Bolaji Rosiji Gets Award

Former PMAN president, Bolaji Rosiji was recently honoured with an award by Fuji Musicians Association of Nigeria at the first edition of the FUMAN Elders Day held recently.

The award which was presented to the Heart of Gold singer, by Alhaji Kollington Ayinla, was a token of FUMAN’s appreciation to him for his support for the elders of the Association from his days as PMAN president. Bolaji in his time as President, organised the first Legend Night, hence it was a well-deserved honour for Mr. Bolaji Rosiji who was full of smiles while mingling freely with everyone at the event which also had top Fuji artiste Pasuma igniting the atmosphere with his stellar performance.

In his speech, the former PMAN president who is also FUMAN patron pledged to join elders of the association, the likes of Fuji Maestro Alhaji Kollington to make FUMAN a force to reckon with. He supported the elders with equipment and cash of N100,000.

According to him, “One of the reasons why I am interested in this constituency and indeed other constituencies is because I have a principle and that principle is music, culture and development. They are all intertwined. And also I have always celebrated the elders. Remember the event that we did for Legends of PMAN many years ago, Legend Night that was an expression of that passion for this constituency”.

“Fuji is the means of communication among our people. We have various forms of music in terms of the Yoruba genre. You have the Apala, Sakara, Fuji and so many other genres but Fuji has become a main movement within that sub-culture. So it is an important constituency.

Bolaji Rosiji revealed his plans to do something about indigenous music, not only for the Yoruba genre also in the east and in the north. “I have talked extensively with Danmaraya Jos and the likes. We are losing them. I remember in an assembly of Yoruba musicians; they were only a couple of Apala musicians left. They are all going and this is a genre of music that has brought up generations of parents. So we are trying to see what we can do to revive it. So its music, culture and then we can have development”.

On PMAN crisis, the Caretaker Committee he said, “In my last count, I think PMAN had about five presidents. So what we need to do is to forget about our personal interest. We have to just shelve personal interest and work for the union. I will commend any effort to bring concerned stakeholders together. I commend any effort like that but we want to see the fruit of that effort. We want to see where it has led us. I’ve been speaking to Kevin Lucciano he has several challenges and there is no one who is going to take on the mantle of leadership in PMAN that is not going to have those challenges. But what we need now is one PMAN that everyone recognizes and we are still looking forward to that day.

Asked if he has any plans to run for PMAN president again, he said, “I won’t do that but definitely if there is room for us to help in the monitoring the electoral process I will be happy to be part of that”.