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| Ejike Asiegbu |
The nation’s
film industry otherwise known as Nollywood was agog recently when the news
filtered in that one of its top stars and veteran actor, Ejike Asiegbu, has
finally returned to action, starring in a big budget movie, after some years of sabbatical.
SHOWBIZPLUSNG, learnt that the movie,
an initiative of the Association of Movie Producers (AMP),
is being directed by fellow actor Desmond Elliot.
Asiegbu,
popularly called ‘The Godfather’ was busy, during his long absence, with the
Actors Guild of Nigeria AGN politics, a body he headed as its president in an
era which saw the then moribund body come to life. The former AGN president’s
time would go down in history as the first time the actors’ body would ever
have a functional secretariat. He started the Health/life Insurance scheme that
the present president, Ibinabo Fiberisima is building on at the moment. After
his term at AGN, Asiegbu was appointed Special Assistant to the Abia State
Governor on Entertainment and later he became an Ambassador to an NGO
advocating for the rights and welfare of premature babies. He has been busy
travelling across Africa and Europe as an ambassador of the NGO. “I have been
busy and all these years, I missed my primary constituency-Nollywood. I missed
everything about Nollywood; that is why I have decided to stage a comeback
because the pressure has been on me from family, friends and fans across
Nigeria, Africa and the world. Everywhere I went, people walk up to me and the
first question they ask is; “why is it that you no longer feature in movies”?
No matter how hard I try to make them understand that I have been busy with so
many other things, they don’t understand and the expression on their faces is
that of betrayal, like I have robbed them of some inner joy, joy and happiness
they often experience, perhaps when they see me in a movie. It makes me feel
sad but what can I do? I just had to carry on with the most important things at
that point.”
The actor
whose acting career dates back to his starring in the television adaptation of Chinua
Achebe’s tragedy novel Things Fall Apart,
said he reflected on the decision to stage a comeback to what he knows how to
do best. “I finally made up my mind to come back home, home to where I belong
and put smiles on the faces of people again, something I have been doing for over
three decades. So, yes, I am back, tell the world I am back and in a big way
too because this movie I am on its set now will make Nollywood quake, that is
all I can tell you, for now.”
It will be a
refreshing change to see the familiar face of ‘The Godfather’ once again on our
TV screens, one is hoping that years of being off the set won’t affect his
roles interpretation, something that had stood him out among his contemporaries,
being a trained Theatre Artist. “I am still the same Ejike Asiegbu, and a
reloaded ‘Godfather’ for that matter. I am like the proverbial wine that tastes
better after sometime in the cellar. That is what I am,” he said calmly.
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