Humour: 60 Minutes With KOBABA

KO Baba, the acronym, what does it stand for?

Ko Baba: Sometimes, I use the word ‘kind one’ but is actually from my vernacular name Koko. I remember my friends started calling me KO at some point. So, when I started comedy, I started calling myself MC KO and gradually, it metamorphosed into MC KO Baba and gradually, I removed the MC and allowed the KO Baba to stay.
How long have you been in the industry?
Ko: I can’t count, I can’t tell. I have always asked myself that same question but I know that a very long time ago, I started speaking and doing MC and started making people laugh. But professionally, I can look back at 2010 and see it as the year of big things for me.

That is the year that you want to say ‘yes’ you started comedy?

Ko: I started way before then but that is where I want to start counting.

How has it been so far?

Ko: So far so good, as long as you are hardworking. It is not an easy job but if you get busy, it gets easier.

Comedy in Nigeria has grown over the years with Nigerian comedians hosting gigs at 02 Arena in London. Have you done any international gig before?

Ko: Yes! I did my event last year in Dubai, to be précised, September 1st. This year, I will do in the UK. I am basically trying to take my brand from Port Harcourt and move round. That is what I am trying to do. I am also trying to break the mindset that I must be in Lagos before I do a lot of things. It is not wrong for anyone to think that way but for me, I think that we are in a digital world where you can push yourself to a point that no matter where you are, people will feel your impact.

What has been your greatest inspiration?

Ko: My greatest inspiration is making people happy and getting rewards that keeps one happy and keeps life going. But the most important part of the job that we do is that as we progress, you see the younger generation who have the same passion and help them to get better, get bigger, get happier, and helping them to grow as comedians and entertainers. For me, it gives me joy. I think that most times, God sends you to the front so that you can clear paths for others coming behind. That gives me a lot of joy.

Is there any other thing you would have become if you were not a comedian?

Ko: Why not? I never knew I would become a comedian. That is the honest point of my story. Growing up, we thought of so many things. I thought of being an engineer, I thought of being a musician, I thought of being an economist. At first, I was singing, I was not even doing comedy. Then, I started MCing, and started motivational speaking and discovered that I know how to make people laugh a lot. At some point, I started getting opportunities to do standup comedy, and so, if you look am, I for don become plenty things. I worked in a shipping firm. Maybe, I would have been doing clearing and forwarding but I knew for sure that I would be something.

Any regrets?

Ko: No regrets. This is the best life that you can live.

What is your most treasured possession?

Ko: I get wife na. What will I treasure more than my wife and my mother? Na those ones I treasure pass. My wife inspires me to create jokes and she pushes me to work. My mother gives me the passion to want to work harder so that I can give her a good life before she leaves in the next 20 or 30 years.

If you are God and you want to take one major decision, what will that decision be?

Ko: I will just make sure that all the politicians that are eating our money in this Naija, they will come and we will exchange positions, we will swap positions between we and them. I will be like Amaechi and Amaechi will be like me. He will be cracking jokes while I will be doing his politics. They will just wake up, all of them living in the Villa and GRA, they will just wake up and see themselves in Ajengule and Diobu. They will leave Lekki and see themselves in Mushin.

What is your greatest competition?

Ko: I don’t believe in competition. But I just want to be better than what I did yesterday because this job that we do, you might finish making people laugh on the 1st of January, they laugh so well and on the 2nd of January, if you don’t make them laugh, everything you did on the 1st is nothing. So, you just try to better yourself. I think it is important for me to collaborate with others and compete with myself. That is what I think.

How have you been able to swim through the tides of Port Harcourt entertainment industry and rising to get to where you are today?

Ko: Just work. Work, network.

Who is it that played a major role in your career as a comedian?

Ko: I no know the name to call now so I nor go offend some people, but so many persons have been nice. I have guys who work with me. I have guys who buy my tickets. I have people who design for me, I have bloggers so they are too many. I have families that whenever they see my show, they know that ,that day, they must be there. I have politicians as well. So I don’t know one particular person I would say has helped me without the rest. I have lots of comedians who have been a blessing: Julius Agwu, Ay, Price Hezekiah, Daniel D Humorous, Angel D Laugh and a host of them. If I call one person name, e no go good for me. My pastors, Pastor Kenny and Pastor Larry, they have been a blessing. Pastor Mrs. Debby Jones. I don’t know who to call o. I will just say people.

Have you been able to mentor people in this line of business?

Ko: If I don’t mentor people, I will be offending God. I take delight in doing that. There is hardly a day that passes that I don’t have one person I talk to, whether directly or indirectly, on whatsapp, on Facebook or twitter, on phone calls. Most Tuesdays, I create time to have appointment with different persons.

What is your favourite meal and drink?

Ko: My favourite drink used to be coca-cola but now, it is Smoodie. My favourite meal! I love soaking Garri.

Even as a big and influential comedian, you still soak Garri?

Ko: Yes. It does not have anything to do with class. Aside that, Afang soup is my best soup. But soaking Garri with milk and groundnut is inspirational.

What do you value more in friendship?

Ko: I value when friends value themselves. I don’t like friendship to be one-sided. Then, I like when friends want to update each other and make each other better.

If you are asked to change one thing in Nigeria, what would that be?

Ko: I will change Buhari.

What quality do you find attractive in women?

Ko: Now when I don marry, I go still dy find quality for women?

What qualities did you find in your wife that made you fall in love with her?

Ko: I love brilliance. I love beautiful girls that are brilliant. When a girl is beautiful and brilliant, for me, it is good.

The industry in Rivers State has not grown the way it ought to. We see comedians come to Port Harcourt, host shows and take the money back to Lagos and they hardly use Port Harcourt performers. What are you the Port Harcourt based comedian…..

Ko: (cuts in) are they supposed to drop the money in Port Harcourt?

Most of the time, you find out that they hardly feature Port Harcourt comedians…..

Ko: That is a lie please. All those things are assumption. I hardly see a comedian who came from Lagos to do a show and don’t involve Port Harcourt people.

But the composition is always 90/10……

Ko: I think we should be very honest with ourselves. If I am going to somewhere to do business, I need to move with brands that are big enough to make people buy my tickets. Most of the comedians that they bring from Lagos are bigger boys. When I want to go anywhere to do business, I need to move with people that I know and I have more trust in them. So, I don’t see issue with having 80 percent of those coming from outside and 20 percent of the home base. For me, I see it as a challenge but I still know that that statistics is wrong. In most cases, we are like 50/50 because atimes, there are people you don’t see on the advert but they will perform. They did Night of a thousand laugh, they Did Julius Agwu’s crack your ribs and AY live. A whole lot of upcoming comedians performed before the main event so it is mostly 50/50. People wey nor dy buy tickets dy go show, na them dy assume. I don’t have any issue with that. All I want to say is that if you are a comedian and you are building your career, be so good and so visible with what you do so that when someone want to pick someone around you, your name should be on the table. That’s what we need to do because most times in entertainment, popularity is what brings you that distinction, it is what gives you a lot of things so, get popular and be very good at what you do and you will always be called. There is no two ways about it that someone is spending millions to do a show, and because he is coming to a city, he will pick everybody from the city? He will only pick 3 or 4 from that city. So when you work hard and popularity comes, it will be easy for you to be picked. That’s my point in the whole thing.

What are people here in Port Harcourt doing to make it as big as what is obtainable in Lagos? What are you putting in place to make people look up to you?

Ko: I think that government has their own work to do, and then the public-private imitative. To us who are comedians, we also have our job to do. Our job is just to create good jokes and build your brand. And have good taste. If you want to do a show, you should have zero tolerance for low quality. You should know that your lighting should be good, your sound should be good and your performances should be top notch. We are getting into that dimension. In 2017, most of the comedy shows we did, the contents were excellent, leaving the spectators, guests and fans happy. I think that’s our job and we need to maintain it that way and let people love comedy the more. The more people love comedy, the more profit we will make as comedians. On what we can do to be as big as Lagos, I see that as a possibility. What we don’t have in Port Harcourt that Lagos has is the media coverage. They have corporate organizations, company sponsorship and so on. If you want to do a show in Lagos, with a little bit of pressing button, you can meet an executive of some of these big companies you see here and you will get an easy ‘yes’ or you get something, even if it is not too big. If I want to do that in Port Harcourt, who is going to sponsor me? We don’t get sponsorship.

So, sponsorship is the problem?

Ko: Yes, we don’t get sponsorship. I don’t know of others but I know that the whole of Rivers State put together, nobody does events as myself. Whether is a comedian, dancer or musician, if you put all of them together, I do events more than everybody in this town. I do events like monthly or once in 2 months and I understand the terrain well. When I put all my experiences together, I can tell you that sponsorship is not what we get. When I want to do event, I fund it through savings and loans, and goodwill. But in Lagos, you will get much more. Another factor is the media coverage. Some of the biggest stations like MTV base, HIPtv and the rest of them, they are no terrestrial TVs but cable stations. When they give your event coverage, everybody around the world will be watching it and your brand will go global. Sometimes, they scramble for contents because there is an intense competition among them. They don’t wait to be invited in some case but Port Harcourt here, how many TV stations do we have? Just like 4 and any of these 4, you must drop something before they will move. Thank God for Wazobiamax Tv and the good job they are doing in terms of events. Na them dy manage come out without you paying them if you apply on time. Outside Wazobiamax, STV also tries. The rest, you cannot get them to come out to cover your events without dropping something. What happens in Lagos that you get up to 20 TV stations for free, is what you can’t get up to 2 stations here in Port Harcourt. There is a limit to how far we can go. Lagos government support shows. Ambode attend shows. His wife will also attend, politicians and everything. I don’t know the last that our governor attended a comedy show.

Has there been a calculative approach to the government, maybe through the commissioner of culture and tourism?

Ko: Yes, there has been but it is just like when police tell you “you can’t teach us our job”. We dy here, we understand. The governor should know, the government should know that what it takes to reduce crime, make the youths happy and keep them busy are two things. Let me add the third: skills acquisition, entertainment and employment. These 3 things keep young people on the street hustling. The numbers of youths in this state who are interested in comedy, music, dance, modeling, photography and many more, if you pick them up, they are getting close to a million. That is how powerful entertainment is. I don’t think any government should expect someone to talk them about showing interest in entertainment.

They have not been proactive in that area?

Ko: Yeah, they are not proactive in that regard and for us, we don’t mind. We just keep doing our thing but I know that one day, they will wake up and understand that there is value at what we do. Angel D Laugh runs Port Harcourt comedy club. Some time ago, we wanted to host members of the state assembly but only one or two came out of 20 something. Last week, we wanted to host the governor but he didn’t come. He didn’t even send a representative. That’s how bad it is. For me, I was not happy. Personally, I like the governor but I felt I have to talk about this. It is wrong. It is never supposed to be like that, especially in a state that you don’t have an S.A on entertainment and you don’t have a commissioner in charge of youth affairs. He needs to embrace every young person who is trying to do one or two things to help himself.

What do you love about Port Harcourt?

Ko: Port Harcourt is a city where you can find vibrant young people trying to do things for themselves and God will personally punish the person who started one hashtag Rivers of blood. They are lying and are trying to play politics with everything. Honestly speaking, people in Port Harcourt are hospitable, calm and lovely. We know how to embrace people. We know how to celebrate people, whether we know you or we no know you, just make us happy.

What do you think government should do differently?

Ko: They should pay attention to the youth. If they are paying attention, they are not paying enough. The bureaucracies in Rivers State are too intense. Everything doesn’t have to be politics. They need to shift their focus from politics and also think about young people. The governor is doing a good job but more needs to be done. The opposition should be honest enough with him. They are not honest enough with him. They need to pay attention to young people. The government should start doing events that can pull youths together.

The brain drain in Port Harcourt, why are people running away to Lagos?

Ko: The environment is not paying. How many musicians get gigs and support that they need?

But we have musicians like Duncan Mighty who has made it from here…

Ko: Yes, a lot of musicians are here but you should look around and ask yourself, for these people to make money from their work, government has to create the enabling environment. Gospel artist survive here because the churches are paying but when you are in a place that does not give you reward for your work, you will try to move out of that city.