As if in fulfilment of the saying that life is a stage that human actors take in turns, iconic artiste, Onyeka Onwenu, has died.
She was said to have departed on Tuesday at the age of 72.
According to an account by ‘The Niche’, Onwenu , who was a legendary singer and actress, passed away on Tuesday night at the Reddington Hospital in Lagos after slumping at the birthday party of Mrs Stella Okoli.
“It is very sad. Onyeka Onwenu just performed at the birthday of Mrs. Stella Okoli today (Tuesday, July 30, 2024), and after performing, she slumped.
“She was taken to Reddington Hospital and she couldn’t make it,” the eyewitness said.
However, the deceased’s family has yet to announce her death as of press time.
Onwenu will be remembered for her music albums such as ‘In The Morning Light’ and ‘Dancing In The Sun’.
She also featured in the Half of a Yellow Sun and Lions Heart, among others.
Born 31 January 1952, Onwenu was a singer/songwriter, actress, human rights and social activist, journalist, politician, and former X Factor series judge – an online profile indicates. Dubbed the “Elegant Stallion” by the Nigerian press, she was a former chairperson of the Imo State Council for Arts and Culture. In 2013 she was appointed the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the National Centre for Women Development.
Onwenu hails from Arondizuogu, a small town in Ideato North, Imo State, southeastern Nigeria, but was raised in Port Harcourt, the capital city of Rivers State, Nigeria. She was the youngest daughter of Nigerian educationist and politician D. K. Onwenu, who died when she was four years old in an autocrash a week before his appointment as Minister for Education, leaving his widow, Hope, to raise five children alone after her husband’s family denied her access to his property.
Onwenu possessed a BA in International Relations and Communication from Wellesley College, Massachusetts, and an MA in Media Studies from The New School for Social Research, New York.[10] She worked for the United Nations as a tour guide before returning to Nigeria in 1980 to complete her mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), in Lagos, Nigeria.
As an NTA employee, Onwenu made an impact as a newsreader and reporter. In 1984, she wrote and presented the internationally acclaimed BBC/NTA documentary Nigeria: A Squandering of Riches which became the definitive film about corruption in Nigeria, as well as the intractable Niger Delta agitation for resource control and campaign against environmental degradation in the oil rich region of Nigeria.] A former member of the NTA board, she has also worked as a TV presenter, hosting the shows Contact (1988) and Who’s On? (1993) both on NTA Network.
