By Jimmy Fatunbi
Acting icon Joke Silva, former director general of the Nigeria Stock Exchange Oscar Onyema, former president of the National Institute of Public Relations, Nkechi Alli-Balogun, amongst others paid tribute to the legendary singer, actor and journalist, Onyeka Onwenu (MFR) as she was laid to rest in Lagos, Nigeria on Friday, 30 August.
“We were at the party together; we were on the same table. At some point while she was performing when she was going around the room, she came to me. You know, I’m a super armchair dancer. I don’t like getting up to dance, but I love dancing on my chair, and she was performing, and I was enjoying her performance and was dancing to it. So she just came round the room to where I sat and pulled me up, and we had a bit of a twirl.” Silva said, as she remembered dancing with Onwenu just before she slumped and died in what has become her iconic last performance.
“She had to fight for everything she had.” said Alli-Balogun. “Onyeka is one lady that has worked so hard in her life. Nothing came easy. She worked hard, loved hard, fought hard, and related hard. Through it all, she triumphed. Never compromising her personal reputation. I mean, no matter what the gains will be, the first thing Onyeka would think of is, what would people think about me? What exactly am I going to get from this? How is it going to impact me as a person?”
Her friend and stylist Maureen Onigbanjo spoke about Onyeka’s commitment to her family and their privacy: “She became an ardent client who turned a friend and a sister. A few years after we met, I had my first son, and she was there for me. She brought me flowers, and she was also there on his first birthday, and she brought me flowers.”
The tribute documentary aired during the Service of Songs at her church headquarters, Fountain of Life in Ilupeju, Lagos. It was produced by Chude Jideonwo, host of #WithChude which also featured Onwenu for her first major interview following the release of her biography ‘My father’s daughter’ in 2021.
Jideonwo called her “literally Nigeria’s greatest female voice and one of its greatest voices ever” as part of a series of tribute posts over a 5-day period following her passing.
Onwenu was buried a month after her passing in the Ebony Vaults, Ikoyi, Cemetery – at an event witnessed by former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, among others. The burial followed her wishes in a viral article to be interred “quickly, quietly and privately.”
