Onyeka Onwenu: ‘I felt like the daughter she never had’
By Ngozi Osu
“SO sorry… My sincere condolences.”
I read the message at 6am on Wednesday, 31 July 2024. I was startled. Who died, abeg? Then I saw it.
“We lost Onyeka.”
Da heck?!?
Onyeka Onwenu? How? Just HOW???
A publisher had recommended me to Onyeka Onwenu as an editor for her autobiography. We met and our journey together began…
Editing Onyeka’s manuscript of 132,000 words took six weeks and we became besties, gist partners and a whole lot more. I felt like the daughter she never had. We worked from her living room and she’d often give me a big bowl of onugbu or egusi soup filled with assorted proteins to take home afterwards. You have to eat well, she’d say… Gosh. She could cook!
She wanted a soft launch for her book My Father’s Daughter, so I called my good friend and PR guru Bolaji Okusaga to do the magic. And he did. Bolaji! I’m loyal oh…
A few months later, Onyeka calls.
“I want to turn my biography into a mini-tv series and I want you to write it.”
Oh wow… My jaw dropped. I didn’t see that coming.
January 2022. Onyeka asks me to MC her media event to announce the TV series. In attendance were Yinka Davis, Teco Benson, veteran journalist Donu Kogbara, Uche Agbo, Teddy, Magnus, Eddie Joe-Igbokwe and a host of others.
Ngozi Osu and Onyeka Onwenu at the launch of My Father’s Daughter
May 2022. After writing seven episodes, an American network asks Onyeka to do a movie on part of her biography. So she asked me to write the screen script on the story in Chapter 10. Her love story. Hmmm…
November 2022. The movie screen script is ready and submitted. I’m told it passed the USA film board assessment at 70% and was good to go. I squealed. Onyeka called me American Wonder. I had a Cheshire cat grin and a swollen head. She laughed. Yeah, man.
Onye ife’m n’ewe iwe, ya biko wegbuo ya. Selense.
2023 and the elections slowed everything down. Literally. Onyeka said to give it time. We waited.
June 2024. Onyeka says she’s been told to make her movie a biopic about her life. She wants me to rewrite to the screen script, because the person who had it didn’t know her or her story like I did.
July 2024. I spent 2 weeks in her new office reworking my screen script, adding new scenes and dialogue, and a very dramatic ending: a spectacular concert with Onyeka performing live, including a new theme song which only we knew. We chose her music and talked about contacting Charlie Boy and Chimamanda (Ngozi Adichie). She was ecstatic and would often burst into song and after that, we’d take a selfie and talk about stuff. See. Her gist was on another level. Hey God. Ah… Onyeka.
July 7. The screen script is ready and she loved it. All set and ready to roll.
Casting was scheduled for August. Shooting to start in October. She already had locations in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and the USA, and said she’d need me on set as I was the scriptwriter.
I teased her asking when she would retire. She said she would probably slow down, but that she still had a show later in July.
3 weeks later… Onyeka is no more. Ezi okwu? Just HOW???
Jehova chi’m le…
Onyeka Onwenu. Enigmatic diva extraordinaire.
You travailed and triumphed.
Rest well, aunty!
#Chandra’s Chronicles
August 2024
#Onyekaonmymind
* Osu is a book editor and writer
