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| KSB listening to a question from the GDA |
Kenny St Best –KSB (formerly Kenny St
Brown nee Ogungbe) the estranged wife of the former lead singer of the defunct Remedies Music Group, Asiedu Brown is
moving up big time into politics with a new philosophy that says“Old things are
past away and new things back in place”.
The very talented and vibrant Nigerian
gospel act who is equally the Vice President of leading music record lable Kennis Music and founder of KSB Ltd is vying for the slot of a
representative for the people of Ikeja
Constituency 1, Lagos-South West Nigeria. Today Tuesday September 30th she
will declare in the presence of selected politician of the All Progressive
Party (APC) and stakeholder in Ikeja. Few days ago, KSB hosted your Africa’s
number 1 Celebrity encounter blog asabeafrika
inside her Opebi GRA, Ikeja- Lagos-South West home where she shared her dreams
with us on why politics is the next way to go at this point in time. Enjoy the
excerpts.
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| KSB….’APC’s creed aligns with my philosopy of Turn-Around’ |
Kenny St Best: This is my best
Decision
why is Kenny St. Best taking the decision to join the soap box at this
time of her life? We opened the conversation with the gospel music act “Thank
you very much Gbenga for coming around and equally giving me the opportunity to
express myself for people to know why I am going into politics or why I am in
politics. I will say in every step on the way, I have always been a leader. To
some extent, I have always been in the service of the public either as an
entertainer or as a gospel artiste or better still as a youth developer
especially in the area of talent discovery, artistry development and brand
development. In a nutshell I can say that I have been a public servant. if my job have always been to satisfy the
public, to make them happy and elevate their pains and also be contributive to
the talent development of young Nigerians and also added my own contribution to
the revolution in the entertainment industry especially in the area of music
development.
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| KSB…..’My contribution to the development of the Nigerian talent industry is a worthy credit for my political endeavor’ |
public servant with the brief of making people glad and equally turning out hits after hits for over 16 years
now; and equally being a part to the development of other people’s children. As
the Vice
President of Kennis Music, for every talent that
went through that institution (Kennis Music) and that have become a super star and
ambassador to this great country at home and abroad, my contribution and
expertise has been there. You can’t take it away, and today that industry has
suddenly exploded and everywhere I go people look up to me as a role model and
all these put together gives me the joy to present myself for the task of
leadership at the political level”.
“Could you imagine that as expensive as the last national confab was, as loud as the confab was, as serious as that confab seems to be, no slot was given to Nigerian youths, no one represented the Nigerian youths in any way, we had other organizations and groups from various strata of the society but no one raised the question of the youth. Is that not a very sad reality?”
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| KSB…..’Ikeja Constituency 1 is my home and charity must begin at home’ |
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| KSB…’I have developed talents at Kennis Music and it is time to replicate the gesture in politics |
to go politicking
Can we say KSB’s role as the Vice President of
Kennis Music is not more tasking any longer hence the need to go into politics?
She reply swiftly “That is not the issue, Kennis Music is an octopus but again
we could say that particular industry has become big in a way that it now comes
with its own challenges” she stated verbatim and continued “Kennis
Music has become more of a philosophy rather than a concrete stock, we
have created an industry that has given birth to so many other industries and
even Baba
Keke as the Chairman has paid his dues in a very big way. Right now we
can’t say we want to bring up hundred stars at a time except for a few ones at
a time. At a time it was Jaywon, then Minjin and now we have Joel.
Before we used to have eight to ten artistes at a go but now the story has
changed so what happens to the rest that we cannot get on board? A lot of
record companies have started and folded up because they exaggerated the
fortunes in our business only to come into it and got their fingers burnt. It
is expensive to manage an artiste in fact to even develop one to a point that
the artiste will start making money for you.
So, what do I now do as a talent hunter?
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| KSB….’My going into politics will translate into a big deal for the youth’ |
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| KSB…’We need to push for a platform for the youth to express themselves |
There is a gap between the
Nigerian youth in the area of artistry development and youth economic development.
Besides just becoming a graduate we told them to go to school, now they have gone
to school. We told them to serve the nation at youth service level, they have
served the nation; where are the jobs? The jobs are not there but from our own
end at Kennis Music we have been able to make few of them look inward,
to see that they have natural talents that they can develop for their economic
independence. And for me, this is my call; my specialty is alleviating the pain
of the people in society. I have a lot of things to change in the society and
the only way for me is to be part of the system and if you are going to be part
of the system, then you have to run. You have to become a politician; as far as
I am concerned if this makes me a politician, I am ready to be a politician for
a long time to come because there are so many Nigerian youths out there whose
raw talents are crying for development and God has given me the enablement to develop
those talents.
Music, even when we were not making money from it we were still
developing artistes, we were still making people superstars year in year out.
We don’t even need to know their parents; their parents don’t even need to know
us. So, it is a natural calling for us which I am now taking to a larger scale
because Baba Keke will not go into government to
do it and mere noticing that there is a gap between the Nigerian government at
the local government level, state level and national level and the youth of the
society and equally knowing the yearnings of the legion of our youths, these
are the reasons I am obeying the call of duty to resume into full politics”.
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| Kenny St Best |
new passion
wants everybody to wake up to the reality that the Nigerian youth community has
been cheated and forsaken out of the developmental plan of the Government and
for her, that is the drive for her new passion-politics. Hear her “Another reason (For her decision) is the
fact that the Nigerian youth does not have a ministry that attends to it, the
youth ministry is either attached to the sports ministry or attached to the
women affairs ministry or attached to the arts and culture ministry and you now
see that if our leaders as critical as they seems to appear in the task of
building a greater Nigeria of tomorrow forgets to give a dedicated attention to
the youth then who are the new leaders to take over the affairs of tomorrow?
You mean there is no ministry to face and build the minds these young people
who are the leaders of tomorrow? Then you say there is insurgence, why won’t
there be insurgence? How can we stop the insurgences, why won’t there be
insurgences and militancy in the land when those young heads are left to wander
about without a committed effort to build them? Could you imagine that as expensive
as the last national confab was, as loud as the confab was, as serious as that
confab seems to be, no slot was given to Nigerian youths, no one represented
the Nigerian youths in any way, we had other organizations and groups from
various strata of the society but no one raised the question of the youth. Is
that not a very sad reality? And we are talking of a national deliberation
where new laws and rules are to be made with the benefit for a new constitution
of the 21st century brand.
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| KSB…’At Kennis Music Baba Keke is in charge but here I am on the field as Vice President-at-large |
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| The GDA meets Kenny St Best |
grappling with till date and you are talking about making a new constitution
that will run with new and advanced trends of the 21st century and
you forgot the youth constituency, the most important part of society and the
engine room of our society?. It is only
a country with this crop of leaders that will do this kind of mistake and feel
no shame for it; all this things stares me in the face, I want to be the face
of the Nigerian youth for a major ideological transformation. Check it out, I
have been a part and parcel of the revolution in the Nigerian entertainment
industry and I can replicate it in politics. It is possible and I am offering
myself for real service of transformation”.
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| KSB….’I have made an impact at Kennis Music and the idea comes handy in politics |
With her pedigree, you would
think Kenny St Best should have started from a bigger slot at the
federal level but she is quick to educate you why the process has to start from
home “It is simply because I have been a part of my immediate constituency
especially my local government area which is Onigbongbo LGA. I have been working with this local government area
for over six years under the able leadership of the former chairman, Honorable Idowu
Obasa. I have also been a part of the Lagos state youth reforms through
the office of the first lady of the state, Her Excellency Dame Abimbola Fashola;
every year I am the face of leadership at their children party and most
recently I have had the rare privilege to work with the office of the governor,
His Excellency, Barrister Babatunde Raji Fashola (BRF) in conjunction with his
Special Assistant for Youth and Student affairs in the person of Mr.
Hakeem Animashaun. And let me also let you know that my immediate
constituency Ikeja 1 is the hub of
entertainment business in Lagos state; Lagos as a state and the sub-total of
the country houses 90% of the Nigerian entertainment industry. The desire of
every creative Nigerian youth graduating from any university across the nation
is to storm Lagos; their first dream option is Lagos. Lagos! Lagos!!l Lagos!!!.
Be it a painter, a sculptor, music, Lagos is their last bus stop.
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| KSB….’The last National Confab didnt have a youth representaion’ |
Lagos
accommodates even if you are coming from England or America, the first place is
Lagos because they know that Lagos will be a big brother. In Lagos, anything
can happen; their dreams can become reality, their dream will happen and they
can become anything in Lagos. So, if I am really true to my calling, I think I
should start from home. That is why I am starting from Lagos. If Lagos can get
it done well, other states will emulate. Look at how Lagos have been able to
turn around our environment using agencies like LAWMA and today other states
are coming to understudy Lagos state. We are the entertainers; as entertainers
we intercede for the mass of the people through our creativity and we are the
ones that knows where the shoes pinches, there is no budget from the federal
government for entertainment practitioners to carry out initiatives and the one
they even released for development in the entertainment industry, the bank is
seating on it and asking you to go and bring the head of your father and mother
before you can access the funds. But Lagos state accommodates ideas, if I can
start from Lagos and achieve something, other states could learn from it and
see how to use their entertainment stars to achieve transformation. I am proud
to start my political career in Lagos right here in my constituency of Ikeja”.
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| The GDA in the heart of the encounter with KSB |
Me, Kennis Music & politics
center of her career does it mean that KSB has stepped down as the Vice
Chairman of Kennis Music which is
run by her elder brother, Kenny Ogungbe. She has an answer for
us “Like I told you earlier, Kennis Music is an octopus and Baba Keke (Kenny Ogungbe) is the
chairman and president of Kennis Music
I am just the Vice President but even as the Vice President of Kennis Music I still run my own company KSB Limited and under KSB
Limited we have KSB Foodies, we
have KSB On-Air consultancy. I have
enough liberty with Kennis Music to
run my own business and activate ideas and going into politics is part of
activating a new idea and using it well. Right now at Kennis Music we now have fewer artistes, we face one artiste at a
time, a lot of companies that joined us on the way have packed up. I don’t need
to mention names but this is a game that we have played for 16 years and we
know right now the new e-music revolution is rubbing off on
sales and distribution but because we have a passion for building youths and
enlarging the industry we are still there for the Nigerian youth. So, right now
most of us are Pros (Professionals) for instance Essence (Gospel Music
act)
is a Pro and she can even run her own record company and because of our
liberal culture you discover that Kennis Music is a company that
allows you to grow and run your own company even while still under its
umbrella. So, for me, it doesn’t slow down anything for me. I am the Vice
President-at-large”.
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| KSB….’My biggest agenda is to pinpoint agendas that will emancipate youths and women in Ikeja land’ |
umbrella of the ruling All Progressive Party (APC) in Lagos; she shared her
reason with asabeafrika “Because of
what I am clamoring for which is transformation for Nigerian youth and
transformation for young Nigerian women and another word for transformation is
“Change”, and if the slogan for APC is “Change” then I am for APC. I am
operating on the platform of the APC because we share the same philosophy.
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| Kenny St Best explaining a point to asabeafrika |
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| One of the awards given to Kenny St Brown in honor of her generous deeds to society from The Sickle Cell Foundation in Nigeria |
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| KSB’s wall of awards and pictures of her children |
for the Kenny St Brown exclusive
part 2 “My deal with the Prostitutes” on this blog in the next 24 hours)
