• Thursday, April 25, 2024
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Onyeka Onwenu releases memoir

Onyeka Onwenu

Onyeka Onwenu, Nigeria’s music legend reputed for her secretive personal life has announced the publication of her memoir – ‘My Father’s Daughter.’

The autobiography which is set to be released on October 1, 2020, is a deeply personal account of the life of the iconic musician.

Onwenu who spoke to journalists at virtual pre-book launch briefing ahead of the release also says Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable.

Onyeka explained that the new book – My Father’s Daughter’, which contains over 450 pages, is designed to give inspiration to the younger ones, especially the younger feminine gender, since it encapsulates her low and high moments, through life.

According to her, the book will also examine aspects of her life that are hitherto unknown to the public and would be formally unveiled on Thursday, October 1, this year.

It would be in e-version and audio and accompanied with some classics of the music legend.

Ahead of the country’s independent celebration, she charged Nigerians to play less on tribalism but focus on the positives inherent in the different ethnic groups that make up the country.

Using her marriage to a Yoruba Muslim that produced two children as a reference, the 68-year-old music star known as the stallion due to her exploits in the nation’s polity, enjoined every Nigerian to uphold the country’s unity and stop insulting and denigrating each other.

“We are blessed with the richness of our culture and everyone should see themselves as one and not let divisions break the country,” she asserted.

The music icon called on the people of the South East, especially those in the diaspora, on the need to develop the region; which she said had continued to suffer marginalization and neglect.

“It doesn’t take away whatever you are doing in Lagos, Abuja, or Port Harcourt. You are free to live and do business wherever you are but remember back home. We are being marginalized for a long time. And our people have always done things for themselves,” she said.

“We built the Imo Airport. I was part of the process. It remains the only airport in the country that was built by the citizens and handed over to the Federal Government,” she further said.

“My father went to school abroad, people in his home town collected money and supported him. That’s how we do things, we are communal people. So, I’m not afraid to go back home,” she added.

The human rights activist cum politician, when asked for her views on the agitation for self-sovereignty by some groups in the country said she would return to the South-East region to contribute her quota to its development if it comes to fruition.

She recalled once joking with her sister-in-law, who is also a Muslim, that she would leave her children for “Biafra” if the country splits and her decision would be due to her commitment to contribute to the development of the South-East, which she said, had been marginalised for long.