By Osagie Alonge
The Lady of Songs, Christy Essien Igbokwe has finally been laid to rest and one person who should be given credit for being very instrumental in the coordination of the six-day burial programme is the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) boss, Tony Okoroji.
A member of the burial Sub-committee alongside Onyeka Onwenu, Tee Mac, Laolu Akins, Bisi Olatilo, Yeni Kuti and others, Okoroji was spotted at the various functions making sure things turned out successfully. Nigerian Entertainment Today got to speak with the former PMAN president on why he’s so passionate on giving the late singer a befitting burial and the similarities between his PMAN and COSON jobs.
Good day, you have played a major role in Christy farewell ceremonies? How have you been able to pull it off?
Once you believe everything is possible, and we’ve had a wonderful team made up of different kinds of people. But we’ve enjoyed tremendous goodwill in doing this. And just looking at the amount of publicity we’ve gotten from doing this event. And my estimate is about a 100million naira worth of advertising and not one penny of that was ever paid, it was by the grace of the Nigerian media. I want to thank the Nigerian media, they’ve been wonderful. It’s been a lot of hard work; I can’t deny that. In the last four weeks, I’ve not slept more than two hours every night. But it’s worth it. Nigerians can come together and do this. The other night we were at her candle procession which was going on simultaneously in Lagos, in Uyo, in Awka, there was a musical campaign after the procession, we’ve never done anything like this in the history of Nigeria. And it was all peaceful, nobody has been shot, nobody has fainted, nobody has died, we give all the thanks to the almighty and to the members of the committee that has worked very hard to make this possible.
Do you feel fulfilled with what you’ve done?
I am happy that it has shown that the entertainment can come together. From the football match at the Teslim Balogun Stadium to the symposium, to the wonderful red carpet event at Nite Shift Coliseum, to the candle light procession, to the musical stampede, to the lying in state. It’s been back to back a huge success. And I can’t thank God more for this.
Alright, how have you been able to handle everything? You meeting with entertainers, trying to hold everybody together. There seems to be a lot of responsibility on your shoulders.
By remaining calm, being confident that every challenge there can be met, and then asking for the divine guidance. It’s been a challenge but let everybody know that it could be done. And inspiration comes from the likes of Christy herself, the lady of songs. From a very humble household, no wealth, not even education, much formal education. Yet she took on the world, conquered the nation, and conquered the world. That tells you that everything, everything is possible.
Sir, your time as P-MAN president or your time as president for COSON, which one do you enjoy most?
Each of them has been what I will consider a leap of faith from the community and say ‘get this done’. Both of them have been challenging but in each case we’ve been able to bring the industry together which is very important and I want to say that for everyone who’s been involved in the Christie Essien-Igbokwe celebration of life and done this burial, the biggest lesson is how much we can do when we come together. People should stop all their fighting and quarrelling and come together and we can stretch the entertainment industry to the next level.
1 comment
Please can he stop trying to use death for a PR opportunity. What is going on in Nigeria