Onyeka Onwenu (2020), My Father’s Daughter. Lagos: Expand Press Limited. ISBN: 978-978-57929-3-5 (paperback); 978-978-57929-4-2 (e-book).
Reading a book posthumously gives every word an uncommon poignancy. The words acquire an oracular potency and meaning.
Onyeka Onwenu dedicates the opening lines of her book to four dead people. They are young relatives of friends: Michael Izuchukwu Egbuna, son of Chinelo Egbuna; Oradilim Orakwusi, son of Margaret Onyema Orakwusi; Ucheoma Otigbuo, daughter of Onyeaka’s sister Dr Ijeoma Onwenu-Otigbuo; and Olawale Onigbanjo, son of Maureen Amanechi-Onigbanjo of the House of Maufechi. It caught my attention this time because of the recency of her death.
Despite the author’s recent departure, these opening five pages of dedication stand out in their unique voice upon a second reading. Pathos is not the dominant theme in Onyeka Onwenu’s life narrative. Instead, she offers a vibrant retelling of her life’s journey, the people and institutions that mattered, and the reasons behind her choices. It is a narrative that is both candid and bold, a true reflection of Onyeka Onwenu.
My Father’s Daughter delves into the personal relationships of a gregarious personality. Four of the Five Fs of life feature prominently: faith, family, friends, and fame. Fortune, the fifth F, is present, but this wise woman, who kept her private matters to herself, does not mention fortunes.
The book has eleven parts and over 80 sections/chapters, including an introduction, preface, and prologue. The section titles are good pointers: Finding My Roots, the War Years; Going to America; Home Coming, Music and Me; Ties That Bind; Politics; Encounters; Whose Life Is it Anyway? Serendipity- A Love Story; and Sister Goes Home.
Many personalities of the last 40 years appear in this book. She shares many narratives and opinions. She calls the chapter Encounters.
Onwenu’s Encounters features Gani Fawehinmi, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Chief Martins Agbaso, Chief Sam Mbakwe, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Margaret Onyema Orakwusi, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and Mrs Patience Faka Jonathan.
Others are Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Captain Issa Bayero, Prof Jerry Gana, President Muhammadu Buhari, Tony Elumelu, Professor Uche Amazigo, Dele Momodu, Kofi Annan, and Ms Tyna Adora Onwudiwe, aka ‘African Oyinbo’ (White African).
She also mentions Bashorun MKO Abiola, General Sani Abacha, President Felix and Madame Therese Houphouet Boigny of Cote d’Ivoire, Justice Eugene Ubezonu, Mrs Cecilia Ko Mbadiwe (Omekadiya -One who behaves like her husband.
In “Their Father’s Daughters All”, Onwenu lists women she considers special. “I know them when I encounter them. They have confidence in themselves and make no apologies for their strength. They have nothing to prove to anyone, except to themselves, for the high expectations they have. These women possess the innate ability and mental conditioning right from childhood to succeed. They are not afraid of the world but take it head-on.”
My Father’s Daughter is a book of many mini stories written with sociological imagination. You get from it the flavour of many happenings around Onyeka Onwenu and Nigeria.
As noted, the Encounters section is one of the exciting chapters.
Before then, she debunked some of the many tales around her as an influential woman. They include alleged relationships with Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Sunny Okosun, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Here are some of her remarks in Encounters:
Chief M K O Abiola: My relationship with Chief Abiola was based on mutual admiration. He called himself my “big brother”, and I was honoured. At the launch of my album Onyeka in 1992, he declared to the world that he considered me his favourite African singer. He stormed the event with his eldest son, Kola. I was not expecting him because just a week earlier, his wife and my friend Dr Doyin Abiola, had launched the same album to the press. That on its own was sufficient honour for me. But MKO chose to double my joy, and it was a day never to be forgotten.
Raad also: In Memoriam: Seven songs that will keep Onyeka Onwenu alive forever
Mrs Patience Faka Jonathan (former First Lady of Nigeria) Her sense of humour is guaranteed to leave you in stitches whenever she unleashed it. She could laugh at herself with depreciating candour which only the truly self-confident possess. This former First Lady of Nigeria is filled with ‘street’ wisdom and a discerning mind. When she presented her analysis of Boko Haram activities in the country, many laughed at her appraisal of the violence. They have since stopped laughing. She was right.
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar Late in the afternoon of the day after the elections, I asked my hosts to take me to the airport. They knew about my challenge to God, and they simply laughed but decided to humour me. They also knew that there were no planes flying. As we approached the airport, it was clear that there were no activities there. I was being consoled with promises of more dry fish to take back to Lagos with me if I waited till the following day, but I would not be discouraged.
Lo and behold (as my maternal grandfather Papa Nnukwu would say) there was a small, private jet revving up on one side of the tarmac as we drove in. I turned to my hosts and said, “God has sent a private jet to take me home”.
Truly He had. I was ill and had planned to report to the hospital for a scheduled operation in a matter of days. It turned out that the aircraft was there to fly Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his family back to Abuja. There was at this time every indication that he would be the next Vice President of Nigeria. Earlier on, he had won the gubernatorial race in Adamawa with Boni Haruna as his running mate. I spoke to one of his wives who gave me permission to approach the future Vice President. I was given the only remaining seat on the aircraft and it took me all the way to Lagos, after dropping off the Atikus in Abuja.
Gani Fawehinmi In 2001, I embarked on a hunger strike to protest my ban on Nigerian Television by Mr Ben Bruce, the all-conquering Director General of the government-owned Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). The ban was imposed because of my demand for my residual fees on work done for NTA and for copyright dues for the use of my song Iyogogo in the network for over eight years.
During my protest outside their headquarters where I had camped out with my supporters and the press, Chief Gani Fawehinmi showed up with a crowd of his followers -the man in the street- who surrounded him everywhere he went. They blocked Ahmadu Bello Way where NTA is situated. Gani stood on top of his car and in a loud voice declared, “Mr Ben Bruce, we are watching you. Nothing must happen to Onyeka Onwenu.”
Gani proceeded to extol my qualities, if not virtues, recounting as it were, both those I deserved and those I never knew I had. Such was the force he deployed to any cause he found worthy.
Ken Saro-Wiwa Ken Saro-Wiwa died in the pursuit of the best interest of his people, the Ogoni of the Niger Delta. He was a martyr, along with all who have died in the pursuit of justice in Ogoniland and Nigeria.
My encounter with him many years before his death was public knowledge. Our disagreement centred on the role he assigned to Ndigbo before, during, and after the Nigeria-Biafra war. His feelings about Ndigbo were tainted, I believe, by the lies and conspiracies of a government whose main interest was to seize control of his region and the national wealth.
In 1989, Ken Saro-Wiwa published a book entitled On A Darkling Plain. In it he accused Ndigbo and their leader, Emeka Ojukwu, and the Biafran Army of atrocities against the Ogoni people during the three-year conflict. These lies were perpetuated by people like Ken Saro-Wiwa who were either deceived or in denial of the truth. The atrocities they referred to were carried out by others but blamed on Ndigbo.
My Father’s Daughter now counts as one of the literary treasures of Nigeria both for its content and quality and because of its writer, the inimitable late Onyeka Onwenu. It is a rich story. I advise that every bibliophile and Nigerian concerned get a copy ahead of Ms Onwenu’s funeral to honour her and enrich your knowledge of Nigerian affairs
