How Saint Obi’s Marriage Allegedly Ended Him – Veteran Journalist Zik Zulu Okafor Writes (MUST READ)
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Entertainment News
A veteran journalist and filmmaker, Zik Zulu Okafor, who is also a
close friend to late Nollywood actor,
Saint Obi has
penned a public note on how the actor’s marriage allegedly brought him to a
sad end.
Zik Zulu Okafor WROTE;
”BETWEEN
SAINT OBI’s
MARRIAGE AND HIS DEATH*
His social life was blunted. Perhaps by
his reticent disposition. His persona, two dimensional. To a distant public,
he was upscale and cool . His manly bearing spoke loud. His onscreen image
ironically amplified some idiosyncrasies ; heroics, romantic adventures and
traits that did not gel with the mortal privacy that eerily define his quiet
and lonely life.
Saint Obi, real name, Obinna Nwafor, was shy, almost bordering on timidity and
insecurity. He cherished the pleasantly tranquil interactions among a few
friends. He would vanish at any outburst that could upset the poise of such
small meetings. As he repeatedly told me, he just wanted to live a cool, quiet
and fulfilled life.
READ: RMD Narrates How He Brought Saint Obi Into The Movie Industry
But, has he lived this cool and fulfilled life he envisioned ? I have my
doubts.
I tell
Saint’s story
here with painful tears in my eyes ; because he was a star, a super star whose
life turned out a gleam of irony .
Yet, it was this stardom that
fetched him his much professed financially strong and powerful wife . And
their wedding, that solemn ritual of love would drastically alter the cause of
his life and tragically yank him off the creative community that threw him up
for the wife to capture and indeed conquer.
Their marriage was at
best a dramatization of love. It was quick. He barely told us that he found a
wife . Then, the marriage happened. It was something of a mystique, only those
involved understood the histrionics that played out . None of us who were his
closest pals, who walked with him through the crucible to the crest of his
career in Nollywood, none of us was invited.
READ: Actor Saint Obi And Estranged Wife Battle For Custody Of Kids
The distance between us and the guy I admirably called Saint of the
Storm had begun . This gulf would widen with each year. We saw him perhaps
once in a year after this marriage.And life actually seemed to have given him
a fair shake of the dice. He dressed well, drove big cars and even his skin,
in literal lingo, spelt wellness.
The
Saint would
be blessed with three beautiful children. But not on one occasion were his
friends in Nollywood invited for christening or birthday. We were told that
his wife was of the topmost hierarchy in telecom giant, MTN . But even if
their celebrations were designed to be a rendezvous of the elites of the
technocracies that his wife chiefly belonged, you expected that Saint would
reach out to a few of his fellow creatives, for even if they would herald his
small beginnings , there could be no tinge of shame to it because we all have
our journeys and our stories.
READ: Nollywood Star Saint Obi Media Consultant to President Jonathan?
And even at that, the actor or cineaste in Nollywood is by no means
poor.
But more tragic is the fact that his marriage did not only
take away
Obinna from
his friends, it took him away from Nollywood. Saint stopped acting, absconded
from his career and perhaps his calling.
It would seem prognostic
now. Yes, because I recall leaving my house in Lagos Mainland for his massive
office in Lekki, Victoria Island, Lagos. It was about six years ago. There, I
demanded to know why my friend abandoned our industry. He told me with his
usual shy expressions that he wanted to focus on some other businesses and
also to work behind the camera. Because his visage was unconvincing to me, I
told him in stark terms, that whatever his new vision and pursuits, he must
not abandon the trade that made him who he was.
SEE: PHOTO: Saint Obi Acquires N46m 2014 G65 AMG Mercedes Benz
It took another three years for
Saint to
return to his homies. But when he did, some of the deeply disappointed ones
sniggered behind him. This was because the simmering rumors of cracks in his
marriage had hit home. And though secretive in his ways, he knew it was time
to open up. And he did. ” I do not know why my wife’s siblings see me as a
gold digger. They confront me, harass and fight me in my own matrimony. And my
wife did nothing to stop them. I work hard, I earn my money . I have never
depended on my wife “, he lamented, eyes blurred with tears. You could tell he
was in deep pain.
By the next visit, the Saint returned with a
deep cut from knife on his left eye. His wife’s brothers, he said , scaled the
wall fence of their house to attack him. They were captured by hidden
closed-circuit television, CCTV, installed for surveillance and security, he
revealed.
He reported them at the police station and subsequently
acquired a gun to defend himself. This effectively marked the beginning of the
end of his marriage and perhaps Saint Obi’s long walk to a sad end. He moved
out of his marital home to a new house to begin the reconstruction of his
destiny, alone without his wife and worse still without his three beautiful
children.
Meanwhile, his wife went to the police to defend her
siblings using her financial power to manipulate the cause of justice, Saint
stated unequivocally. The wife also sued for divorce, not in Lagos, but in
Ogun state. As Saint put it, ” It was to make the journey difficult for me.
But I will not bend neither will I break. I will fight with my last blood to
take custody of my children. They love me and they know it will be hard for me
to live without them.The divorce is not an issue. My marriage has long been
over “, he said with a mix of courage and a quaky heart that betrayed his
distress.
READ: Veteran Nollywood Actor, Saint Obi, Is Dead
About mid last year, however,
Obinna took
ill. But he told no one. He simply became scarce. He was in and out of
hospital, we would later learn. He sold two of his three big SUVs to take
proper care of his health and to acquire six Camry cars he’d use for Uber. But
his vanishing health continued unabated. He seemed to have a premonition of
his own passing as he wept repeatedly about not seeing his children. He
emaciated. Life took a grim picture.
.
When I saw him by chance in January 2023, the dude called Saint looked 15
years older than his age. His macho cut had shrunk. His fat wallet was gone.
What was left was only his fat will. His eyes seemed lost in their socket.
This would be the last time I would see him.
Saint
snuck out of Lagos to hang in with his sister in Jos. He told no one.
But a month ago, in April precisely, the once delightful actor who
brought joy to many a home broke his icy silence. He called our mutual friend
in US to give him a devastating message. He was on a deathbed, he said and
wanted our friend to pray for him. ” It’s not looking good, pray, pray for me
“, he appealed passionately. His next call came on May 1, 2023. This time to
his mentor, the man who made him a star with his productions, Zeb Ejiro, OON.
He told him with a wavering voice that he had had three surgeries but was
still in hospital in Jos.
He averred again that his situation was
not looking good, that he is also in a deep pain, distressed that he could not
see his children. But still he begged him not to tell anyone about his
ailment. Such was the life of this creative hermit, a lonely trouper.
I was the first to hear the news of his death late on Sunday, May 7. Having confirmed it, I called Zeb Ejiro . ” I have a very bad news my brother, Zeb “, I began. ” What is it, what is it, “, he asked anxiously. “A big star has fallen in Nollywood “. Zeb broke down in tears. I hadn’t said who it was. But sobbing helplessly now, he said, ” Don’t tell me it is Saint Obi “.
Sadly, he was right.
May his soul find peace.
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