Following
the death of notable Nollywood actor Muna Obiekwe, many reports surfaced online
stating that the actor was a heavy drinker and chain smoker. And that these vices definitely led to his
death.
But
talented Nollywood filmmaker, Charles Novia has come to the dead actor’s defense
in an article he wrote about the actor titled ‘’Muna Obiekwe and a Less Lived
Life.’’
Novia in
the said article stated that how a man smokes and drink and what he does in his
leisure time should not be any one’s business.
Read the
full article below……
I never really met him nor knew him personally but I
admired his acting skills on-screen whenever I watched the movies he featured
in. He was an actor who had a panache beyond comparison in many of his roles. I
always thought he was damned good.
That he is dead is a sad reality. That he died at all
when he lived and still lives in our hearts and on our screens is the painful
jolt to our systems. Because in Nollywood, actors (and good ones too, in Muna’s
mould) never really die. They only transcend to another place where, perhaps,
the ovation they receive over there gives lasting peace to their souls.
What can one really say about Muna? I never knew much
about him and perhaps many people did not as well. He seemed to live a life
less glimpsed in personal details than that more appreciated on the television
screens. He seemed to me to be a recluse.
And I might be wrong here but when one reads his body
language with the benefit of hindsight, one could begin to piece together a
deliberate insulation by the gifted actor from the public eye. And there is
nothing wrong with that. Many talented creatives all over the world are like
that.
But Muna’s case stands out because it seemed like our
nosey and sensational entertainment press just could not get anything on him. There
were few stories or scandals about him and more reviews about his body of work
which is quite the hallmark of an artiste who exploits a mystique around him.
He kept his life private and perhaps, that privacy was
as much a tragic flaw as it was a commendable decision, depending on how one
views it. He shunned selfies and self-serving instagram posts about
material acquisitions. He could well have lied, as most of his colleagues do
about his material wealth, just to ‘belong’. But he kept it real. He did. I
respect that.
I have read some reports on his death online and while
the veracity of such is yet to be final on my part, there were tales of his
battle with Kidney Disease for a few years and his weekly Dialysis treatments
which he hid from the public all these years and known only to his close
family.
It was reported that he shunned all entreaties by
those in the know to raise funds for him through a public appeal and preferred
to plan a stage show which would have helped him out of the medical financial
demands.
If that was indeed true, it was quite unfortunate.
Because I believe there would be few souls who would not have donated to a Save
Muna fund, if only to help in giving the actor a second lease of life.
Other reports say that he was a heavy drinker of
hard liquor and smoked a lot and there were assertions that these must have
caused his health issues.
There’s nothing much to say about that. Artistes
generally imbibe in habits which act as a counterbalance to the demands of
their jobs. How a man smokes and drinks should not be anyone’s worries. It is
the self-moderation switch in the artiste which should be scrutinized when such
happens rather than what he does in his leisure.
There was no doubt that Muna was a great actor. But he
came across, to me, as one who had more of a brooding disposition all the time
off camera than one with a happy mien.
He was more of a mystery as a soft-spoken actor with a
scowl and while that attribute in a better clime would have added to his
personal brand power, over here it (that mystery about him) alienated him
somehow from the fawning fans.
I find it personally distasteful that someone, and
someone perhaps consumed by grief or tactlessness, could release the pictures
of his last dying moments online. To prove what point?
That he was really dead? That he indeed was in a coma
before he died? It was the most dishonourable thing to his memory to show him
sprawled on a car seat, unconscious. In these days of social media, where
pictures never disappear, those final pictures are what would be used to
remember him more than others.
Muna was a damn good actor, really! And I do not think
his death is a closing of the final curtains of his act.
Source -Charles Novia
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