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Chika Okpala, popularly known as Chief Zebrudaya Okoroigwe Nwogbo, alias 4.30, in the TV show, New Masquerade, some years ago recalled how he joined James Iroha (Gringory) and others in the drama series that brought joy to households in Nigeria and beyond. He also remembered how he shook hands with General Yakubu Gowon and Theophilus Danjuma after a presidential jet came to take them to Lagos for performance.
Read a part of the interview:
“One day, I saw my friend that was conscripted into the army. He told me there was a place they were doing rehearsals with James Iroha. There were top government officials involved. When I got there, someone told me it was for ‘senior’ people and that I should sit down behind. I was saying no, I could act. Then James Iroha came and said he found me interesting.
“He said he was the producer of a play, ‘Sons and Daughters’, and that he would cast me as a backup artist to some other actor. I said no problem provided I was in the group and in the cast. Eventually we prepared ‘Sons and Daughters’ by Joe De Graft of Ghana and it was a wonderful piece. The then administrator of the state, Dr Ukpabi Asika, sent for us to perform for him and we went there and it was wonderful.
“He later took us to Kaduna for the army week and we performed there. We met so many army officers, including Theophilus Danjuma, and shook hands with them. Two weeks or three weeks later, we got a message that the Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, would like to see our play which was being talked about so much.
“A presidential jet came and took us to Lagos. We were applauded after the performance. We were so happy. For the first time, I shook hands with the man we had fought the Biafran War with, Gowon.
“He liked us so much. He said, ‘Look, we are brothers and sisters, we should forget about the past.’ That was how the show catapulted me to fame. Then James said he had a group called ‘In the Lighter Mood’ and intended to reactivate it on TV because it died during the war. Eventually it was reactivated and we started ‘The Masquerade’ and covered our faces because we needed to tell the military government the truth about what they were doing to the masses.”
Ethnic African Stories.
SB E-news.
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