Veteran Yoruba actress, Madam Grace Owoola Oyin-Adejobi, popularly called Iya Osogbo, said she and her late husband, late Pa Oyin Adejobi, were friends right from their their primary school days.
The veteran actress, made the disclosure in Ibadan, on Tuesday, while featuring on a radio magazine programme, Parrot Xtra Hour on Radio, anchored by Olayinka Agboola.
This was as she said that she would never venture into the business of acting again in her life due to advanced age, having attained the ripe age of 90 years.
Speaking further onn how she met her late husband, who died in the year 2000, she said both of them went to the same school and were also living on the same street
She said her late husband who demise was shattering and devastating, was never under any boss, right from the beginning of his acting career.
Apart from the death of her husband, Mama Oyin-Adejobi also said the lowest point for her life was when her fourth child, a female, died, adding: “It took me a long time to recover from that experience.”
However, behind every dark shadow, there is a silver lining as she disclosed that her happiest moment was when she gave birth to her first child, a boy, in 1954.
For the first time, she revealed that her most embarrassing moment was the day an excited fan nearly ran her into a gutter with her vehicle on her way to the office of one of her children in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
She said this experience has remained indelible in her memory because her thought was that the day was going to be her last on planet earth, except in the end it did not turn out as she feared initially.
“The fan eventually came down from her car to let me know that she merely wanted to exchange greetings with me. She later enveloped N10,000.00 and dashed me,” she said.
Iya Osogbo said she started her acting career some 67 years ago and she also mentioned that she had already made her name before she acted in the film titled “Eran Iya Osogbo”, thereby correcting the erroneous belief her admirers had held before now.
She said that unlike now when acting has become not only the in-thing and profitable, in her time, parents frowned at people, especially women who ventured into the profession as they were generally regarded as unserious types and therefore wayward.
Madam Oyin-Adejobi expressed her displeasure over the near-nudity being practiced by actresses in Nigeria, advising them not to be deceived by the pleasures of the world but to believe that they can succeed through dint of hard work and the grace of God.
She said whenever their theater group went to stage plays or was showing a film in a cinema house, she was the one who used to sell ticket, unmindful of what some miscreants might do.
“I know that they all love me. It was at Jebba that we raised the gate fee of our shows to 20 Kobo which had a lot of value unlike what obtains nowadays where the value of money is nothing to write home about,” she added.
She used the opportunity to admonish younger generation of Nigerians on the need to work hard and be focused, declaring: “I got to attain this age because of God’s mercy.
“In addition, the Almighty also gave me the wisdom of preserving my body and being moderate in all I have been doing. Our youths should emulate this too. They should learn to be God fearing too.”
Iya Osogbo, who featured prominently in productions like Orogun Adedigba, Kuye, Kootu Ashipa and others will officially turn 90 on Sunday, even as she announced that there will be no formal event to mark the occasion.
“All my admirers, including colleagues and family members, have agreed to postpone whatever plan they have to celebrate my 90th birthday because we must obey the NCDC’s COVID-19 prevention rules,” she said.
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