Tony Muonago aka Tony Oneweek is known in the Nigerian entertainment industry. He became more popular when he released his record-breaking album ‘Everybody Gyrate’, which became like a national song. Tony later went into active politics and became a member of the Anambra State House of Assembly, where he emerged as the minority leader. In this no-hold-bare interview with SAMUEL ONYEKWERE, Oneweek told us more about his foray into entertainment and politics.
What’s the TikTok gyration all about?
The TikTok gyration was created to give me more presence on social media. Even if I was in Nigeria, I would still do it because it would provide me with more presence on social media. Again, it’s to promote my UK tour, which will happen in June, July, and August. So, my team and I decided that it would be wise to be in the face of every one three or four times a week. So, we are doing it Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 8 – 10 pm Nigerian time and UK time. What we do there is to discuss my career, and music and promote the new songs. I have three new singles: Play, Game, and Zero- Zero Hour.
Unfortunately, after the one we did last week on Tuesday, on Wednesday, we lost a brother in the industry and we dedicated last weekend’s gyration to him. If you had joined, you would have seen that my backdrop was his photography. But we are back to the normal Tiktok gyration backdrop.
What’s the concept behind the single ‘Money Spender’ that will be released on all digital platforms from April 26?
‘Money Spender’ is a bit different but it still has highlife and amanpiano. It’s different in the sense that it’s not like gyration completely. This one will wow the fans beyond what they are expecting because it’s a feel-good song. There are lots of messages in the song because none of my songs comes without a message.
I try to appreciate people because no matter how small someone may look to you, he is still somebody. The people who do great things are diminutive. That’s to say, no matter how small a deity is, you must carry it with two hands. In terms of lyrics, delivery, and performance it was okay and it was produced by Emlis P.
25 years ago you released ‘Everybody Gyrate’, which became more like a national anthem. Last year, you released ‘Gyration Rebooth’. Do you think the song is still acceptable like it was 25 years ago?
I consider myself a prophet of gyration which is why I am doing my best to keep the genre alive. I left the scene from 2011- 2023 because I went into politics. However, in my absence, I realized there was a big vacuum, the people there did not do it the way I did.
In November 2023, I and my team decided that the best way to reactivate the brand was to reboot the original gyration that people heard about in 1998, which made them fall in love with gyration. What we did was inject ogene (gong), saxophone, and flute to make it more acceptable to this generation. If I want to perform, I would rather perform the new one because it has more energy and life, I made this one tighter, with not much space for instruments because this one plays longer unlike the old one.
If you were in DJ Obi’s place on the 25 of December 2023, you would have gotten the answer to this question because Burna Boy was jumping for the 20 minutes my performance lasted. E-Money, KCee, Sabinus, and Poco Lee were all there. A lot of people will attest to the fact that it was a great way for the gyration master to come back.
You commercialized gyration songs which is the core preserve of the Kegites Club. Have the Kegites community accepted the fact that gyration is no longer an exclusive preserve of the palm wine drinkers club, but a commercial venture open to everyone?
I don’t hide the fact that my background is Kegites Club and I am from Ilya Erosion ( Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State) and I was the Drumito(Drummer) and Songito( Singer). Back then Dennis Onwuzulike Jnr was my friend, we introduced some of the innovations in drumming and the bastardization of some Christian songs that Kegites is known for, and we began it. I have not hidden the fact that I leveraged on my kariability ( kegites membership). While I was doing my master’s degree at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, in 1995/1996, AB Cowboy and a few other friends did a medley but it didn’t do well.
I was still in the university when I went to Lagos and then I was working with AMACO investment. Something took me to the studio to produce my gospel music. The songs on side B of the gyration album were what took me to the studio. Bringing in the kegite’s songs was just by accident. Before I went to the studio for a session, I had only ₦40, 000 which I made from movies with AMACO Investment and Sunny Collins Nwatu of Great Movies.
I went to the studio and this guy called Stanley Okorie, a gospel musician; did a song titled ‘Goodness of God’, and Gabriel Moses – AMACO Investment, was the one marketing the song for him. He came to where we were writing a script because I was just a scriptwriter those days. He came to see AMACO who gave him ₦300,000 cheque.
When he left, I asked AMACO, ‘What did this guy do that you gave him such a huge amount of money? He said his music was selling, and I told him in that case, ‘Chairman, I will give you music. He laughed and said, ‘Tony, have you started singing now, I thought you only write scripts and act’. We didn’t talk about it again. We went to Enugu to shoot the movie ‘Evil Men’, it was why we were editing it that AMACO asked about the music I promised to give him.
I collected ₦15,000 for the job I did for him, ₦25,000 from Sunny Collins, and went to meet the late Johnson Davidson. He took the ₦40,000 and was only able to book two sessions from Middle Tone Studios near Bode Thomas, Surulere, Lagos. That day, I went to the studio and we worked from 9. am to 6 pm before we went for a break. By 2. am, we were just able to complete one side of the tape and we still had one side which is 22 minutes, to fill.
They advised me to go back home, write more songs and come back. I thought about it, I don’t have money, so how am I going to pay for another studio session? At that point, I requested for pen and paper, but they started laughing at me. One of the studio engineers is called Rasta and the other one is called Pastor and he said, ‘You think music is easy that all of us are not singing’.
But Johnson told them to give me pen and paper and he went to sleep. He said, when I was through, I should call him. I wrote six pages of the gyration song which made me what I am today. All the songs: Everybody Gyrate, Onwa December and others are there… By 4. am when they woke Johnson, he played it from the beginning to the end, he now said something I will never forget, “Old boy, you for tell us to say you be a musician”. From that 5. am, he stood till 7. am when he gave me the master tape.
I took it to AMACO and he listened through and said the Gyration side would be side A and the other one would be side B. He asked me what I wanted and I told him, we needed to shoot a musical video and he said, let’s go to Klink Studio, that is Kinsley Ogoro’s Studio. The following week, we shot the video at Alpha Beach. I did this by September 1998 and by December, as I was traveling to Anambra State, the song was everywhere.
To answer the question of how kegites’ club feel about commercialization, it’s not only that. Some people said I sang fraternity songs and there was a time it was rumored that I was killed. But today, I have become a role model for kegites that even Chiefos ( Kegites Chiefs) are making music the way I did. I can name some of them that also did commercial Kegites songs. AB Cowboy is there, he is celebrating 25 years in music and this is happening on the 20th of this month. So, everyone should support him.
There are many of them I can’t start naming and it was inspired by what Tony Oneweek did. For the interest of kegites, there is one medley I did; which I have just finished the video two weeks ago in Enugu. Emeka Rollas and AB Cowboy joined me in the video and it’s titled ‘Tony Oneweek Archival Gyration’. I dedicated it to Ilya Erosion where I was initiated into Kegites.
I am doing it for the new guys in Kegites Club so that they will hear the old song we were singing. Kegite tradition is dominated by Yoruba culture. Look at how we coronate our Chiefos.
Remember the club was formed by Wole Soyinka, Segun Adesina, and some of his friends at the then University College, Ibadan, which is now the University of Ife, the world headquarters. In the song I did, I combined Igbo, English, Hausa, and Yoruba languages. I am a role model for kegites and I have taken kegites beyond where they could have been in their traditional way. I am not saying it’s not good, I remain ‘Karid’ and my genre is Afro gyration. The afro spec has injected more life into it, unlike the traditional drum and gong that kegites is known for.
No music’s original, name any music, and I will tell you where the genre came from. This gyration came from our folklore. Before Wole Soyinka formed Kegites, our fathers were using some of these instruments to produce music. What of Afrobeat, Fela started it and today a lot of people are adding their style.
A lot of people don’t know that you are also a stand-up comedian as well as an actor.
A lot of people don’t know I started with stand-up comedy. I did comedy, I fed my family with comedy. The likes of Alibaba, Okey Bakassi, Julius Agwu, and Basket Mouth are people from my generation. Real stand-up comedy ended with my generation. The very best in stand-up comedy is still Okey Bakassi. What does this generation do, only to come and abuse you in the name of comedy? How many of them will crack jokes from beginning to end? You see a man who came out with his family to enjoy the show, you start using him to crack jokes. That’s rubbish.
I have done stand-up comedy and script writing. I wrote the movie ‘Narrow Escape’, which was my breakthrough before I started writing many others… In 1999, I wrote and shot my movie Hooligan. I have worked with a lot of people as a director, artistic director, actor, scriptwriter, and producer. In 1998, I went into music and my career blossomed. I don’t like depending on people because what made me a jack of all trades is that I get bored easily. I don’t like waiting, ‘Oh it’s your turn to shoot, you are on set now’. That was what made me start directing, I also began to produce and I like the fact that I am in control of my career as a musician.
If my talent is original God will sustain me and I know it’s original that’s why my comeback has been awesome. Go to my social media handles, the fans are like Tony Oneweek is back, where have you been? I appreciate the fans.
You contested the AGN presidency sometime ago and lost. If you were to be in Emeka Rollas’ shoes as AGN president, what would you have done differently considering what is going on among our actors today?
Yes, I want to use this opportunity to thank those who denied me the opportunity to become the AGN president then in 2005. Sometimes something will happen and you may feel bad but you don’t know the will of God.
God never wanted me to be president of AGN. I was on a tour of Germany when they announced there would be an election. I then called some of my “boys” like Emeka Rollas Ejezie, current AGN president, Kingsley Ogbonnaya (Dauda), late Chucks China Bambino who was my manager then, Charles Okechi, Emeka Rising, are my guys and we were always at Winnis Hotel in Surulere, those days and I told them I was interested in contesting.
When I came back, to my surprise my son Emeka Rollas, was also contesting but I continued my campaign with Daddy Muonso ( Charles Okechi). Unfortunately, I didn’t have money but my main contender that’s my brother Ejike Asiegbu had the backing of the marketers. The outcome of the election taught me a lot. Ejike had 75, I scored 66 and Emeka had 15. It was nine votes from River State that gave Ejike the victory. I did not campaign in River State because they already told us they had problems with the River State chapter.
They said they were not going to participate in the election because they didn’t have a proper guild, so I did not go to River State, same with Emeka Rollas. But when we got to Abuja, we saw Hilda Dokubo, Sam Dede, and other River State contingents. We even went to the police because of this but at the end of the day because the chairman of the board of trustees and others were already compromised, what the marketers told them to tell us was to go ahead and do the election, then petition if you don’t like the outcome.
There is nowhere you will not see corruption. They are all alive, all of them. When I was traveling to Abuja, I entered the flight in Enugu only for me to see about seven marketers going to Abuja. What were you going to do? To ensure you deliver Ejike Asiegbu because I didn’t come to bow.
My chairman AMACO asked me why I didn’t come to see marketers and I asked him, if marketers are conducting elections in the market, and do they consult actors. What’s the business of marketers in the AGN election? Despite all the money they shared, I still got the same number of votes with Ejike until the nine votes from River State changed the whole thing.
When I came back to Lagos, I decided to relocate to Abuja not because I lost the election but because I was getting tired of the business. Homosexuality came into the business, cultism not fraternity, but people were being initiated into the cult of homosexuality and I was the first person that make it public. One of the daily papers reported it.
When I relocated to Abuja, I told myself if without money I was able to pull this number of votes, what is that thing I cannot achieve? The only money I got that day was ₦50,000 from a friend Sunny Ukachukwu, he sent somebody to bring it to me at the venue that day because I told him they were sharing money.
So, I told myself if you were able to get these number of votes that means people can listen to you when you speak to them. I attended the same primary school with Olisa Metu, former PDP spokesman and we grew up in the same environment. I went to him and I joined PDP, which was in 2005/2006. It was then I also met Obi Cubana and I was still doing my MC jobs and anchoring shows, when his garden was demolished by former FCT Minister Nasir el Rufai. We then became friends and started working together and I was more like his media person.
From 2007 – 2009, I was in Abuja and I was still playing music. I was the person who took Sunny Bobo and the late MC Loph to London in 2009. In 2007, I tried to pick a ticket under PDP, but they didn’t give me one. In 2010, I left PDP and joined ACN where I met Dr Chris Ngige and we all campaigned together. I got the primary ticket, then contested for the election and won.
I want to use this opportunity to appreciate all the people who made it impossible for me to become AGN president in 2005 because they were the people God used to redirect me to the House of Assembly. That is where you go, you will be given an official car and you will get a salary and you work for your people.
In 2015, I became the minority leader Anambra State House of Assembly, I was representing the Idemili North State Constituency and I was doing a good job. I wanted to return to the House at least to do two tenures. I already served under former Gov. Peter Obi and Gov. Willy Obiano and I was told that I would need to move to APGA if I wanted to win, but I said no because I believed I was popular and I won by popular mandate.
I won my election because of the popularity God gave me as gyration master and the fact that Dr Chris Ngige was part of our team, also made us popular. In 2015, I said I would not leave APC after the merger and it became a battle for me because a lot of people turned against me for all I did for my people.
The leadership of my town, I am from Obosi, made a public announcement that they should not vote for their son Tony Oneweek, they should vote for the person the governor wants. That was how I was sabotaged out of the seat in 2015.
I built two different schools Gbugheobi Primary School in Mmakwum village, if you go there you will see one structure built by Tony Oneweek. If you go to Okpuno Umuotah village, Convent Primary School, you will see another structure. If you go to Uga Amuma village where I come from, there is a market there called Nwobodo, I rebuilt it because it was not being utilized. I did so much. I enlisted close to 20 youths into the Civil Service and with all these they betrayed me and I lost. I wept, but after a while, I returned to my base in the United States of America.
One year later, the guy that won the election died. I don’t wish anybody dead, I don’t know why he died but there’s a rare possibility that the appointed time for anybody on that seat to go was that time and if I had been on that seat, I probably would have gone too. That’s why I don’t struggle for anything because I don’t know what God is planning for me.
