Remembering Christy Uduak Essien-Igbokwe MFR

Christy Uduak Essien-Igbokwe MFR (11 November 1960 – 30 June 2011) was a Nigerian musician and actress. Sometimes called Nigeria's Lady of Songs, she was known for her song "Seun Rere". She was the first female president of the Performing MusiciansAssociation of Nigeria (PMAN). She was also the chairwoman and managing director of Soul Train entertainment limited.

Essien-Igbokwe sang her songs in Igbo, Ibibio, Efik, Hausa and Yoruba, and as well as in English. Essien's fluency in Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, English and her native Ibibio earned her an appeal which cut across tribal lines.

Essien-Igbokwe was born in Okat, Onna Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. She lost her mother at the age of 12 and her father in 2005. Growing up she lived in Aba, Abia State with her late mother's friend who encouraged her singing career and bought her a fairly used cassette player to record her songs.

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Essien-Igbokwe began her musical career in Secondary School singing at various clubs in Aba, Abia State such as Uka Onu's Club and Unikoko. She featured on the Nigerian Television Authority (N.T.A.) Channel 6, Aba programme called 'Now Sound'. During that time a show called 'The New Masquerade' was also airing on the same station . During a taping of one of the show's episodes, she noticed that a cast member was rehearsing his lines incorrectly so she volunteered to correct him and thereafter she was offered a role in the series. In 1976 she joined the cast of the 'The New Masquerade'. Her role as Akpenor, the wife of the cantankerous character, Jegede Sokoya (played by Claude Eke who died in 2002) on that popular show put her in the limelight and in 1977 she launched a professional music career. She released her debut album in 1977 called 'Freedom'. Many of her albums became hit records but none came close to the success of her 1981 hit album 'Ever Liked My Person' produced by Lemmy Jackson.
Always at the forefront of issues affecting women and children, she played remarkable roles in some of the early Nollywood flicks such as 'Flesh and Blood' and 'Scars of Womanhood', both of which addressed issues of child abuse and female circumcision. With a desire to make life better for Nigerian artists, she is credited as having initiated the first meeting that brought about the formation of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria, PMAN in 1981. A year later, PMAN was founded and King Sunny Adé became the president with the late Sonny Okosun serving as his vice, while she was the National Treasurer. Between 1996 and 1999, she was the first female PMAN president. The Akwa Ibom born performer also had the honour of composing and performing what would later be known as her state's informal anthem, "Akwa Ibom Mmi (My Akwa Ibom)" in 1987, its year of creation. The singer, who featured in many national and international shows, operated a shop in Etinan, her native town in Akwa Ibom State where she sold printing machines.

Charity..

Her Charity programmes dated back to 1980 when she started championing the cause of the less privileged in our society especially the Nigerian Child. This is also evidenced in her works such as:

In fact Royalty from the sales of her past albums remains directed towards charity projects and the needy in our society.

• Show a Little Bit of Kindness

• Do You Hear Me Children?

• Seun Rere

• Hear the Call

• Onwegh Ihe Ka Nnwa Na Uwa (Nothing is greater than child)

Posthumous Awards

1. “Entertainment Icon” by West African Women in Leadership Conference (in Ghana) – 2011

1. “Excellence in Outstanding Performance & Hard Work” by National Association of Akwa Ibom State Students (NAAKISS) – University of Lagos Chapter – 2011

Coiled from Christy Essien-Igbokwe Wikipedia Page

STRENGTHS OF A MOTHER (A Tribute By Bienzy Jaja Onumah)

STRENGTHS OF A MOTHER 

(A Tribute By Bienzy Jaja Onumah)

When Bienzy's mom died (Mrs Grace S. Jaja) and we told her we could post a tribute on her mom's behalf, we noticed how sensitive it was to her at that time, although it was just about the funeral rights for her mom, Bienzy gave us the best responses we needed irrespective of her tight schedules. 

After we read her tribute, and saw how well she celebrated her mom, we knew that it can only take the strengths of a woman to birth and grow her daughters.. 

We do not doubt when Abraham Lincoln said : He remembers his mother's prayers and they have always followed him. They have clung to him all his life. There is indeed no love as instantaneous and forgiving like the love of a mother. Especially when she has gone through life to prove her worth to her kids.



HERE IS BEINZY'S STORY.

Some 19years ago Dad passed on, leaving us hurt and wounded, all four kids to be catered for by you our young mother, Who at the time was just 34. 
Life stopped for us all, Family changed…….we went through the African ordeal. 

Our Mother, (Our Hero, Our Legend) 
Refused to let go of a dream of a bright future for her children…she pushed on, she sacrificed 
She went from managing her husbands’ hotels to frying yam and plantain by the road side, Just so we could all remain in school. 


There were days we couldn’t afford a decent meal, but our mum would always find a way 
At worst, we would have atok mboro (unripe banana porridge). How we hated it, but we ate it with smiles cos we didn’t want her to keep crying,
Life was hard, unfair but then we remained positive.


In her words: 
“don’t worry about any property your fathers people have taken from you, 
If you go to school and come out with flying colours…. you can buy back everything, by then these ones will be old model…..” 

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It was probably all we needed to hear.


God became very real in our lives, …I am the Father of the Fatherless and the Husband of the widows was the only prayer we knew how to pray at the time 
Jehovah kept his covenant! 


BIENZY'S TRIBUTE TO HER MOM


Dear Mum, 

Since Dad’s passing, I have held your hands. 
I have loved you, I have made your smile my priority. 
I became your mini husband, you refused to remarry but stayed on to train us. I said to God; may I be cursed if I ever forgot you. 
I asked God for a family and sufficient enough to take care of you. 
I promised to let you see the world through your own eyes and not tales as told by others. 
Ours was not the ideal family but we had love. 
We have been through thick and thin with you, we have never left your side. 

Now at the first sight of sunshine, you let go of my hands. 
It's difficult not to question God, but they say nothing happens behind God. 
It is well! 

Today I celebrate my mum, even in death! 

But then I say to us all, 
In the words of Ronang Keating:
"If tomorrow never comes, 
Would our loved ones know how much we care? 
Would they ever doubt the way we feel about them? 

If their time on earth were through would the love that we have shown them 
in the past be enough to last If tomorrow never comes 

Let us try in every way to show them 
How much we love them? "


RIP, my best friend, confidant, Hero and Mum of life 
It was indeed a privilege to have called you Mother!



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GOLDIE - STILL FRESH FROM OUR MEMORIES

Susan Oluwabimpe "Goldie" Filani Harvey 

(23 October 1983 – 14 February 2013) 

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She was a Nigerian professional singer and a Big Brother Africa star.

She was married to Andrew Harvey. 

She graduated from the University of Sunderland in 2007 with a BA in Business Management.

Goldie had won several African music awards including the Top Naija Award. 

She appeared on Big Brother Africa in 2012 which was her first TV appearance. Allegedly, she and rapper Prezzo another BBA housemate had a close relationship.

After returning home to Nigeria from the 2013 Grammy Award in Los Angeles, California, she complained of a headache and was rushed to hospital where she was later pronounced dead. 

It was revealed through an autopsy, conducted by The Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, that the Nigerian pop star died of ‘hypertensive heart disease,’ which triggered an “intracerebellar hemorrhage."  Goldie, 29 years old at the time of her death, was laid to rest at the Vaults and Gardens, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Coiled from Wikipedia.

Gone but not forgotten.. 

May you soul Rest in Peace..

Final Tribute to Dad – Chief M C A Peterside (24 June 1918 - 15 Jan. 2016) - By Atedo Peterside (Chairman Stanbic Ibtc Bank)

Final Tribute to Dad – Chief M C A Peterside (24 June 1918 - 15 Jan. 2016)  - By  Atedo Peterside 

(Chairman Stanbic Ibtc Bank)

Dear Daddy,

Since Mummy told me on the phone on 15 January, 2016, that you had passed on, I have had an opportunity to reflect upon what I knew about your life, the things you said and/or stood for, what others said and still say about you and the many lessons that our family, community, state and nation can learn/glean from the unshakeable ideas and principles that you stood for.

When I wrote my earlier (and only other tribute), I did mention that my sisters and I learnt as much from cracking jokes about your stern lectures, mannerisms, style of rebuke, tone of voice chosen for the rebuke etc as we did from the actual direct principled message that you repeatedly sought to impart. I also mentioned that your decision to buy shares in a new investment bank which I was about to lead and manage (IBTC) at a tender age (back in 1988/89) spoke volumes, because you only really invested in IBTC (now Stanbic IBTC) because you considered it inappropriate for me to seek outside investors for a venture which my own father was afraid of. This reinforced my desire to preserve the bank’s capital at all times.

Your career as a young medical doctor saw you working in Lagos (where Tonye was born), Bauchi, Ilorin and Jos (where Belema was born) in the old Northern region and then to Enugu, Owerri, Port Harcourt (where I was born), Calabar etc in the old Eastern region. The creation of 12 states in 1967 paved the way for your permanent residence in Port Harcourt where you ended your career as the Controller of Medical Services.

Yes, you specialised in Opthalmology in the early 1960s, but the memory of you responding as the sole doctor in various small cities to every type of medical emergency/crisis is the one that lingers most. In all those cities, your name was Doctor because you were the only Doctor they had in their city in those days - and so you handled everything from complicated childbirths to amputations, heart attacks and even infectious diseases. Because you were permanently “on call”, I decided from a very early age that there must be alternative paths to earning a decent living outside of medicine, which looked like a thankless job to me.

I remember that during the Biafran civil war, as soon as Port Harcourt was “liberated” by the Federal troops, you ran back to the General Hospital to check on the condition of the patients who were too weak and/or did not have the limbs to run away from advancing Federal troops. I was the one that met you at the door to our home when you came back home looking crest-fallen. I asked you what the matter was and you told me that Federal troops shot all those immobile patients to death in their beds. It fitted your narrative of how war was terrible (civil war in particular). This is not to say that you were not aware of repulsive atrocities from the other side. Your pain was complete when you lost all your savings in the civil war, but you quickly worked night and day to ensure that you could send me to university in England less than four years after the Nigerian civil war ended.

That was not your first encounter with war. Your journey to England to study medicine was held up for some years by the Second World War. As a 10-year-old, you told me that Nigeria was heading for a horrible crisis in late 1965 because the federal government was allowing an election imbroglio in the Western region to fester and linger whilst the citizenry were taking the law into their own hands. Your words turned out to be prophetic when a bloody military coup took place on 15 January, 1966. You told me that Nigeria may never be the same again from that day. Your continued emphasis on 15 January 1966 as a turning point in our nation’s history stuck in my head. At that tender age, I could not understand why some senior military officers lost their lives on that day on account of problems that had nothing to do with them. You told me that they were good senior soldiers who would not have tolerated what the younger and more junior coup plotters were up to. I still recall that it was my first painful encounter with the concept of “collateral damage” and it seemed so unfair then and still feels that way today.

One thing led to another until we slid into a civil war. Our whole family was trapped in Biafra for one year. During one of the numerous air raids, a bomb fell in our back garden when you were out and I showed you where it fell when you came home. The only time I was truly scared was when artillery shells were whistling over our rooftop and exploding somewhere else in Port Harcourt. We came out of all that and then you launched a campaign to redraw the boundary of Rivers State because our home (Opobo) had inadvertently been lumped into Cross River State, where we clearly did not belong and where we would have been numerically insignificant in the midst of major ethnic groups that “owned and dominated” the state.

You explained to me that, for as long as ethnicity remained a factor in Nigerian politics, nobody from Opobo, Andoni or Nkoro would have been able to vie  for any serious political office in the old Cross River State. After winning the battle to join Rivers State, Opobo has since produced a senator, a deputy governor and even the governorship candidate of a major political party in 2015 (our cousin Dakuku Peterside).

At the community level you were always very active and also led a 17-year legal tussle over the Amanyanabo stool. What was remarkable was your decision to stretch out a hand of fellowship as soon as the Supreme Court over-turned the earlier High Court and Appeal Court judgments which were in favour of your camp. I wish those agitating for various forms of conflict in our country today would accept your injunction of going to the courts instead of taking up arms and that our judiciary will stand up and be counted always.

I will say it again. Yes, you were a medical doctor and probably Nigeria’s oldest when you passed on in January 2016. Yes, you were an Opthalmologist of repute. Yes, you were a father (who saw his last child turn 60), a husband (for 65 years), a chief etc. Above all, however, you were an influencer and so you influenced both those who liked you and those who did not like you. 

I would like to follow your footsteps and become an influencer - a “force for good” as opposed to the mere occupant of a post.  The Lord knows why your time on earth ended on 15 January, 2016, exactly 50 years after 15 January, 1966 - a date which you had identified as monumental in terms of national problems foretold.

Coiled from This Day News Paper

BOMA EREKOSIMA Alias "Country-Man"

BOMA EREKOSIMA Alias "Country-Man"

When we first contacted the families of Late Boma Erekosima of blessed memory, the second son Erekosima Inye Boma was elated to have their father's memory out there.

HISTORY RADIO RIVERS

The Rivers State Government under Commander Alfred Diete- Spiff exhibited the desire to own and manage its broadcast outfit. legal instrument that gave birth to the Rivers State Broadcasting Corporation (RSBC) was signed into law, on August 24, 1973. It is called Edict No.8 of 1973. The mandate was clear and simple, to create appropriate and favourable identity for the newly created Rivers State which was created out of the defunct Eastern Nigeria.

When the call signal “Radio Rivers” was used and a vibrant damsel Mambo Tumbowei signed on the station on June1, 1978, the project to protect the identity of Rivers people was set in motion unequivocally.

Chief Olu B. Fubara was the General Manager of RSBC (as Radio Rivers alone).

Chief Fubara later recruited a team of staff who were committed and dedicated to the project and service to the state.

They included Mrs Nguba Agolia Aspinall, Johnny Abasa, Mr Ben Okowa and Dr. Cyprian Wonodi while late Ernest Ogbanga came from the NBC-FRCN and others who chose the option to embrace the new Radio Rivers. Truly Radio Rivers kept all the strata of Rivers society as one indivisible entity. This is very much evidenced today.

It is nostalgic to remember beautiful programmes particularly in’ Languages such, Minasiki and Arokereme broadcast to the Okrika audience presented bv Obed Akalogbo, Fari-epere by late Billy Tima Evans to Kalabari audience, Bonalo Lobel to Gokhana people presented by late Dornubari Fulbel, late Felix Kpai and Gody Bazari while  Ikwerre Nbekwelemji to Ikwerre audience was presented by late Wolugbom, Ohaka and much later Augustine Okajile etc.

There were also similar programmes in Nembe, Ijaw, Andoni, Abua, Ekpeye and Eleme among others. 

Programmes in languages were not only the programmes on Radio Rivers but music, news, sports, particularly live coverage of football matches and National Sports Festival as well as religious and cultural festival, such as carniriv 1988 and the present day carnival programmes.

Better still, in search of solution to enlighten a multi ethnic audience such as Rivers State, Radio Rivers introduced the use of Pidgin English tagged “Special English” as an official language of public communication on radio in 1984.

Pidgin English on Radio Rivers shot late Isikima Harry and Boma Erekosima to stardom. It is pertinent to observe that before then, the innovation of Pidgin English was not in official use on any radio station in Nigeria.

To serve the state even better on May 2, 1981 the Rivers State Government added Frequency Modulation (FM) to the stable of RSBC. The FM Station was signed on by the veteran Dafini Gogo-Abbey. Radio Rivers Am and Radio Rivers 2 FM Stereo not only ruled the airwaves but kept the policy thrust of the founding fathers alive.

Unfortunately, Rivers people lost the Am Station of RSBC Radio Rivers in 1999. The implication remains the collapse of local and indigenous languages of Rivers people in a fast growing city of Port Harcourt and Rivers State at large.

By - Baridorn Sika. 

TRIBUTE BY FAMILY

Below is short tribute as put together by the family of late Boma Erekosima alias "countryman" of blessed memory.

Nineteen (19) years. 

It is but like yesterday. 

On that faithful Sunday morning, we all prepared to go to church when skies became darkened. The streets became silent and the echo was heard of the fallen of a gem-You our dear Daddy. Looking back at the things you thought us, we do find solace knowing your teachings and mentoring are not vanity. 

We live actualizing all you planned for us. 

Love you as always.

By the family.

THE KING OF TALK RADIO

Boma Erekosima was also called the The 'King of Talk Radio', his voice symbolised the people-oriented philosophy of the station Radio Rivers 2fm Stereo. He always started off his show "News in Pidgin English" at 11am and 6:30pm with this introduction : 

"Country people, na the thing wey dey happen for this we country I wan tell una so. The person una dey hear him voice na Boma Erekosima"

He was one of Radio's Finest Voices in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria during the 70ies and 80ies.

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It has been Nineteen years since he passed on, but we cannot get enough of his pidgin philosophy, unknown to many Nigerians...


Boma Erekosima's Quotes

1. Monkey smart monkey smart na because tree near tree. 

2. You go fit tell blind man say oil no dei for soup but no be pepper.

3. Na situation make crayfish bend.

4. Fly wei no dei hear word na im dei follow dead body enter grave.

5. Craze man say craze dei sweet but the problem be say treking too much.

6. No matter how teeth and tongue quarrel dei must settle because them dei leave for the same house and them need each other.

7. Weather say him tier for human being. Rain fall den complain say cold too much, sun shine den say heat too much. Which one you want.

His marriage antonyms.

1. B.A. - Begin Again.
2. M.A. - Manage Ahead. 
3. P.hd. - Put Hunger Down.


We know what great memories people hold to late Boma Erekosima and the nostalgic feeling attached to such a wonderful personality. 

Aduei Country Man - Boma Erekosima   

Adieu Madam Victoria Uzunma Diidi

Madam Victoria Uzunma Diidi

Madam Victoria Uzunma Diidi a native of Amachara, Umuahia South L.G.A, Abia state, was an epitome of what motherhood should look like. She was until her demise a mother to three children, two boys and a girl..

When Maya Angelou said :  “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.” that was exactly what it felt like writing a tribute to her memory by her children. 


Her son,  John Kpoobari Diidi had but the best ways to express his profound love on her one year remembrance... He wrote : Mom it's been a year without your motherly love, care and affection. I am still shocked as to why God decided to call you home early. Mummy it has not been easy without you being that you were not present to witness my graduation from school and my upcoming convocation. It is sad that you didn't eat the fruit of your labor. I just want to say that I will continue in the part you taught me and make sure that you always smile when you look down from heaven. 

Mummy till we meet to part no more, keep resting on the Side of the lord.

What we have come to accept in life is that there is an end, but what we as humans have decided to comfort ourselves with are the memories we cherish of our loved ones...

We believe what Oprah said that : “ the choice to become a mother is the choice to become one of the greatest spiritual teachers there is.” ~ Oprah


Adieu Madam Victoria Uzunma Diidi
     
               (1955 - 2015)

TRIBUTE TO DAD (REV JORNSEN AKPAN)

TRIBUTE TO DAD (REV JORNSEN AKPAN)

Some say: “there’s light at the end of every tunnel”; others say: there are silver linings in every dark cloud… I sat, watched, hoped and prayed that this could be the case. Days passed by, then months and then reality stepped in and I came to find out that that’s how it’s going to remain. Years have passed by and now 18 years down the line, I still miss you like it was yesterday.

There were no phones, but like Shakespeare said in ROMEO AND JULIET, "bad news travels faster than good news" ; the message got to us swifter than a jet across the Atlantic.

January 10, 1998 was like doom’s day. My ears were heavy. My head was light, my brain blank. I could barely think. I could hardly believe it. I had to see you myself to believe it was real. I’m so sure I wasn’t alone in this… we got on board and sailed the land like it were a sea and in no distant time, we got to where your body laid. I had to touch you, call on you, and dare you not to respond… How could you do this to me? How about all the promises you made me? How about the hopes and dreams we shared. The institutions you promised to send me to so I could become all that you wanted of me? Like the twin ivory towers on September 11, all my dreams came crumbling down.

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Like soldiers of the cross and your infantry that we were, we quickly gathered in circles and clusters and began to pray. Innocently we all felt it was impossible for you to go … I held your feet and called your name for hours, yet you didn’t respond. How could you not respond to my call? I have never called you three times and you do not respond or at least shout back at me: “Can’t you see I’m busy?” Then I’d know I got your attention. That was when it dawn on me the true definition of #death.

So this is what death truly means? Does this mean I never get to talk to you again? How long will it take for you to come by? This can’t be this forever. This is so cruel. Who will I run to? Who will I turn to? I was barely a teenager, how can I face the world out there all by myself? Your “Little Esther” is home, how are we going to explain this to her?

Months later, we led a band of buses to Afaha Ubiom (your hometown) where you would be laid to rest. People from all works of life were gathered. Canopies filled your front house. Alas, a funeral… So this truly is how the story would end? I was made to read biography and how I did that without breaking into tears, how that happened, I cannot remember.

I took my camera and had photos of you lying still in-state… mom was helpless, if only you could hear her cry, you’d listen to the one you loved most… hours later, reality kicked in again. There you were, 6 feet below… Now we were left to our fate.

The next month I came back with my results with no proud father to show it to… Mum was too sorrowful to look at anything… All her sentences ended with: “if only your dad was here”… I told myself someday I’ll do all the things you wanted me to do and I know that that is exactly what you’ll want of me…
Daddy; Unyime is now Pas Ben Unyime-Jornsen, he now Pastor's a church known as THE EVER GLORIOUS WORD MINISTRY . A graduate of Geography and a proud father of three (3). Aniekan is now popularly known as Steward Godwin Jornsen and the Senior Pastor of IN HIS NAME BIBLE CHURCH; you see those computers he used to fiddle with at Mensah’s place? He’s now a Genius in it. He’s father to five (5) wonderful children. Uwem is now Pastor Uwem Joseph and has taken your place as Pastor in MOUNT ZION HOLY GHOST CHURCH INC where you co-founded. I’m quite sure you’ll be proud of him. He’s father to three (3) wonderful children. Imaobong (Love) is now Mrs. Love Imaobong Emmanuel. She saw herself through the higher institution and is now married and a proud mother of four. A sight you would have loved to behold. As for Kokoette, he’s gone International. He’s now known all over as K-O BABA. I can’t list the things he does for money and I’m certain he too can’t, but you would have been so proud to. Your baby, Esther is not doing poorly too. With an OND and a husband coming soon. People said I was your direct replica, I’ll walk in your stead but that’s a story for another day; at least you got three (3) Pastors already, that is obviously more than you bargained for. At least I would have showed you your daughter-in-law to be and I'm certain you would have loved her.

Lots of your children, you took in and father I may not have the resources to mention so as not to leave some out are all doing marvelously well.
Oceans may dry but i'll never forget the memories i have of you.
One thing is sure, that one thing that gave us all the hope and strength to fight relentlessly. There’ll be light at the end of the tunnel, and my silver lining I shall see when WE SHALL MEET AGAIN TO PATH NO MORE.

ADIEU PAPA
REV JORNSEN AKPAN


Son