American-based lawyer and public affairs commentator, Owolabi Salis, has joined in mourning Ms. Onyeka Onwenu, celebrated songstress, who died after performing at the birthday celebration of her friend Stella Okoli.
The Ikorodu-born Lagosian described her exit as the passing of an era, adding she set the entertainment scene ablaze with her showmanship.
He noted Onwenu was ”not just a goddess of songs, but a multi-talented genius – reporter, writer, actress, among others.
“Not only was she an exemplary symbol of womanhood, she was an illustrious child of Igboland, a pride of Nigeria, Africa and the black race”, Salis noted.
He lamented her sudden death, saying this was a woman full of life, and untimely bade a painful goodbye for the surreal realm of eternity.”
“This is why for a woman who not only radiated life, but was the epitome of life herself, one cannot but lament the dreary prospect that one would have no option than to refer to her in the past tense.
‘‘This is why I felt touched not only as a Nigerian but more particularly as an Igbo-titled High Chief, Onyema Ndigbo Gburugburu of Etiti Mgboko in Abia State,” said Salis .
The lawyer-politician contested for Lagos State governor on the platform of Alliance for Democracy in 2019.
He recalled the “Elegant Stallion”, as she was fondly called in her lifetime, as a quintessential bridge-builder and model of a detribalised Nigerian, who in her lifet-time,was unpretensively hundred percent Igbo on one hand,just as she was equally hundred percent Nigerian on the other hand,in judicious emulation of the Biblical dictum to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.
“As a detribalised bridge-builder one remembers with nostalgic memory,his collaboration with King Sunny Ade to wax the epic hit-song “If You Love Me You Will Wait For Me”.
“One also recalls the strong moral and patriotic courage with which she fought and championed the cause of the late Afro-Beat king-pin,Fela Anikulapo Kuti during his detention by the Buhari-Idiagbon regime.
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The import of this gesture would not be much fully grasped until one recalls the sternly dictatorial nature of the military government in power at the period in question, which was notorious for its intolerance of opposition, especially through the obnoxious Decree 2,with which they gagged the press and hounded journalists in prison”, remarked the widely acclaimed social critic and activist .
Apart from the fore-going ,was her remarkable familiarity with notable Nigerian leaders like Chief MKO Abiola,and ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo among others.
“I remember witnessing on a particular occasion, when in the course of an interview, she burst into a rapturous laughter, expressing that rumors had been so rife at one time or the other, of her alleged romance at various times, with King Sunny Ade and Fela Anikulapo Kuti, just as the same rumor mill had it that she had a secret wedding with a former Nigerian president, which according to her were all lies.
And don’t forget that her first and only legally married husband,for whom she bore two beautiful boys,was a Yoruba man” .
“It is in this sense that one clearly perceives her cosmopolitan world-view, as expressed in her detribalised propensity as a bridge-builder, as epitomized in her epic hit,” One Love Keep Us Together, which coincidentally was her last rendition during her performance at that fateful birthday celebration” remarked Salis.
He admonished all to emulate her exemplary sense of unity.
Like Miriam Makeba, the universally acclaimed Mama Africa who passed on far away in Italy, right on the act, doing what she knew how to do best, Onyeka Onwenu, her indisputable successor as “Mama Africa”, also gallantly passed out, doing what she knew how to do best. May their great souls rest in perfect peace”.