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| Christy Essien-Igbokwe |
According to family sources, Essien-Igbokwe, also known as Lady of Songs, died around 9.15am in a private hospital after having being ill for three days.
Her third son, Solomon Olubunmi-Igbokwe, said she had previously hinted that she would not live “beyond half a century”.
She would have been 51 in November.
The singer is best known for her various hits that include “Omo Mi Seun Rere”, “Hear the Call” and “Tete Nu Na Ula”.
She was the first female president of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria, an organisation she helped found in 1982. Immediate past president of PMAN, Admiral Dele Abiodun described her death as ‘a big blow’.
Essien-Igbokwe, who said in an interview that she started singing while in secondary school, released her first album, Freedom, in 1976 at the age of 16. She followed up with other albums such as ‘Patience’ and ‘Time Waits for No One’ in 1978; ‘One Understanding’ (1979) and ‘Give Me A Chance’ (1980). She got married to Edwin Igbokwe at age 19, a marriage blessed with four sons.
She is also remembered for her role as Apena, the wife of Jegede Shokoya (played by Claude Eke who died nine years ago) in the situational series, ‘The New Masquerade’. She also featured in a couple of Nollywood movies.
One asset she had is that she could speak several Nigerian languages such as Yoruba, Igbo and her native Ibibio, thus she sang across ethnic lines. Many of her hits songs came in native languages, drawing heavily on tradition and culture.
She was involved in private business, politics of her home state, Akwa Ibom, and she was also running a non-governmental organisation, Essential Child Care Foundation, which is involved in child welfare needs and rights.
In all, Essien-Igbokwe had 10 albums in the market and was working on the eleventh when death came calling. She previously said she had plans to go back to school and get a degree in Theology since she droped out of school to pursue a career in music.
She got the International Special Achievement Award, Mexico in 1983 and, in 1984, she got the Africa Music Mother Award World Song Festival Award. In 2002, she was given a National Honours Award (MFR).
She is survived by her husband and sons.
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