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Late Esiri: The Legend & The Father

Chronicled by Afronuts @ Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Justus Esiri
1942 - 2013
RIP

The rate at which the grim reaper is harvesting lives is becoming alarming by the day. This February alone has seen the passage of three personalities of the entertainment industry; Goldie Harvey, Lugard Onoyemu and Collins Ifeanyi Chukwu (Goldie and Lugard passed on, on Feb. 14th while Collins passed on Feb. 15th). Now Veteran actor Justus Esiri, mostly known for his role as the Village Headmaster in the popular television series, has joined the bandwagon of the beyond.

Esiri as The Village Headmaster in the 1980s

With Balogun (Wole Amele) on the Village Headmaster.

The Oria, Abraka, Delta State born actor passed away on Monday night after a battle with an undisclosed ailment at the age of 71. The family had kept his battle with the ailment hidden until now. An excerpt from a tribute to him from Nigerian Entertainment Today:

"Esiri, Member of the Order of the Niger (MON), was for many years, a leading man in drama and movies, and one of the few in his category to have successfully crossed over from stage and TV, into the home video industry now popularly called Nollywood.

He attended Urhobo College Effurun in the then Bendel State, Warri.

He also attended the Maximillan University, Munich, German, 1964, Prof. Weners Institute of Engineering, West Berlin, 1967 and the Ahrens School of Performing Arts, 1968.

It is believed he started his acting career in Germany. He was the only Nigerian male performing on stage between 1968 and 1969.

According to reports, he also worked for Voice of Nigeria, German Service as a translator; and it was while performing on stage in Germany that a delegation from Nigeria invited him home to perform in a government sponsored programme. He never returned to Germany."

I remember watching Mr. Esiri being interviewed by Helen Paul on Jara, an entertainment program that airs periodically on Africa Magic sometime last year. It was actually in this program that I got to know that he was also father to one of Mavin record's artistes - Dr. Sid.

Dr Sid (Onoriode Esiri) and Father, Justus Esiri

Mr. Esiri shared at length with Helen Paul how he was at first bothered when he learnt from his son, Onoriode Esiri (Dr. Sid) that he wanted to pursue music as a career despite his training to become a Dentist.

He eventually let the young man do what he wanted and avidly supported him. He even claimed to be a fan too. He did a small rendition and dance step of Dr. Sid's songs to prove to Helen that he was in sync with his son's dreams.

Jara show anchors; Uti Nwanchukwu and Helen Paul
Image courtesy www.africamagic.dstv.com

It was a heartwarming interview that left a message for any parent watching. Sometimes its hard agreeing with a child's passion but its most important that one let's go and let God.

The soft-spoken but firm Esiri was a fun-loving and scandal-free actor; a reciepient of THEMA Awards, NTA Honours Awards and AMAA Awards amongst many others.

He was married to one wife with six children.

May his soul rest in peace.

The Curious Case of a Crushing Student

Chronicled by Afronuts @ Monday, February 18, 2013

I embarked on a comparism research after an incident that happened to Funmi, a member of the family who also babysits Timi and A.Y. She’s the same lady in that post entry titled ‘The Rally Incident’ whom A.Y. was defending from a dude that approached her. Funmi’s a Junior Secondary School teacher at a boys-only high school and one of the few pretty young female teachers in the school. No doubt about it, she and her female colleagues are bound to have admirers from the men folk. What she didn’t bargain for was the fact that one of them who would take a desperate step would also turn out to be one of her students.

Funmi with A.Y. and Timi

The student in question was from the Senior Secondary section where Funmi had been temporarily posted to stand-in for another teacher who was on maternity leave. This young fellow had been crushing madly after her and couldn’t afford to sit down and pine away in love. He literarily stalked his teacher on her way home so as to know where she stayed. She had caught sight of him following her but she had thought it was just a coincidence; she was even disappointed that he had not offered the courtesy to help her carry the extra bag she held. Unknown to her, he just wanted to know where she lived.

Later he came up to our flat and asked to see her.

When she showed up, he told her that his Mum would want her to do private lessons for him and that he would like to have Funmi’s number to give to her to call and make arrangements.

Smart Funmi refused and rather asked for his Mum’s number instead.

After he left, she called the number only to discover that it was a fake.

Days later he stepped into the staffroom to inform her that it was her period to take their class and she seized this opportunity to punish him for what he did – dropping a fake number.

It was in the course of being punished that the boy confessed that his friends had pushed him to it. His friends were called to also face punishment as accomplices. When his friends joined the punishment, they spilled the beans about their friend’s crush for Funmi.

The boys were punished by teachers in the staffroom for the ‘misdemeanor ‘; one of the male teachers as a matter of fact registered his jealousy because he had been eyeing Funmi. He couldn’t believe a schoolboy got to her Funmi before him.

Unknown to Funmi, the boy had dropped a love letter for her at our door the day before and was thinking she might have seen it and would respond amorously to him the following day when he called her for her teaching period.

The Love Letter

Unfortunately, none of us including Funmi had seen the letter until when she got home that day. It was by chance that we saw the envelope tucked somewhere near the door.

When Funmi saw the content of the letter, she was enraged and decided that she would drag the boy out during the morning assembly and make him read what he had written.

At this point wifey and I decided to step in and advice her not to.

One thing that I’ve come to understand about student crush on teachers is that it’s something that’s definitely bound to happen in any school where students are within their stages of puberty. These are children experiencing changes and flow of hormones within their bodies; there’s tendency to have that feeling towards anybody, even if it’s a teacher.

I advised Funmi to let the boy be since he had already been punished and made to understand where to draw the line in a teacher-student relationship. He had already been humiliated in the staff room. To further read his ‘love letter’ to the whole school at the morning assembly would ‘kill’ him inside and birth some form of bitterness that could build into something catastrophic in the future.

When a student crushes on his/her teacher, it should be seen as one of those puberty moments which should be wisely managed and strategically handled. Beating up the student and embarrassing him or her before other teachers or the whole school would only backfire on the student’s psyche. Such students need more of counseling than punishment.

If you’re a teacher and you find yourself in such a case, please handle it likewise, you could just be saving that child’s self esteem and psychological development.And if you're a parent and you find out such is happening to your kid, have a heart-to-heart talk with your kid, don't embarrass him or her.

Well...that's if you ever find out.

The Last Meeting with Goldie [Video]

Chronicled by Afronuts @ Friday, February 15, 2013

I just loaded the video as a sort of tribute to Goldie.

Susan Oluwabimpe Harvey

1982 - 2013

RIP

Goldie's Death: Chilling Account by Namdy Nwabasili

Chronicled by Afronuts @ Friday, February 15, 2013

Twitter was ablaze last night of the chilling news on Goldie's tragic death. I was online till late in the night gathering the info. At first it was believed to be a rumour or publicity stunt, There was even this false news (click link) that festered a bit of confusion. The best info came from people who were at the scene where Goldie was rushed to Redignton Hospital around about 7.55pm and pronounced dead. She was even said to be dead on arrival.

Namdy Nwabasili of Cool FM, tweeted live accounts of all that happened yesterday as Goldie was brought to the hospital.

What a day (Valentine Day!) for such a tragic thing to happen. I still can't believe the same Goldie whom I saw last week with Denrele and had talks with has passed on. I still remember things she said during that meeting - 'Please keep in touch oh' and when she and Denrele were about to see the CEO and I had to turn back to head to my office she said, 'Are you leaving us already?'. Little did I know that I would be the one saying this two weeks later...'Goldie did you have to leave so soon?'

RIP Susan Oluwabimpe Harvey

And its Valentine...

Chronicled by Afronuts @ Thursday, February 14, 2013

Hearts Are Red

Oceans Are Blue

The Perfect Day

Is Being With You

A Day Of Love

A Basket Of Flowers

Barefoot On The Beach

With You For Hours

Tossing A Blanket

Down On The Sand

Enjoying The View

While Holding Your Hand

It's All About

Simplicity

You & Me For

Eternity.

(©Brandy Fenner)

Muuuaaahhh!

Happy Vals Day Honey.

Love you lots!

AND A HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO YOU ALL

Consequencies of Dissing Goldie's Make-up

Chronicled by Afronuts @ Wednesday, February 13, 2013

You know how painful it is when you've gone through so much to look and feel good and someone comes along and disses it? I guess that's the way Goldie felt when a girl 'misyarned' and got fired back by a 'butt slamming' reply from Goldie. It was so amusing it got 104 retweets and 40 favourites as at the time of this entry.

So what's the lesson to be learned here?

Never address a celeb directly about flaws in their outfit or make-ups. Keep it to yourself or just retweet it without including their mention so that they don't get the memo directly.

Unless you just love to brew tweetfights...

Super Keshi, Super Eagles!

Chronicled by Afronuts @ Monday, February 11, 2013

I just love it when someone who has been unnecessarily criticized, castigated and labeled as arrogant simply for believing in his own competence gets the last laugh. Its amazing how people suddenly chew their words and suddenly embraced the person they once crucified once the glory becomes his.

Coach Stephen Keshi and team captain Joseph Yobo
at press briefing after the match.

Stephen Keshi, the Nigerian Coach who led our Super Eagles to winning the African Cup of Nations yesterday had gone through so much as people rubbished his competency and strategies of the game. But I admire the man for his doggedness and refusal to be influenced by anybody. Football in Nigeria has really been a mess as politics has crept into it and factions here and there are trying to make things work their own way for selfish reasons. People did not believe in Keshi and his boys at the beginning

Even right from the very first game where the performance was not impressive, many had started 'disowning' the team and telling them to pack their bags and get ready to be coming home.

People called the Super Eagles names; 'Super Chickens' and 'Super Pigeons'.

After yesterday's final where we won the cup, people started mouthing their support for the eagles; some started screaming that FC Barcelona should bring their team to come and contend with the Super Eagles!

Not only have the Super Eagles Team won the AFCON cup after 19 years but they have equally set some records. Stephen Keshi has set a record as a player who once lifted the cup years back and is now lifting the cup as a coach to a winning team. Also, he sets the record as the first black coach to lead a team to winning AFCON.

Again, this team was quite an unusual one because it consisted of a number of indigenous players, one of them being Sunday Mba who scored the winning goal of yesterday's match. Also everybody assisting the coach were Nigerian, no foreign input was included.

Amazing.

The same Keshi that was ridiculed and bad mouthed, is now flying high with his boys; all over the place people are singing his praises and raising him in esteem; even on screen, the fans waved his name in the air. All across Nigeria, he's been seen as a hero.

Sunday Mba

Even Sunday Mba was also ridiculed and believed to be a player who had nothing to offer. But his heroic feat at the final is enough to change his status from indigenous to international player. He had on another ocassion almost scored another goal which was deflected by the Burkinabes.

I listened with chuckles to this early morning's radio broadcast on different stations as humbled commentators and on-air personalities who had lambasted Keshi ate their words, swallowed their commentary arrogance and congratulated him. Nigerians sha!

There's been a heavy debate that Burkina Faso star player Bance
may be related to Yoruba actor Mr. Latin...lol

There are lessons to be learned from what Stephen Keshi and his boys have been through.

Never listen to people, only listen to your own heart.
When the going gets tough and all is looking lost, keep going because its not over yet.
Anytime people bad-mouth you over your hard work, just ignore them and take it that they are ignorant.
Treat your team like family and keep up their morale when the world outside is deflating it (I got to know that Keshi knew how to always sweet-talk his boys before every match).
Nothing is impossible, even when you stick to your guts and ignore your detractors.

Goal Keeper Enyeama, out of joy of winning attempts to carry the referee
and ends up just ramming his head in the man's butt...lol

The Burkina Faso team with their assortment of 'blonde-haired' dudes gave Keshi and his boys a tough time. I made note of their love for dyeing their hair and beards blonde on twitter and asked the question why and was told that it was 'Babalawo behaviour' (Thanks to Coy-Introvert for that!). I later got to understand that Burkinabes sabi 'jazz' well well.

Our Report sheet

Well, if they applied jazz, we applied God, chikena!

And so to end this I'll say; 'To God Be The Glory'

*Roll credits!*

Only in Naija 3 [Photos]

Chronicled by Afronuts @ Saturday, February 09, 2013

Yeah! Welcome to Naija, the only country where harsh situations, circumstances and ignorance are inevitable comic relief. This series just won't stop as long as these insane scenarios litter Naija and the internet. I had to add the Nigerian president doing the Gnamgam style. Can we ever get him to actually do that? I mean....if Michelle Obama could appear on an iCarly episode and Governor Fashola of Lagos State could play football; GEJ should be able to throw some steps shey? I guess the country's problems would never allow for that.

And so the photo list goes thus::

Only in Naija will you come across a car kept under burglary proof.
I guess the owner hasn't finished paying for the car loan and
couldn't afford to build a garage in his face-me-I-slap-you apartment.