Lasun Alagbe
Death has again sneaked into the Nigerian theatre and movie industry as veteran actress, Sola Onayiga, has passed on.
The beautiful and amiable Thespian, who played the role of Ireti in ‘Fuji House of Commotion’ TV series was said to have died on Monday, July 18, 2023.
The sitcom’s producer, Amaka Igwe, had earlier died in 2014.
Although the family of the actress who was also an evangelist has yet to make an official announcement concerning the development, industry sources that include Shaibu Husseini and Seun Ooketuyi have relayed the cold news in different online posts.
“I have just been informed that the accomplished Stage and Screen Actress and Fellow of Theatre Arts Auntie Sola Awojobi Onayiga has passed on,” he announced on his WhatsApp group Platform.
“Auntie Sola who is best known for living delightfully the role of Ireti aka Cooking practicals in the defunct television sitcom ‘CHECKMATE’! Reportedly passed on this morning,” Oloketuyi says.
Before emerging as one of the stars of ‘Fuji House of Commotion’, Onayiga has acted in old soap, ‘Checkmate’.
But the actress who also left an indelible mark in Nollywood never forgot how she really launched herself on stage when she played the role of Queen in Fred Agbeyegbe’s play, ‘The King Must Dance Nked’.
She noted in a profile on ‘Mordern Ghana’:
“My most challenging role is that of Queen Odosun in the King Must Dance Naked. In preparing myself for this role, I worked very hard. I devoted all my time to it. I delivered the role the way it should be delivered. At the end of the production my director was highly impressed by my performance.
“I was among those who started some Yoruba drama on television. I have played many roles on TV. When Checkmate was about to start, I read the note for the audition. But I told myself that I should not go. I believe in auditions as the best way to test your ability as an artist. But it is just that there are auditions I attended and at the end of the day, I was not picked. It was not because I wasn’t good but in most of the auditions, the producers are on the look out for beautiful faces. So, I told myself I would not go for auditions for television drama. I told myself, perhaps, I am not beautiful enough to appear on screen.
But Bolaji Dawodu, the director of Checkmate came to see a friend at the National Council for Arts and Culture when he saw us at a rehearsal he told me that he had a particular role for my kind of person and invited me to come for audition. So, I went along to see him and I was given the role of Ireti in 1991.”
