By Olu Victor and Bimbola Segun-Amao
AMAA organizers and community would not go on with the event until one of their icons, Late Amaka Igwe was eulogized.
Peace Anyiam-Osigwe opened the floor with eulogy for the late film and television icon, Amaka Igwe. No doubt, her speech moved many to tears.
“Amaka Igwe ran the longest running soap on Nigerian TV; Fuji House of Commotion. She did Violated and Rattle Snake. How many can we remember ‘big sis’, for?” She began. “At the time our sister was setting up her TV station, ‘Cube’, she went to Enugu. Amaka has been planning this Igbo soap. For her, it was the biggest insult, that there was no Igbo Channel on DStv. She built her set for over a year and half. And the week she was about to start, she had just finished training, sitting down and having dinner and then she had an asthma attack, was rushed to the hospital, the doctors at the UNTH, were on strike. Our sister died.
“Ngbada, that’s my nickname for her and she would always call me Eyin. We had our different ways, but we had one thing in common – we believed that Nollywood was the greatest thing to happen to Nigeria. Let’s all rise and observe a minute silent for the late Amake Igwe,” she requested, and the hall was quiet in obeisance.
Mama Gee could not hold back her tears
Peace Anyiam-Osigwe shared her long walk for African Cinema as she stepped down as the CEO. In her words “there is showbiz and there is the show, I have done enough of the show, it’s time to do the business side, time to do showbiz”.