Being a monk doesn’t
mean I can’t party —Bolaji Rosiji, PMAN boss
By
MIKE JIMOH
Sunday,
May 7, 2006
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•Rosiji
Photo: SUN NEWS PUBLISHING
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He is at home with anything Hare Krishna and the Performing
Musicians Association of Nigeria, PMAN. His best reads are
the ancient books written more than five thousand years ago
in Sanskrit, now an obsolete language. His immediate duty
is to bring peace and justice to PMAN, an association he was
elected to head last year.
Bolaji Rosiji is at once a monk and an entertainer, the only
Nigerian, as far as is known, to combine the unique duties
as head of an association that has to do purely with entertainment
and as a devotee of a religious order that encourages just
the opposite.
When the dauphin of a famous family in Lagos first came to
national prominence, Bolaji was no more than a recluse living
in a scent-filled room in his father’s sprawling, waterside
bungalow in Apapa. As the only child of Chief Ayo Rosiji,
a wealthy businessman, he was the natural heir to all that
his father had. But he certainly wasn’t impressed with
all the money and houses left him.
He preferred, instead, the spare and ascetic life of a Hare
Krishna faithful, shunning any form of ostentation or flamboyance.
And he was never without his outlandish outfit – to
none Hare Krishna devotees – the few times he made any
public appearance.
There was the ankle-length cotton cloth wrapped around his
waist, the completely shaved head and, of course, the chalk
markings around the eyes plus the ever-present contemplative
mien of a Tibetan monk at prayer.
Today, the clean-shaven, spectacled and soft-spoken 41-year-old
is the president of Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria,
PMAN. He has a spacious office somewhere on Anifowoshe, Ikeja,
where reporters and aides flock around him much of the time.
From unobtrusive obscurity as a monk, Bolaji has simply morphed
into one of the most visible public figures in Lagos, seen
everywhere from political rallies to human rights demonstrations
and with people like Pa Anthony Enahoro and Professor Wole
Soyinka.
Surely, there must be some conflict in carrying out his religious
obligations as a Krishna faithful and his professional position
as the head of the most public of associations in Nigeria.
But Bolaji isn’t in any way disturbed in his dual roles.
If anything, he is having a time of his life because, in his
words, “it is all about service.”
And just in case you didn’t know, Bolaji says that not
all monks are confined to monasteries.
“We have a category of monks known as Baba jis; they’re
usually resigned to a life of solitude,” he says early
on to dispel your fears for his somewhat precarious position.
“They stay only in monasteries similar to the Catholic
monks, and they do study of the scriptures and meditation
and prayers. Then we have another category with a more complicated
name,” he explains. “They can travel all over,
meet people, helping in things like seminars, workshops, developing
society, etc. I am one of the latter category.”
That is to say, he is a monk that can host parties or attend
one, sponsor benefit concerts or coordinate one or join in
a march for human rights, all of which he has done in the
last few months.
Just last week, he led a retinue of PMAN executive and a clutch
of reporters to a monarch in Abeokuta. He hopes to work closely
with multilateral agencies like the European Union (EU) United
States for Aid and International Development (USAID) and Department
for International Development (DFID). In short, Bolaji can
get involved in anything as long as it has something to do
with developing humanity.
To help realise this, he long ago set up Guaranga Foundation
whose mission statement “is to develop the key constituencies
that are relevant to nation building.” The four constituencies,
according to him, are the police, the press, education and
entertainment. “We identified four groups that if they
are empowered can, in turn, empower others,” Bolaji
says.
There is a food-for-life kitchen under the NGO, also. “We
provide food for up to 500 people every day except Sundays.”
Beneficiaries are orphanages, handicapped and old peoples’
home, and meals are strictly healthy vegetarian diets.
Of course, what else would you expect from devotees of one
of the oldest religions in the world that forbids killing
and consuming animal flesh? All through the Sunday Sun’s
visit last week, most of the members had their meals meatless,
from nursing mothers to babies and even cooks and waiters.
The restaurant serves only vegetarian meals, and it is about
the only one in all of Apapa – an area with the highest
number of Indian population anywhere in Lagos. “We cater
to a largely Indian clientele here,” says Michael, a
restaurant supervisor. Bolaji himself will later educate the
reporter on the virtues of a strictly vegetarian diet, quoting
relevant Bible portions to shore up his claim.
Though tabloid and soft sell reporters claim he has a child,
the lack of a woman in his life makes him one of the most
eligible bachelors in town. So, how does he cope with overtures
from the opposite sex?
Whether in jest or spoken frankly, Bolaji says he has a female
aide-de-camp whose duty is to ward off female intruders. But
the reporter is more convinced when Bolaji says that “there
is nothing to life.” It could have come straight from
any monk worth his hood living in the bowels on a rocky mountain,
for example. For one, he admits he’s been adventurous
as a Hare Krishna devotee.
“I became a devotee at such a tender age,” Bolaji
recalls. “So, along the way, I’ve been adventurous.
I have dabbled into different things. And I’ve had my
own fair share of experience of the world. And my conclusion
is that there is nothing there. There is nothing there at
all. All the pleasures of flesh are shallow and they end with
death. So, I can never be found endeavouring in materialistic
things because they die with the flesh.”
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