Read the most intriguing story of Nigeria's most enchanting magician ever, Professor Peller
Professor Peller and Lady Peller in 1969
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a piece on Nigeria’s most famous
magician, Professor Peller. For about thirty years, Peller held the
world’s most populous black nation spellbound with millions gasping at
the whisk of his wand. I hope you find this magical.
¶BIRTH AND EARLY DAYS
He was born in 1941 at Iseyin, Oyo State and he was named Moshood
Folorunsho Abiola. He would later pick on the stage name of ‘Professor
Peller’, an appellation that has stuck to him like a second skin.
¶HIS MAGICAL PERFORMANCES AND
EXPLOITS
When Professor Peller was alive, he was the most brilliant magician
in all of Africa. I am not too sure if the record has been broken. Even
in death, Peller remains the greatest of all. He performed not only
before princes but also held kings spellbound with his magic. Here
is how Femi Oyebode, a Professor of
Psychiatry at the University of Birmingham described Peller and one
of his shows in 1972 at the George V Stadium in Lagos (that is the old
name of the Onikan Stadium): My last ever visit to the stadium was
to see Professor Peller, a magician, and said to be a member of the
Magic Circle take on the last of our traditional magicians whose name
now escapes me (itself a significant fact). Professor Peller was dressed
in black tails, a top hat, a wand in one hand, black shoes and
well-cut hair. He was a perfect picture of debonair gentleman and was
assisted by an attractive young woman. He flicked his white handkerchief
and a white dove flew out. He pulled at his cuff links and flowers
bloomed under his command. He was confident, majestic. He was suave and
graceful. He levitated his assistant. He cut her in two without drawing
blood. He locked her in a cupboard, chained up several times over yet
she disappeared! It was a masterly performance. The crowd clapped,
hooped. We were seduced against our better judgment. We
wished desperately that the traditional magician would enthrall and
endear us to his magic, the mysteries of African magic. We were
disappointed or shall I say that I was disappointed.
When he came on stage dressed only in a loincloth of indeterminate
color, you could hear the audience gasp aloud. Was this African magic?
This crude, little thin man who seemed recently woken from the dead?
He swallowed a stone and turned his backside to us, slipping his
loincloth to one side and excreted the stone. Awfulness and shame. He
submitted his abdomen to a sharp sword to be sliced open. But by now,
the absence of razzmatazz and of finesse had turned us against him. The
crowd poured through the gates. That was how disgusted we were. You can
say that at George V stadium, in early adulthood I lost two of my
childhood dreams. A master at his craft and a consummate entertainer, he
cast a most powerful spell on the following African leaders, right in
their presidential palaces: The late President Gnassingbe Eyadema of
Togo (Eyadema later died after spending 38 years in power, he was
the longest-serving ruler in Africa when he died in 2005 (see his
picture below). His son, Faure, is currently the President of Togo).
The late President Samuel Kanyon Doe of Liberia. There is an interesting story behind his
performance for the late strongman of Monrovia. There was a time Peller
had a performance in Liberia in the 1970s and the crowd was just too
massive. The Liberian government drafted security forces to the venue of
the act to control the surging crowd. One of those responsible for
maintaining security that day at Peller’s performance was a young man
called Samuel Doe. So when Doe became President, he summoned
Peller, Nigeria’s finest magician to come perform for him. Such was the
stellar performance of Peller. Doe said he was busy controlling the
surging crowd and he could not witness the even properly as at that time
when he was a junior soldier.
The former President of Benin Republic, Mathieu Kerekou was also one of those who patronized Peller
Apart from the Presidents mentioned above, Peller also reigned supreme
in Nigeria. It was like there was no other conjurer in the land. Chief
Obafemi Awolowo, the late Premier of the Western Region was one of those
he used to entertain regularly. Peller was a prolific magician
with many shows, some of which were the Invisible General, the Escaping
Box,
Changing Dresses and the Zigzag. One thing with Peller’s performances is
that they were executed with maximum finesse and excellence. He was
thorough and professional. Perhaps, if not for death, he might have even
eclipsed David Copperfield of the USA in fame. Copperfield is presently
the greatest magician on earth and the first person to make one billion
dollars from magic.
-While growing up, he was nicknamed Moshood Olori Pupa (Moshood the Red-Headed Boy).
-One of his classical performances included putting his wife in a
‘magical coffin’ and severing the same coffin into two halves with a
‘magic coffin’. There is no spirit at work here, watch how th trick is
done here:
When Peller was performing, there was really no Internet as we have it
today, so it was quite easy to fool people in their millions. Now,
YouTube is spoiling the show formany magicians except the most ingenious
of them. Here are few more magic clips on YouTube just to let you know
they do not conjure any evil
spirit or demon, it is nothing but sheer trickery.
LOVE, ROMANCE AND MARRIAGE
He was described as a very romantic man. His most prominent wife,
Alhaja Silifat, fell in love with him while she was still in the
secondary school. She confessed that she had always admired him and his
performances even before then and each time she watched him perform, her
heart fluttered with affection for the fine magician with tribal marks.
In 1967, Iseyin Grammar School in Oyo State became the place where
Peller planted the seed of love even if he was there to perform but was
carried away by the ravishing young beauty in the crowd called Silifat.
Hear her: “I am sure he must have been attracted to me because of my
beauty. So, he just whispered to me: ‘Baby, you are beautiful.’ And I
said, ‘Thank you.’ He didn’t ask me out that day. For quite a long time,
we were friends.” For a couple of years more, they continued dating and
Lady Peller said after two years, she said yes to his advances.
They got married in 1971 and they already had a child by then. For a man
who was a showstopper at
any events, it is no surprise that not a few women fell for the
enchanting spell of Nigeria’s most famous magician. He was a man of many
women and married many of them. However, the best known
of these ladies, with whom he performed his magic tricks is Alhaja Silifat Adeboyin Peller (see picture).
The whole of Nigeria knew her as Lady Peller and she is most famous
for the act in which she was ‘sliced’ into pieces by Peller and had a
hard time putting her back. Now 66 years of age with her husband gone
and not remarrying, she is tending to her grandchildren while
reminiscing over the glittering wonders of an empire of magic that once
held sway. Lady Peller was born in Kishi, Oyo State where her father was
the Chief Imam and had five children for him, while also raising many
other step-children.
However, unknown to many, their rosy marriage later had a deep crack
to the extent that they were not staying together anymore. When Peller
was killed at his Onipanu residence, he was in Lagos State for a
function while Lady Peller was living at the GRA, Ikeja. Although they
were not officially separated as they still saw regularly, Peller
checked on her in Ikeja but met her absence. As at that time, they
had already reconciled and were even planning on coming back together
before Peller was prematurely silenced by the assassin’s bullets. Peller
left a message for her to check on him as he was not feeling well and
was rushed to Ibadan for treatment. Lady Peller was furious as to why he
was taken to Ibadan since they had family doctors at the Ajayi Memorial
Hospital and the EKO Hospital in Lagos but upo getting to Ibadan, she
was simply told
that Peller was dead.
She fainted immediately only to wake up to a bucket of water and
intense fanning by family members. She said: “It was a great shock and I
had never seen that kind of things. I don’t ever wish to go through
that kind of thing again.” While he was alive, he also taught her some
magic and
ensured she got some training in Michigan, USA. Little wonder they always performed together and as far as
she is concerned, her religion is not against the brand of magic she performed with her late husband
because according to her, ‘it was not fetish’. She still remembers the
very good old days and says she will not remarry and will still marry
him over and over again, rounding off: They only want to enjoy what
Professor Peller was enjoying for several years. But they can’t have
it.”
DID HE ACTUALLY CUT HIS WIFE INTO TWO?
No. I will not call magic a lie but I will describe it as a
well-oiled pack of grandiose dramatization, outright deception,
fantastic misdirection and uncanny slyness. There is nothing spiritual
about magic, it is nothing but an agglomeration of
well-practised tricks. However, if done well, an excellent magician can
actually ‘create something out of nothing’ or make the ‘possible from
the impossible’ (even if that will look like he or she is going against
the established laws of Newtonian physics, it is all an illusion) in a
very fluid and convincing manner (in that case, I will call many
Nigerian politicians magicians). So what happened that fateful day when
Professor Peller allegedly ‘sliced’ his wife into two but could not put
her back together and she almost ‘died’?
It was at the National Theatre in Iganmu, Lagos and the Lagos
State Governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande was present at the occasion to
represent Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The event started as planned but then
the Peller team decided to throw in a suspense – filled event, as their
usual practice when they have events following one another every
evening. The essence was to create so much suspense so that they will
draw in even more crowd by the next day. So for day one, the idea was to
create an illusion that he ran into trouble while sawing his wife in
half. But then, the next step involved ‘reviving’ her. After the
‘cutting’, which was obviously done with a lot of dramatic effects, the
crowd went into a frenzy and began to shout ‘We want Lady Peller!’,
‘Give us Lady Peller!’. Later in 2012, the 66-year-old Lady Peller was
interviewed and asked about the incident and she insisted that
Peller actually cut her into two and she even sustained some light
injuries. Even in hemicorporectomy in surgery where the entire half of a
human is severed, survival rate is very low.
FAMILY AND CHILDREN
He was a wonderful father and some of his children are as follows:
-TOYIN
-SABURI (aka Pastor Kayode Abiola): Now a pastor, he was born in October
1960 and practised magic like his late father. He gained some degree of
prominence before squandering the profits on women, cars and
ultimately, drugs. Peller tried his best to assist Kayode when he was
alive, he fought with him, took him to court, all to no avail. He later
became a changed man after the demise of his father and the dwindling of
his own magic firm, which he named Fantastic Young Peller.
-NIKE: Probably the most well-known of the Peller children, Nike Peller
is a popular face in the Nigerian movie industry where she featured in
many Yoruba flicks. On the 20th of November, 2010, she was made a
traditional chief and was conferred upon the title ‘Yeye Agbasaga’ (the
Custodian and Promoter of Culture) of Erin Osun, near Osogbo, Osun
State.
-SAHEED (aka Zeeto): A lawyer (he practised in England) and also keen on
sustaining the magic world created by their late father. In July 2013,
he made his sister, Nike, disappear and reappear before an audience in
Port Harcourt, Rivers State. See the video
here:
-SHINA: Handsome and suave, he is always in the news for his partying
lifestyle, love for cars and Owner of popular Lagos Night Club..Club Quilox
HIS DEATH
Yes, Peller was assassinated. It was on fateful day on the 2nd of August
1997. Interestingly, he was killed the same day that Fela
Anikulapo-Ransome Kuti also died. Peller was attacked at his residence
in while observing his evening prayers at Onipanu, Lagos State and he
was fatally shot by unknown gunmen. Nigeria and all kinds of unsolved
murders, brutal killings and blood-curdling assassinations.
INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT PROFESSOR PELLER
-He bore the same names (Moshood Abiola) with another popular Nigerian
and winner of the 1993 presidential elections, Bashorun Moshood
Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.
-Professor Peller was a member of the International Brotherhood of
Magicians, an association for some of the very best of magicians on
earth. Here is the Magician’s Oath: “As a magician I promise never to
reveal the secret of any illusion to a non-magician, unless that one
swears to uphold the Magician’s Oath in turn. I promise never to perform
any illusion for any non-magician without first practicing the effect
until I can perform it well enough to maintain the illusion of magic.”
-Right from their childhood, Peller and Baba Sala, popular Nigerian
comedian, were best of friends. While making his movies, Baba Sala would
include some of Peller’s magical performances.
-During the reign of Peller as the most powerful and influential
magician that ever walked the Nigerian soil, there was this tale of
bitter and intense rivalry with another magician and herbal medical
practitioner from Osun State named Aladokun. Their rivalry was not just
superficial, it also had traces of a clash of principles. Aladokun
represented the typical African traditional magic while Peller was
carrying the flag of the ‘foreign’ and Orient-trained magician. The
intense competition brought about by their fights led to even more
spectacular displays of magic and illusions. At the end, Peller
prevailed, just like Tesla over Edison in the War of the Currents. His
wife also stated that the rumour that Peller was once swallowed by
Aladokun was false.
-Peller was good friends with the late Obafemi Awolowo, his son, Wole
and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, all of whom enjoyed his shows and gave him
tremendous support.
-Professor’s Peller house at the junction of No. 11 Bode Thomas Road and
Abe Street in Onipanu, Lagos now belongs to a parish of the Redeemed
Christian Church of God (RCCG). When the house was put up for sale, many
of the prospective buyers ran away when they learnt it belonged to the
late magician. Nigerians are funny sha…lol! When he was alive, his house
was a well-known destination and schoolchildren thronged to see the
massive picture he put in front of the house, it was Peller in all the
glory of the paraphernalia of his magic.
-Although he is the undisputed legend of magic in Nigeria, Professor
Peller was said to be a devout Muslim who did not miss any of his
Islamic obligations. Here is what his widow said in an interview with
the Nigerian Compass in April 2012: “The Professor Peller you knew in
public was not the same Eerson at home, especially whenever e was
praying. On Fridays, all he enjoyed doing was praising God. He never
missednis five daily prayers. Whenever he wanted to pray, he would just
wear either an agbada or jalabia and nothing else. Whenever he was
praying, he was always very serious, showing utmost piety. In fact,
before he got married to me, he told me that he never observed his Subhi
prayer at home; he would always go to the mosque wherever he was. At
least, we livea together for about 27 years, and I don’t know of any day
he missed his five daily prayers. “Oh, yes! If he was not praying, they
wouldn’t kill him like that. Ask anybody, if he was not praying, he
wouldn’t have been killed just like that. No, no!” She also said that
Peller made a mistake when he revealed in an interview with journalists
that the only time he was without any magic was when he was praying. His
widow believe that his enemies exploited this.
-An extremely confident man, Peller told the African Guardian (Guardian
Magazines) in an interview in 1988, that ‘there is nothing like failure.
I am the last of the world’s great magicians’.
LEGACY
Without a doubt, the late Peller popularized the art of magic in Nigeria
and polished it to such an extent that not even his children have been
able to duplicate. He unarguably remains Nigeria’s greatest magician.
After conquering Nigeria with his conjuring skills, he went
international and received global acclaim. Mention the name Peller and
the next thing that comes to mind is magic. But when he died that
fateful 2nd of August, it seemed magic in Nigeria died with him. Will
there arise another conjurer even far more impressive than Peller in the
land? Time will tell.
