Entertainment
It’s Painful I Couldn’t Settle Down With My Wife At Old Age – Bongos Ikwue reflects on late wife

Eighty-three-year-old legendary songwriter and composer, Bongos Ikwue, speaks about his songs, family, and other sundry issues in this exclusive interview with Channels Television.
Enjoy the excerpts…
You’re going to be 83 next month, on June 6. How are you doing, sir?
I guess I’m doing very well. I’m doing okay. I’m happy to be here. I’m happy to be with you, too.
One of the songs we know you for is Still Searching, and after a beautiful journey, your wife passed on, and then you did the song.
I know this is one of the most painful experiences of your life, but it has also shaped you in some way or the other. Speak to us about that.
I don’t think any human is a robot.
So, the consciousness of feeling and missing somebody is so profound, and it’s difficult to explain to anybody.
My dear wife always told me something. She always looked forward to the day when I stop running around the whole country and settle down at an old age so we could have a lot of time together.
It’s very painful, it never did happen. When she passed on, I dedicated a song.
I’ll just draw an inference from your song, Still Searching, for the average Nigerian. So, some will say Nigerians are still searching for good governance or the very best of it. What message do you have for the government yet again from the benefit of your wisdom?
It’s a very difficult question for me to answer because I know how little we know as humans. Our knowledge is so infinitesimal.
I don’t feel qualified to talk about anything because there’s so much that we don’t know about. Maybe the only reason I think I know is because I don’t know at all.
But governance, to me, put very simply, means service. Talking about service, service is the only commodity today for sale.
Service must also transcend into whoever is leading; any country must learn to render service first. It takes a little to understand. Maybe I don’t quite understand what I’m talking about, but I can feel it. Once you’re unable to render service and you are just taking, that’s a problem.
Your life has been one of service. Hasn’t it?
To give is much more beautiful than to take. If you have ever given something to somebody who actually needed it at a particular time, the feeling is unbelievable to express.
Let’s talk about all the things you have given us – timeless hits. What are some of your fondest memories about your journey, your art, and all of that?
There are quite a lot of them, but when I first met my wife, I didn’t think she would say yes, and she did say yes.
That’s unbelievable, isn’t it? At that point, she looked so pretty, yeah. And I said to myself, “Is this really going to happen?” and it did happen.
There are still young people, by the way, who love your music. They were not born when you were performing or when you did those songs, but they listened to your song and they fell in love. How do you feel about that?
I really don’t know. There are lots of things I don’t know, but I think it is the hand of the Almighty. What I don’t understand sometimes, I think God is the most complex of all beings.
He’s the ultimate mystery, we take him for granted.
I would say everything that happened to me carried the hand of providence along with it. I’m not a religious person, but I’m a total believer in God Almighty. There are two different things, maybe we’ll talk about that later.
I don’t know if you still write music.
I’m working on what I call the Power of Zero, I don’t see how I can condense that into a song. They told us in school that zero is nothing. That’s not true; zero is not nothing. Zero is only zero.
The power of zero is the ultimate power. Zero is not greedy, if you divide anything by zero, you get infinity. Zero is ruthless. If you multiply anything by zero, it takes it to a level, leaves it right there.
And zero is very humble, you can laugh at zero, but it remains zero, and it does all it has to do.
I believe that God Almighty assumed the humility of zero to be the Almighty God, and if you want to be like God, you have to become as humble as zero and completely do away with arrogance.
Are you going to write an album on this?
Some songs are impossible to write. What I feel is so big, I don’t think I have the energy or the power to subdue it, particularly with the power of zero.
I started writing some songs from long time ago. I did a song called Man and Man. I said a man will steal from someone, and the same man will give to another.
How a man discovers arms and weapons and things for destruction, the same man struggles to develop medicine to cure.
So a man gives, a man takes, a man builds up, a man cuts down, and this has expressed the power of zero from the very beginning.
Negative and positive must coexist for there to be existence; otherwise, there will be no existence. I didn’t do that, the Almighty did it.
If there’s no tall, there’s no short, there’s no fat, there’s no limb, there’s no white, there’s no black, there’s no hell, there’s no heaven.
There’s no God, there’s no devil. Everything in this world is processed through the coexistence of positivity and negativity.
You also have a legacy, and I wonder what you want your legacy to be. What is that one thing that you want to be remembered for?
If only we knew how much we don’t know, humility will be the only legacy that I will call a legacy because there’s nothing we own, nothing we understand.
Even the Almighty has been warning us. He gave you two ears and one mouth – that means, listen more than talk, always.
When you go to a place and all you’re doing is talking, you are failing yourself, you are failing everything.
Entertainment
National Theater: The Bankers’ Committee “made me eat my words – Soyinka
President Tinubu stated that there was no controversy surrounding the renaming of the National Theatre, adding that he considered Prof. Soyinka’s contributions to the arts and culture.

•From left: First Lady Oluremi Tinubu; President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Prof Wole Soyinka and Lagos State Governor Babajide-Sanwo-Olu…yesterday.
Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka says that before the renovation of the National Theatre, located at Iganmu, Lagos, he thought it was irredeemable, but the Bankers’ Committee “made me eat my words.”’
The renovated edifice was renamed the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts, by President Bola Tinubu, as parts of events marking Nigeria’s 65th independent anniversary, yesterday.
Soyinka praised the transformation of the building, noting, “If eating one’s word produces a morsel like this, then it’s a very tasty set of words.”
Soyinka emphasized that he accepted the renaming of the National Theatre after him : ” I never believed that the monument could ever be revamped.”
He admitted that he accepted the honour with mixed feelings, despite being a critic of many past leaders, who appropriated public monuments.
“I have to stand up in public and watch my name being put up as yet another appropriator. It just didn’t seem very well for me,” the literary giant said.
The Bankers’ Committee committed N68 billion into the project.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the occasion directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to float a National Arts Theatre Endowment Fund to ensure the maintenance of the national edifice.
Among the prominent persons at the event were First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso, who coordinated the Bankers’ Committee, Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi, who is a former CBN governor; Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Minister of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa.
The Bankers’ Committee committed N68 billion into the project.
President Tinubu said there was no controversy in the National Theatre being renamed, adding that he considered Prof Soyinka’s contributions to the arts and culture. Prof. Wole Soyinka is one of the greatest assets of the world. So, the renaming could not have gone to anyone else,” he said.
President Tinubu stated that there was no controversy surrounding the renaming of the National Theatre, adding that he considered Prof. Soyinka’s contributions to the arts and culture.
Olayemi Cardoso, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, disclosed that the Bankers’ Committee, the Lagos State Government, and the Ministry of Art, Culture, and the Creative Economy came together with a shared purpose to deliver this national project, with the Bankers’ Committee alone committing approximately N68 billion, not as corporate social responsibility but as a deliberate investment in Nigeria’s cultural future.
He said that the project stands as proof that when the public and private sectors unite behind a shared national purpose, there is no limit to what Nigeria can achieve.
The CBN boss stated that 65 years after our nation’s founding, Nigeria’s creative spirit remains alive, pervasive and shaping global culture.
Entertainment
Trump Imposing 100% Tariff On Movies Made Outside US (Implications for Nollywood)
Trump’s latest post echoes a threat he made in May, when he said the US movie industry was “dying a very fast death.

US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he is imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States , claiming that his country’s industry has been “stolen” by others.
AFP reported that Trump’s remarks come shortly after he threatened a slew of new tariffs to be imposed this week on branded pharmaceutical products, furniture, as well as heavy trucks, respectively.
On Monday, Trump returned his focus to the film industry, charging in a Truth Social post that other countries have taken business from the United States, “just like stealing ‘candy from a baby.’”
He criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom as “weak and incompetent,” adding that the state has been heavily impacted.
“In order to solve this long time, never ending problem, I will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States,” Trump wrote.
Trump’s latest post echoes a threat he made in May, when he said the US movie industry was “dying a very fast death.”
At the time, he said he was authorizing the Department of Commerce and US Trade Representative to start the process of instituting a 100-percent tariff
Entertainment
Seven nollywood stars who ventured into politics
Over the years, some of its biggest stars have stepped out of the spotlight to contest elections and take up public office, proving that their influence extends well beyond the screen.

Nollywood is more than just a movie industry, it has become a springboard into diverse careers, including politics.
The Nation reports that over the years, some of its biggest stars have stepped out of the spotlight to contest elections and take up public office, proving that their influence extends well beyond the screen.
Here are seven Nollywood actors who made the leap into politics:
1. Kate Henshaw : In 2014, Kate Henshaw declared her intention to contest for the Calabar Municipal/Odukpani Federal Constituency seat under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). She lost in the primaries.
2. Funke Akindele: Funke Akindele, popularly known in her popular film series, ‘Jenifa diary’, contested in the 2023 Lagos State gubernatorial election as the deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but lost the election.
3. Richard Mofe-Damijo :
Richard Mofe-Damijo served as Delta State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism from 2009 to 2015 under Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.
4. Bob-Manuel Udokwu: In 2022, Bob-Manuel Udokwu was appointed Special Adviser on Entertainment, Leisure and Tourism to the Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo.
5. Kenneth Okonkwo
Kenneth Okonkwo, known for his role in Living in Bondage, joined active politics and became a spokesperson for the Labour Party during the 2023 presidential campaign.
6. Desmond Elliot: Desmond Elliot was elected as a lawmaker into the Lagos State House of Assembly in 2015 to represent Surulere Constituency 1. He was re-elected in 2019 and continues to serve in the Assembly.
7. Tony Muonagor: Tony Muonagor, popularly known as Tony One Week, was elected into the Anambra State House of Assembly in 2011 to represent Idemili North Constituency.
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