By Ifemesia Iferenta (aka Furious Frank)
I remember everything so vividly, even as the heart-shattering news of her sudden exit this morning from planet earth hit me hard, granite-like, between the eyes!
She had just released her latest song then, DANCING IN THE SUN. and In a media comment, I dismissed the new song as “epitomizing a stylistic volte-face” which earned the ire of the elegant stallion. She was hopping madder than a hatter! At this time, I was a Columnist for the PRIME PEOPLE, the biggest soft-sell magazine in the country and my critical views were much reverred across the arts industry. I was still in my twenties then.
You will be amazed what Onyeka did next as a response or ‘rebuttal’ to my critical salvoes. As a seasoned communicator herself, she opted to quickly begin writing her own column in the same popular PRIME PEOPLE Magazine. From this crucial, coign of vantage, she started firing lethal shots at me week in, week out. I also lubricated my sharpshooters and started exchanging a rat-a-tat of gunfire with her. This in-house pen war raged on the pages of the same magazine between us for a while until the Management of PRIME PEOPLE intervened and called for an immediate ceasefire on both sides!And the war ended thereafter and we became friends again.
I sigh with exceeding strains of sadness and distress today as the news of her passing away hit me: that vivacious, affable and charismatic iconic personality of Africa whose creative seepages shook Nigeria for decades. Her massive, chartbusting song, ONE LOVE (a perky song that blows my mind ad Infinitum), says everything about the vitality of her creative thrust. Her BBC-sponsored documentary, A SQUANDERING OF RICHES, shook the entire world. In cahoots with the British Broadcasting Corporation, she bravely exposed the stink of graft in Nigeria, the same malodorous graft which still rankles till today and has been significantly responsible for the pauperization of millions of Nigerians right now. The same “Squandering of Riches” Onyeka whined about then is still “squandered” today by the scions of the same perennial political predators!
Goodnight, Onyeka Onwenu, the rumbustious Elegant Stallion, Songwriter, Musician, Journalist, Nollywood star and astute Administrator. Rest well!
Death abolishes even the resplendence of beauty!
...Ifemesia Iferenta is a renowned writer, author, poet and media columnist. NNL.
