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Veteran Nollywood actor Pete Edochie, has revealed how best he wants to be remembered after finally bowing out of the scene.
Edochie in an exclusive interview with The Sun Nigeria said he would love to be remembered as a man who did his best to entertain people while they lived.
“I want to be remembered as a man who did his best to entertain people while they lived. That’s right.
“Whenever I am in a production, I want people to learn or pick something from that production. It gives me joy when I go out and people look at me and embrace me, and then say: ‘this man speaks good English’.
“I like it because it compliments me. It doesn’t distract from my professional image in anyway. It makes me happy. People look at me and say ‘we like what you are doing’. Good! I feel happy that way.”
Speaking on the unity of Yoruba and Igbo in some parts of the country, he said, “the way Yoruba and Igbo have caught along as brothers and sisters for a very long time, but most young people today don’t seem to appreciate that.
“In 1966, we had the first coup in Nigeria; Ironsi emerged as the Head of State. At a time when he was visiting the west, Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi was the governor. The people who organized a reprisal coup then went there to kill Ironsi and Fajuyi said ‘you will not kill this man while he is my guest’.
“And they told him ‘if you don’t give us this man to kill, we will kill the two of you’. Fajuyi said they should go ahead. So, you see, a Yoruba man sacrificing his life for an Igbo person. The best friend that Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe had in politics was Adeniran Ogunsanya, a Yoruba man.
“They were that close to the extent that when Adeniran Ogunsanya died, all the Igbos in Lagos closed their shops and came to the street to mourn him. During the war, there were some people in Yorubaland who collected rent for some Igbo in their absence. When the war ended, the Igbo were each given 20 pounds. Some of them went back to Lagos and the Yoruba came out and said ‘this is the rent we collected in your absence’. One of the beneficiaries was Alex Ekwueme who later became the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So, I believe that we should try to develop some fondness for each other.
“My son is married to a Yoruba woman and she has never complained that she came to the wrong place, and my son has never complained. It is like that to so many families. I think there should be better understanding between Ndi Igbo and Yoruba; if not for our own benefit, it’s for the benefit of the whole country.”