It made me stronger and it made me focused. It made me to also realise that I have to think of my family beyond when I am here. So, I have always been planning for my children even when they were young. From the time they were born we opened an account for them and we start putting money there for them. Those were the things that really shaped me.
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