A Night With Timi - The Event

The date was Friday June 15, 2007. The location was the 1st floor, Planet 44, Victoria Island, Lagos. The event was "A night with Timi", organized by members of the Timi's Fans Club. E-mails had been sent, phone calls made and awareness had spread from one Fan to the other. The TGIF mood was in the air as it was a Friday evening and so, all roads led to Planet 44. Guests started trickling in as early as 6pm while the organizers were preparing the venue. Two large banners were put up, chairs were arranged, the sound system was tested while a collection of Timi-style songs was being played. There were lots of surprise moments as people who had only been communicating via e-mail for weeks finally saw themselves face to face. There were such exclamations as "So you are Aziza!", "Where is Fred?", "Is that Nkechi?", "Who is Shaddyplus?", etc and other remarks as is expected in such a union. Guests were soon seated and food and drinks were ordered while the kick-off of the program was awaited.

The event started some minutes after 7pm with an introduction from the two MCs (Ibrahim and Omua). First up was an opening prayer which was taken and promptly Amened to by all. It was easy to see that the audience was getting apprehensive. Where was Timi? Everyone seemed to ask. Unfortunately, Timi was stuck in Traffic, as is customary in Lagos on Friday evenings. The MCs tried their best to alleviate the anxiety and it seemed worsened until suddenly the good news came "Timi is Around". At this point, the lights were switched off and the guests were implored to keep silent and wait for a cue before making any sound. Timi was not aware of the size of the fans that were seated and so a surprise was planned for him.

Eventually, after some minutes Timi ascended the stairs led by 2 members of the organizing committee. The lights came on, there was a pause for a second and suddenly ... wild frenzy. Fans went crazy with delight at seeing Timi within a few inches of themselves. Order was thrown to the winds for a few minutes as people hugged, shook hands and took pictures with Timi while some members actually shed tears. Timi himself was totally awed. He hadn't expected anything of such a magnitude. He tried to regain his composure as he posed for picture after picture, hugged fan after fan and shook hand after hand. Finally, thanks to the MCs and some committee members, order was restored and the program resumed.

The next item on the agenda was a talk about the Fans club promptly taken by Ier Jonathan. With great oratory skills, Ier talked about the origin of the fans club and recounted experiences from early members about many a phone line which ran out of credit used to vote for Timi, and many a boss who discovered that their phone had been "stolen" by their subordinate to voting purposes. Everyone could laugh it off because it had paid off and Timi was the Idol. Ier also spoke about the vision and the aims of the club.

Next on stage was Jedi, a popular stand up comedian. The place reverberated with humor as Jedi did what he best knew how to. He captivated the audience with jokes which were centered around the Idols competition. The highlight was when he lamented that he had no fan club despite his years in comedy whereas Timi already had a dedicated fan club within just 3 months in the limelight. Time ran out, and soon Jedi had to leave.

Up next was a poetry recital for Timi read by Bode (A member of the fans club). Titled "Timi You Rock", it was written by Toni Kan, an award winning poet, essayist and short story writer. Not surprisingly, it was well composed and left people overwhelmed and Timi speechless.














The next event was a talk show tagged "10 questions with Timi". Staged in an Oprah Winfrey/Funmi Iyanda style setting, the presenter was ... you guessed it, Me! A list of questions had been pre-compiled which included both personal and general questions. Questions such as "Do you wear boxers or briefs?" and "Are you a virgin" drew interest from the audience. Timi answered all his questions well, cleverly evading the embarrassing bits and even introducing some humor into some answers.


Gifts were presented to Timi and an award plaque was presented by Aziza Uko on behalf of The Fans Club. Timi then gave a vote of thanks and said a few words of prayer for his fans, after which there was no holding back the crowd as they jostled for pictures with Timi. Timi himself took pictures with everyone he could and didn't turn back anyone. His gentleness and humility were quite apparent throughout the program, and the fans were very happy that their votes did not go to waste. Not long after, Timi left for his hotel leaving a crowd of accomplished and happy fans. And so ended a night with the first ever West African Idol, Timi Dakolo.


The Event in Pictures


Waiting for Timi.













The Entry













Frenzy!













More Frenzy!













Timi Dakolo, The First West African Idol.













Ier Jonathan - Talk about the fans club.



















Jeddi - Stand-up Comedy



















Bode - Poetry Recitial


















Timi & I - 10 Questions With Timi














Timi and Aziza Uko - Presentation of The Award Plaque














Timi with Plaque - Vote of thanks

















Timi and Fans (L-R) KD, TMan, Fred, Timi, Andrew and Femi.













Timi and more fans














Timi and I













Timi departs.














Aziza Uko - Founder of the Fans Club























The organizing committee - (L-R) Tayo, Nkechi, Ken, Ier, Aziza, Fred, Edikan and Andrew (squating)