BOB EJIKE TAKES NIGERIA TO DUBAI
Multi-talented Nigerian artiste Professor Bob Ejike will represent Nigeria at the international cultural extravaganza that will hold on 29th November, 2012, the International Student Day, at the Middlesex University Dubai, which will showcase music, dance and other cultural displays from 35 nations of the world.
Bob Ejike, the critically acclaimed, award-winning veteran musician, writer and Nollywood actor, who has been tagged Nigeria’s King of Pop, and Nollywood Ambassador by local press and his band will be draped in Nigeria’s national colours as they once again make Nigeria proud. Ejike’s performance on the show was confirmed last week by the organizing committee of the event after a meeting with his management which sealed the deal and this are the reasons why. Bob Ejike was born in Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria. He began reading Chinua Achebe at 6. In primary school at W.T.C Practicing School, Enugu, where he was known for his ability to create and narrate stories spontaneously, he started acting in the school theatre. He later gained admission into the prestigious Government College Umuahia from where he commenced writing for Drum Magazine, sharing the short story page with Ben Okri (later to win the Commonwealth and Pulitzer literature prices). Ejike soon began to write for local dailies and writing poetry and radio drama, distinguishing himself in this popular tradition as the youngest columnist and theatre director in Nigeria.
Ejike later graduated to writing television drama scripts and started taking singing lessons from his friend The Wonder Boy Kris Okotie (now Reverend Chris Okotie, a presidential candidate). Okotie taught him how to convert his poems to music. Thereafter Ejike worked with other artistes like Jake Solo, Oritz Wiliki, Jide Obi, Loverboy Felix Liberty, Tina Onwudiwe etc.
Ejike gained admission to University of Port Harcourt to study Theatre Arts. In Uniport he came under the influence of great artistic minds like Ola Rotimi, Gabriel Okara, Elechi Amadi, I.N.C Aniebo, Chidi Amuta, and performed with celebrated artistes like Daniel Wilson, Dizzy K Falola, Sweat, Mr Cool, and Mandy Brown among others. Ten years before the recording of Living in Bondage, Bob Ejike’s film Echoes of Wrath, starring Richard Mofe-Damijo, won the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) and launched the Nigerian video-film revolution, Nollywood.
MUSICAL EXPORT
Bob Ejike graduated and went for the National Youth Service Corps in Ogun State. That was when he recorded and released his first music album No Vacancy, which championed the cause of the teeming unemployed. At the end of his service year he joined Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Basi and Co as an actor and script writer.
In 1987 Bob Ejike went for a musical concert in Italy, joined an Italian reggae band, Iree, and remained in Italy. He thereafter went into graduate school and started teaching English Language at Oxford College, and The Polytechnic of Milan. Two years later he released his second album Checkin’ Out and in collaboration with some of his academic colleagues, launched a campaign to advertise Nigerian arts and culture in Europe. In 1990, Ejike was chosen to present Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savanna to the city of Milan in a spectacular crowded ceremony. Ejike worked as an editor for Del Lavoro Publishers in Rome, and as a book translator for other publishers. He anchored columns for magazines and newspapers and publicized Nigeria’s Nollywood through exhibitions and public lectures that he held regularly in various parts of the European peninsula.
In 1995 Bob Ejike returned to Nigeria to work as Special Assistant to the Italian Ambassador to Nigeria. He rejoined the entertainment industry as an actor and performing musician. in the next 7 years he starred in 40 films, including Sharon Stone 2 with Genevieve Nnaji, Maximum Risks with Regina Askia, Confusion with Kanayo o Kanayo, Deadly Proposal with Pete Edochie, Polygamy with Peter Bunor snr, Tears in Heaven with Susan Patrick, Nightfall with Charles Okafor, Executive Crime with Bimbo Manuel, Aba Riot with Olu Jacob, Wanted Alive with St. Obi, Next of Kin with Jide Kosoko, and several others (Bob Ejike films in google).
Bob Ejike released 4 albums with several music videos, presented NTA Channel 5 Tropical Rhythms, wrote the Sunday Sun weekly column Klieglights and published his novel Weapons of Biafra. He endorsed many products and became Nigeria’s first male super model.
CULTURE AMBASSADOR
Around 2000 Nollywood was invaded by illiterate traders who took over the jobs of scriptwriters, producers and directors. The result was that Nigerian film cast became repetitive, the plots weak and predictable. Bob Ejike warned his colleagues about the risk of decline but was typically ignored. In 2002, dejected, he returned to Italy in protest and ultimately became an Associate Professor of English as a Foreign Language, in Universita Popolare di Roma, but continued to make music and videos for an international audience.
In 2005 the government of Chief the Honourable Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State, Bob Ejike’s birth place brought him back from Rome to Umuahia, honoured him and officially recognized his artistic and intellectual efforts towards the international promotion of Nigerian arts and culture.
In 2006 Bob Ejike relocated to Uganda to work for the Ugawood Project, a Ugandan government programme aimed at creating an indigenous motion picture industry. Ejike loved the people, the greenery and simplicity of life in Uganda, and opened the Professor Bob Ejike Foundation for Performing Arts (Probe) which runs audiovisual studios and marketing outfits in Kampala, assisting indigent artists. In about 6 years of Uganda Ejike’s creativity, music and performance flowered. He worked in two international films, recorded 70 songs and 20 videos that dominated the top ten in the region and made him one of the most famous artistes in East Africa. He used his position in that country to build a cultural bridge that facilitated the arrival in Uganda of Nollywood products and artistes like P Square, 2Face Idibia, Danfo Drivers, Flavour, and many Nollywood celebrities. Today Nollywood is the most popular font of home entertainment in East Africa and in Uganda thanks to the unsung efforts of people like Bob Ejike, whom Ugandans named Ki Nigeria, meaning Nigerian film or Mr. Nollywood. His awards include the Legend of the Arts Award from Italy.
Bob Ejike is presently the publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the National Edifice Magazine in Lagos and shuttles between his performance engagements in Dubai and his editorial duties in Lagos. (Bob Ejike's fotos are in google image)
Bill Achusim
