Opinion: Onyeka Onwenu – The Elegant Stallion

Round face, short black hair with a distinctive white spot right at the top of the frontal middle and in a yellow armless long outfit, I vividly recollect these images from the video of her song, One Love, which filled the air-waves in the late eighties. We sang it as we went to school, came back from school, ate our lunch and played ‘ten-ten’ in the compound.  Even when we really didn’t know the deep meaning of the lyrics, the tempo and popularity got the best hold of our young minds and imaginations at the time. More so, a lot of us, girls, then, wanted to grow up looking exactly like her.

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Talk of consistency and positively evolving with times and trends, Onyeka Onwenu have remained relevant in the entertainment industry when some of those she started out with have faded into oblivion.

Every society that have evolved and have her youths grow into levels of leadership positions in every spheres of influence, apart from have a systemic structure and institution for them to thrive in, have positive role models that they can look up to and aspire to be like.

Growing up, Onyeka Onwenu was one of the few, whose music, young girls loved to sing and which inadvertently gave them a positive image of the prominence they can aspire to become. Her larger-than-life appearance was something we admired and that image was plastered in our hearts which formed part of the leading lights as we grew and made life-decisions.

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She is one of those who had kept her private life very secured and one can easily assume that she has a safety net, in the arms of her family members, which she is proud to go to after winning big in the public eyes. More so, she is undoubtedly one of those who have successfully crossed over from the entertainment industry to politics and back without scandals and mud on her brand.

Her voice, even at over sixty is still as powerful as the time I first heard, One Love, on the radio in the eighties and while the media dabbed her, elegant stallion, I believe, powerhouse best describes her vocal abilities and energetic stage performances.

 

Photo Credit: getty images/Last.fm

OLUWABUSAYO MADARIOLA

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