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I HAVE always wondered why singing pearl, Onyeka Onwenu (MFR), is called the elegant stallion. And every time the thought of it comes into my mind, I find no answer to the question. Why on earth would a woman be called a stallion?
I HAVE always wondered why singing pearl, Onyeka Onwenu (MFR), is called the elegant stallion. And every time the thought of it comes into my mind, I find no answer to the question. Why on earth would a woman be called a stallion? Is a stallion not a male, untamed and badly tempered breed of a horse? What could have prompted that name, l could go on and on and still not get an appropriate answer. My curiosity got the better of me as l set out to unravel the mystery behind the name, The Elegant Stallion. I got her nod to interview her.
At the end of my encounter with iron lady of the music industry, l discovered that unlike many men, Lady Onyeka has more guts and balls. A no-nonsense woman, she would not compromise anything or be intimidated or bow to the demands of male chauvinists, even in the face of threats. This particular attitude, those who know her intimately say, may have prompted the name elegant stallion and l couldn't but agree with that. However, like the crocodile, Onyeka has a soft underbelly. She is in love with only one man, the father of her three sons. And like every other woman, Onyeka had her own share of infatuations before falling flat or is it head over heels in love. OGBONNA AMADI brings to you vintage and undiluted Onyeka Onwenu:
Let's talk about love
I HAVE been madly in love and still very much in love, absolutely crazy and passionately in love with one man, the father of my three sons. I know you know him, but you see, I don't discuss such passionate issues on the pages of the newspaper.
One thing is certain, as a Christian, I'm a one woman, one man person and very passionate too. I'm a very faithful friend and mother to my husband and children.
As a young woman, I had my own fair share of thinking 'I am in love'. You know how it is, the young woman meets Mr. A and thinks she's in love. Before she knows it, she's fallen several times in love. Love is something that should be celebrated and encouraged in the society.
What's new about Onyeka
The idea of having our thing as female musicians has been in the pipeline for a long time. We realized that apart from PMAN, which is the union, there was need to have an association that will cater for the needs of the female musician. If you remember, in the 80s, women were really on top of things in the music industry and we were doing such good works. But gradually, they began to drop one after the other and at a point, I felt I was the only one standing.
l began to approach some of them. I remember I approached Dora Ifudu and asked her "why have you guys decided to abandon this responsibility to only me".And she smiled just as you are doing now and said, "Onyeka, I just had enough". And I realized that unless we had a platform on which we could come together, things will continue to remain the way they are. It pains me that big companies are doing shows and there is no woman …ok they were starting to bring artistes like Mama Gee which was good, but there are many other women.
Latent talent
To encourage the women, I started doing shows by inviting some of them and I realized the latent talent coming out of these women and yet they had no one to speak for them, had no one to represent their interest.
So we got together and said, "look, we are living in a democracy, there is free association, why can't we be meeting and articulate issues, not only in the music industry but also in the society as a whole?" So we began to come together and what struck me about the whole thing was the enthusiasm that greeted the formation of the Association of Female Musicians (AFEM). We said to ourselves, we are not going to say to the society, "oh you are doing this to us, give us back this or that, we were going to say to ourselves, can't we give back to the society?" So one of the first things we did was to become concerned about the less privileged and the handicapped beings in Nigeria.
We organized a highly successful concert for the children of the Heart of Gold Orphanage managed by Laja Adedoyin, it was shown on TV. It was a wonderful experience and the children had a ball. Not only that, they were given books, toys, and clothes and as a matter of fact, they were treated like royalty and the women took turns to perform for them.
At the end of the show, we handed over N215,000 to these children and that is on record. The next thing we did was to begin interactive session with the Nigerian chapter of the Business and Professional Women (a very old international NGO). Together, we had a very successful concert on AIDS awareness. That particular concert was to recognize the special issue of AIDS as it concerns women. You know this AIDS affects women more than men. In continuation of that, we also decided to record an AIDS album and right now, we are in the studio working.
... And here comes Charly Boy Along the line, Charly Boy
became threatened by our success and our determination. He began to infiltrate, cajole, threaten and harass the female musicians individually.
The last straw for me was his going after those that wanted to travel abroad, saying if you don't come out of AFEM, we are not going to help you get visa. He got in touch with the embassies to ground these people, in other words, you are not giving them a clean bill of health as musicians in Nigeria. Now, that's really attacking someone in the pocket, and denying her from making a living.
Now, the women are standing to him and saying; 'Charly Boy, you are fighting women and you are going to go down. We've done nothing to you, and we are not a threat to you, we are not a union, we are an association and we do have a right to come together.' I'm offended by the fact that in this law abiding country, Charly Boy can harass people with okada people and also close down streets.
I'm asking the people and government of Nigeria, what is going on, what are we breeding here?
We are breeding a human being who has no respect for constituted authority, one who has no respect for his colleagues and no respect for the Nigerian people or the Nigerian government. And I'm asking again, how long are we going to allow this to continue? I'm not just going to sit down and watch because when you touch a female musician, you touch me.
Salawa Abeni
You are going to have to ask Salawa Abeni that, l'm not going to give you any information that has been given to me. She's there, you can go and ask her. When you threaten Salawa Abeni, when you injure her profession, you injure me, you touch any female musician, you touch me. And I'm saying to Charly Boy, get ready because it's going to be a showdown and I will prove to you that this country belongs to all of us.
I don't care what kind of connection you think you have, I'm going to tell you that I have greater connection which is God Almighty. And I have the right to exist, the right to earn a living and the right to progress with my life.
Tina Onwudiwe Charly Boy and I addressed the press and we said at the end of raising funds for Tina, we owe the Nigerian public, the school children who sent their pocket money, corporate entities, governors that sent in money, we owe them the obligation to state exactly how much we collected and how it was disbursed, that's how I work.
When Tina Onwudiwe died, there was plenty of money remaining. I called Charly Boy and said let us sit down, have a meeting and do the accounting, let me bring in an accountant. Let us take the remaining money and hand it over to Tina's children. She's still owing hospital bills, the children are yet to pay school fees and let's declare to the Nigerian public, that was our agreement.
We would call a meeting and phone Charly Boy and his wife to say I'm on the way. By the time I get there, they would have locked me out. Charly Boy became unavailable. I Iooked at myself and I asked, at my age, would I allow anyone to use me? The answer I gave to myself was no. So I decided to write him not once, twice or thrice, I wrote seven letters, no reply, no communication, no meeting, no action.
Again, I took the decision to call on people who were mutual friends to talk to Charly Boy. Tony Okoroji was able to bring him to my office and in the midst of trying to state my own side, Charly Boy got up and attempted to attack me physically in my office. And I asked him, ‘do you think you are mad, do you know who you are dealing with? You touch me and you'll see. At a point, he and I were standing eye ball to eye ball and I dared him to touch me. Tony tried to settle the matter and the decision taken was for us to make public the Tina account and how the money was spent.
Years after
I never saw Charly Boy again until some years after when he came to me and said ‘ah Onyeka please forgive me'. I said to him, ‘I forgive you but no amount of begging will erase the fact that we collected money we have not accounted for'. When he became president, I knew exactly where he was going. I wonder how he was able to get companies to pay him. I look at what happened with NBL, I'm not surprised. The fight between Eedris and 50 Cent was orchestrated by Charly Boy.
It was planned by him and it was targeted at the corporate body for no other fact than that they did not dance to his tune Some good ideas have come out of PMAN lately but I'm sure they are not Charly Boy's. They are lots of good people like T-Mac who are working with him but with genuine intention of moving the industry forward but he is going to mess himself up. Charly Boy is brash and has no respect for anybody.
I'm asking Charly Boy to back off from AFEM, back off from the female musicians or you are going to have a fight in your life that you will regret.