By Ganfuwa
The first time I met John Okafor, was in 1999 or so, when I was still in primary school. Mgbe ahu, he was not yet Mr Ibu the Nollywood legend that the world celebrates and mourns today.
Uboshi nwahu, John Okafor came to our house at Ogunlana street in Aguda Surulere to shoot a juice advert. He came with Saint Obi’s younger brother (who looked very much like Saint Obi), one other unknown up-and-coming actress and other crew members. They told me and my two sisters to act as if we were playing ludo and run to welcome our daddy (Saint Obi’s younger brother) when he walks into the house. That was the script.
At that time, my immediate younger sister Winnie was an extrovert, the most popular pupil in our primary school and the natural actress of our family. Adi m very sure that Winnie would’ve been the Regina Daniels before Regina Daniels if she had been pushed into Nollywood mgbe ọ ka pere mpe.
Long story short, Winnie acted like Winnie by adding salt and pepper to her ludo-playing role. John Okafor and some others praised her when she pulled her stunt. But can you imagine that when mu na my second sister Doris tried to add salt and pepper like our rolemodel Winnie, John Okafor and the others shouted “Cut!” warning us to stick with the script? Chai! Two of us were very shy introverts at the time. We both felt as if the ground should open and swallow us at that moment. We both tried hard to hide our embarrassment while our rolemodel Winnie tried hard to hold her laughter. The three of us played our ludo as quietly as possible, ran to welcome our advert-daddy when he walked in and giggled when he kissed our advert-mummy after drinking the juice she served him.
If I remember well, Saint Obi’s younger brother really enjoyed that kissing part and somehow made sure that it was shot more than once. What I can’t remember was why John Okafor himself didn’t feature in the juice advert with us that day. Maybe he was the location manager or director and simply using his AMURRIcan links with us to make the shoot happen in our house. Or maybe the advert was targeting a Saint Obi lookalike. However, I can’t forget how my daddy’s brother swore that he had watched the advert somewhere and seen us in the advert. Of course, Winnie was always so excited whenever Uncle Sunday repeated his I-saw-you-people-in-the-advert story.
Years later in 2018, I would honour the same John Okafor by mentioning his world-famous Mr Ibu name in my Ganfuwa Amurri hit song.
https://soundcloud.com/ganfuwa/ganfuwa-amurri-by-mmonwu
Till taadunu bu the 3rd of March 2024, a day after his death, mu na umunne m are still waiting to watch our umurichichi selves in John Okafor’s juice advert.
Rest in peace Mr Ibu. Naa gboo, papa o! You will always be a legend of Africa, Nigeria, Nkanuland and Amurri Esatọ Obodo Esatọ ukwu.
