A 78 Years old veteran film director and actor, Asiwaju Muritala Oyewole Olowomojuore, popularly known as Baba Gebu speaks to GBENRO ADESINA on his journey into the entertainment industry and laments neglect his generation suffers from younger actors and actresses. Except:
Q: Can you tell us about your growing up?
A: I am Asiwaju Muritala Oyewole Olowomojuore, alias Gebu Father or Baba Gebu. Some people still remember the good old days when I was into publishing with a pen name, Kengbeoro. These people still know and call me Kengbeoro as well. I am a native of Ile-Ife. My father and mother are natives of Ile-Ife. I was born in Ile-Ife in 1946. I am 78 now.
Q: What month were you born?
A: September 3, 1946. I came from a very poor background and that took a toll on my education. I started my primary school education in 1954. My biological parents didn’t bring me up. My maternal uncle, a senior brother to my mother, brought me up. His name is Pa Jonathan Olawoyin Odunlade. He is from a royal family in Ife and a descendant of Obalufon. My father was a devout Muslim. He had the chieftaincy title of Otun Balogun. My mentor was a Christian and wanted me to attend a Christian school. My father, a staunch Muslim wanted me to go to a Muslim school, and he enrolled me at Ansar-ud-deen Primary School, Ogbon Agbara. But my guardian fought tooth and nail and withdrew me from the school. I left Ansar-ud-deen Primary School at the end of 1954 and was enrolled at St Peters Anglican Primary School, Iremo, Ile-Ife, in 1955, where I passed my primary school certificate. I finished in 1961, but couldn’t go to secondary school in 1962 because of lack of funds. While in primary school, my teacher discovered my talent in drama and got me involved in the dramatic society. At that time, it was a convention that divisions in the West were engaged in drama competitions to mark the festival of arts and culture, and the best schools would go to Ibadan, the state capital, to perform for a greater audience in the annual festival of arts and culture. I represented my school between 1957 and 1959, either as a drummer or as a singer. I formed a small group. We sang at wedding ceremonies, birthday ceremonies, and child-naming ceremonies. At the time, they know me in my area as Omo Ogunde (Ogunde’s child). I was a regular listener of Hubert Ogunde’s songs on the radio. I loved Ogunde’s records being played and I felt like singing exactly like Ogunde. In trying to mimic Ogunde and coupled with the talent I have, I mastered his voice and style of singing so much that whenever he came to town, I would break any fence to watch his play at the community centre hall, which was at Aderemi Road in Ile-Ife. I was hypnotised by his style of performance. I almost lost the chance to attend secondary school. In 1963, my mother braced up and ordered me to stop singing and I returned to school. I told her that she and my father didn’t have money to send me to secondary school. She promised to sell anything sellable to send me back to school. In 1963, I was enrolled at Origbo Anglican Grammar School, Ipetumodu. I was forced to live with a teacher who happened to be my cousin, a junior brother to my mother. He was then employed as a teacher at the school. This money problem continues to militate against the smooth running of my education. Hardly did I finish that year in that secondary school. To worsen the situation, my brother was transferred back to Ife. I had to leave that school and come back to Ife. My mother continued to struggle to keep me in school. I did an entrance examination to St John Catholic Secondary School, Ile-Ife. Our principal was a Canadian. We had four white men as tutors. Due to lack of money, I left the school again at the end of 1964. My father happened to be a staunch politician and was popular in Ife for that. He knew Chief Obafemi Awolowo as a member of the Action Group. Later, he came in contact with Fani Kayode, who had the upper hand in politics of that time. My father used his influence to get me a scholarship. Without this, I wouldn’t have navigated and passed my school certificate exam. With the scholarship, I got admitted to Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife. At Oduduwa College, what happened to me during my primary school era replayed itself. The school had an English language drama society. I asked the school authority to allow me to form a Yoruba dramatic society which was honoured and I established a Yoruba dramatic society. My fame quickly rose in that school so much that everybody in Ife couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw us performing. Whenever we had a stage play in the evening, with the aid of microphones, our voices would echo far away beyond where we were performing. When they hear the sound, they will say, that is Muri or Olowomojuore. Our teachers were fond of me. When we were about to leave school, the University of Ife was established in 1967. The school wanted to host a conference of Yoruba teachers. They have heard about the young dramatist performing wonders at Oduduwa College. They came to our principal, Rev D. O. Olayinka asking that the school allow its Yoruba dramatic society to entertain the conferees. We went there. The professors and the organisers of that conference saw my performance and they marvelled at the dexterity with which I was singing like Ogunde and acting at the same time. They invited the press to cover the story. I could remember that Chief Adebayo Faleti came from the WNTV/WNBS. We only heard about his name. I didn’t know him. That was the first time I knew him. There was somebody who used to be an old member of the Alumni Association of Oduduwa College, who was the comptroller at Radio Nigeria, Alagba Olaniran Ogunyemi Ogungbemi. He was also present. I didn’t know he had pencilled my name for a future job opportunity. When I left school, it was that man who first asked my principal about my whereabouts. He got me at last and asked me to work for Radio Nigeria. So, I was employed in 1969 as a studio manager in Radio Nigeria with a school cert.
Q: When did you finish secondary school?
A 1968, precisely. I spent a few months as a studio manager working with the continuity announcer before I was seconded to the Yoruba section where I became a newscaster. From that Yoruba section, I was deployed to the drama department, where I assisted the manager, Mr Lekan Ladele.
Q: How long did you stay there?
A: I stayed about one year in the drama department before I went back to the Yoruba section. In all, I spent five years in Radio Nigeria. The volume of work was so enormous and at that time more work was the reward of hard labour. I nearly died with the volume of work I was made to do. I was overloaded. They discovered my talent also in the writing composition of Ewi, Yoruba philosophy. That was the time Lanrewaju Adepoju was calling the short in that line. He was presenting Ewi daily. I was tasked to do the same thing for Radio Nigeria. I did it. Every morning, you have to listen to Oyewole Olowomojuore in his Ewi rendition.
Q: Can you give us one?
A: It is not possible. It has been over 50 years since I did it. I spent five years in Radio Nigeria. I had to leave work because of its high demand which was affecting my health. I joined the West African Book Publisher, Academy Press, Ilupeju Lagos in 1975, as an Assistant Editor for a Yoruba magazine called Atoka, a premier Yoruba photoplay magazine. I became editor in 1976 and left in 1979. When I felt, I didn’t want to work for anybody again, I wanted to be on my own. At the time I worked with Radio Nigeria and Academy Press, I came across all the leaders of theatre groups, starting with Pa Ogunde, Pa Duro Ladipo, Pa Akin Ogungbe, Ayinla Olumegbon, Chief Jimoh Aliu, Ishola Ogunsola, and others. That was how I was incorporated into the midst of the famous leading theatre practitioners. After leaving Academy Press, I came to Ibadan to establish Yoruba Magazine. When I was with Atoka, Chief Moses Olaiya, popularly known as Baba Sala used to be my good friend. We both lived at Yemetu when I was in Radio Nigeria. He came up with the idea that we should form a company that would be producing a magazine that would resemble Atoka. I agreed. Together, we formed Mofam Communication. He was the Chairman and I was the managing director. We tried, we struggled a lot and we achieved our aim of producing a photoplay in 1980, which was very identical to Atoka. We named the magazine “Ibukun Alawada”. We did it barely for two years when motion picture, cinema, film, and celluloid film came up as a transition with Ade Love blazing the trail, I think with Kadara. After Kadara, he produced Ija Ominira in conjunction with Duro Ladipo. At this point, Baba Sala became restless. He wanted to delve into the film industry again. In trying to do that he was running helter-skelter to get a loan with which to make his film. That was how our magazine died. To make his film, he ran around and fortunately for him, he got a loan through the assistance of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He employed Ola Balogun, the premier Yoruba film director in Nigeria. When Ola Balogun appointed me as one of his assistants to produce “Orun Morun”, that was how the magazine died finally. Also, that was how I got introduced to the movie industry. This time, as a film director. The fact that I came through that angle was responsible for me not featuring in acting which would make people see me all the time. As a film director, you have to be behind the camera. By that time, Ade Love stuck to acting and producing. He was a producer and actor. He later learnt the rudiment of directing, and later started directing his films. He stopped Ola Balogun from directing his films. It was myself and Adeyemi Afolayan who constituted the directorship of filmmaking.
Q: Around what year was that?
A: In the early 1980s.
Q: And you didn’t attend any formal training or workshop?
A: I learnt on the job and improved myself by reading books on cinematography. Later, with the decline of the film industry which resulted from the cost of production that incredibly skyrocketed and went beyond people’s reach, we, the directors of that time started losing jobs and relevance. That was how video and film were involved. By the time video and film production were involved, we, the elderly people in that industry and profession thought filmmaking was losing its credibility. The standard of filmmaking dropped. We tried to discourage it at that time, for which the younger ones in the industry hated us like mad and they still hate us today because they thought we didn’t want them to grow but it was a monumental disgrace that Nigerians can no longer make film. It was Baba Ogunde alone who could afford celluloid film at that time. Later, through the help of the Nigerian film unit, our people started obtaining loans to meet the cost of production. Ade Love succeeded in continuing with the production of celluloid, Baba Sala’s Awada Kerikeri also enjoyed that facility, otherwise, the last would have been made in 1984 or 1985. Later, we saw some people bringing in projectors that were very sharp and with a video film that was shot with a high-profile camera. We started having better pictures on the screen via that new projector. That was how video film became popular and it came to stay.
Q: Was there any time you considered furthering your education?
A: It was my stupidity and juvenile delinquency that was responsible for not furthering my education. I had the opportunity like every other person to take study leave, especially when I was in Radio Nigeria and go for a diploma in Mass Communication or go for a degree programme in Theatre Art. I will not blame that on anybody but myself.
Q: Can we conclude that you will encourage aspiring ones to pursue degree programmes?
A: Of course. This is not to say that degree is a determining factor for you to emerge as a celebrity. It is hard for anyone to believe that I am not a university graduate. Nevertheless, anybody who says that education is expensive, let him try ignorance. People should earn a degree in their chosen career. With sound education, you will be better at what you are doing.
Q: Why have you stopped acting?
A: Money is everything. First, you either have money or you are sponsored to do your film. The reason why I have not made films is, one, as a film director, if the job is running, and well engaged, you will never feel like making a film of your own. You will enjoy directing. And you are satisfied with the money coming from it when you are well paid. Now, losing patronage, when the film industry collapsed, you want to find a means of not losing touch with the profession and that is what will lead you into making your films. This will lead you to want to act. So, I had no money, the advantage of taking a loan wasn’t there, no bank to help me. I have no brother and sister who are buoyant enough to finance me. All those are responsible for not seeing me on the screen. Now, for people who are lucky enough to make a film, I told you the story of how filmmaking lost its credibility due to the high cost of production which destroyed the film industry so much that we now embrace video film, which have come to stay. And you know the role we elders played at that time discouraging the younger ones from lowering standard and destroying the industry. They hated us so much that when the video film came to stay and was thriving, they maligned us and they deliberately schemed us out. We the elders are now only living in the past glory. They are saying that they should help themselves to make the type of film that the old people have made. This is the time of the youth, let us develop ourselves. Let us abandon those old men. That was the major factor that brought about my fading. It is not me alone. It affects many of us in my generation.
Q: So, how are you coping?
A: Well, it is through the grace of Almighty God and the fact that I am into media practice. I am into advertising and jingle production. Anybody who wants to consult me for a jingle, I am available. I tried to come back into publishing but it was capital-intensive, so, I failed. Thank God I am in my house and I don’t have to pay rent. With the little things that come from advertising, I manage to survive. Mini-farming, piggery, two fish ponds, goat rearing, and a little farming for home consumption, I am surviving.
Q: So, you are no longer acting?
A: I am still acting.
Q: When last did you act?
A: Just about three weeks ago, I was called by Kunle Afod to play a role in the new film that he is shooting. Kunle Afolayan has engaged me at one time or the other in the production of movies, including Citation. We are going to another film location tomorrow which belongs to the national body of our association.
Q: What do you want your audience to take away from your role in acting?
A: The mastery of the role I am asked to play.
Q: Is there any similarity between you and the character you play or act?
A: There is no similarity.
Q: Your profession, doesn’t it affect your home?
A: It doesn’t affect my home at all because I have lost patronage. People don’t engage us, we, the elders of the profession. So, I am much more at home than away to location.
Q: What is the most rewarding moment in your career?
A: My most rewarding moment is in the interaction with junior and senior professional colleagues especially in the administration of the association that we all belong to. I am so much married to the Association of Nigerian Theatre Practitioners and it makes me happy at all times.
Q: What is your most challenging moment in life?
A: My most challenging period is now. I am more or less out of a job, I lost my wife just about three years ago which informs my loneliness, aggravated by caring for some orphans and other dependents even in my joblessness. My most trying period is right now.
Q: Is anybody staying with you at home now?
A: The orphans are staying with me and my grandchildren, who also incidentally lost their father about 10 years ago.
Q: Is it correct to say that your generation has been rejected by the younger ones in the entertainment industry and how do you handle that?
A: Emphatically, we have been rejected but God’s sustenance is our consolation. We lived on what we had achieved earlier. Just about five weeks ago, one Non-Governmental Organisation came to me and said they have a programme they are working on centred on the empowerment of veteran celebrities. They said they wanted to celebrate with us in September 2024. We have got the consent of Ooni of Ife for the use of Ile-Ife and his resort to accommodate participants. They are planning to empower veteran celebrities and make financial grants available. They want to build hospitals for the veterans to curb the habit of going on air to beg for money whenever they are sick. They want to empower us so much that we will be self-sustaining, and self-sufficient to some extent. That is God.
Q: Do you have a project you are working on?
A: I have no project that I am working on. How can you work on a project when you are penniless?
Q: Is there any lesson you have learnt that you would like to share with people?
A: The major lesson that I have learnt has to do with preparing for tomorrow. No matter how meagre your income is, save. Don’t live an ostentation life. That is what has kept me, otherwise, if my life had been that of extravagant living, one would probably be regretting now or one might have died. So, I will want to advise the younger ones to know how to save for tomorrow.
Q: What do you do in your free time?
A: Gardening and reading.
Q: What do you read, newspapers or novels?
A: Newspapers have suffered patronage. The patronage of newspapers has suffered diminishing returns as of now because you have your phone. If you want to get news, go to your phone, everything is there. I love storybooks. I hardly come across newspapers nowadays. I like reading story books and acquiring more knowledge.
Q: What do you have to say about the state of Nigeria?
A: What I have to say is what the masses are saying. You know what the masses are saying. What you are thinking about the present regime is what I am thinking. What you are saying about the regime is what I am saying. But my passionate appeal to the government as regards the plight of the people who belong to the theatre industry and film industry, the entertainment industry, in general, is that the government should take better care of Nigerian celebrities because they are the nation’s ambassadors. Abroad, it is said that celebrities live in affluence, while we live in penury in Nigeria. Why can’t the government make provision for the art industry as it is done in the sporting sector? Can you imagine the type of affluence life a successful footballer lives? The government just closed their eyes to us. With the programme coming up on September 7, 2024, in Ile-Ife, celebrating veteran actors and actresses, I appeal to all the tiers of government to come and do something significant to support the NGO that is putting up this project. They are planning to launch an endowment fund that will enable them to start paying pensions to celebrities who are suffering. The government should take the lead in embracing and assisting such a project. Any time from now, letters will be flying to the offices of South West governors and the governors should heed the call of this NGO.
Q: Among your siblings, what is your position?
A: I am the 5th but you know my father is a polygamist, just four wives. My mother is the first wife. I am the 3rd from my mother.
Q: What does it take to come from a polygamous family?
A: You know it. You know what it takes; rivalry, and petty jealousy, that determine the success or failure of a child depending on the characteristics of the warring wives or factions.
Q: Did you take after Dad?
A: No, because I didn’t live with my biological parents. So, I didn’t experience the agony of rivalry that is prevalent in that kind of situation.
Q: Are you a polygamist like your father?
A: I never married more than one wife.
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