By Samuel Onyekwere
John Okafor, aka Ibu, is one of the most outstanding comedians in
the home movie industry today. He gets you laughing anything he is on
the screen with his creativity. He spoke with Samuel Onyekwere
on his acting career and people’s perception of him.
How will you spend you Christmas?
I have a lot of events to attend: house warming, naming ceremony, church and traditional weddings.
Which work are you doing now?
There is a new job I am doing now. We are still using the working title, Ibu, the Chelsea Coach.
You are a Chelsea fan?
(Screams) Eh…… die-hard fan for that matter. I can tell you the result of any match before it’s played and it will come out accurately. That is why people don’t bet with me.
So those that play lotto (Baba Ijebu), consult you?
Some come to ask, but I don’t know if they are asking because they want to use it to play lotto.
What’s the movie all about?
Well, somebody promised to take me Ibu, to the management of Chelsea Football Club of England, where I would be employed as the coach. I agreed. I continued to work towards achieving this desire. I even had a dream where I took charge of the team as their coach. My assumption was that the person consulting for me, that’s my agent, was in London because we always speak on phone as he continuously encouraged me. My girlfriend was the one footing the whole billed because I did not have money. She paid for my international passport and visa, only for me to
find out that the so called agent is in Nigeria and was using a London
number to call me (general laughter). You see how useless some people
can be.
One day, I ran into the guy where he just finished washing a plate and
was about to buy food from a road side canteen. He was even pricing
the kpomo [cow skin] and the meat inside the stew. When I saw him, I
said let me see if it is really him or another person, and so I called
the London number, and he picked. I asked how London is and he said
fine. Then I asked him where he is, and he said he is about to enter
the train in London. (General laughter). So, I went to meet him there
and told him that I want us to board the train at the same time. It’s
a wonderful experience and a very good script.
It’s full of fun, betrayal of trust, and you get to see how far a
desperate person can go, the effort he will put to make sure he gets
what he wants.
The movie teaches a lot of lessons. I can’t tell you the whole story;
you have to wait till the movie comes out.
Tell us about the characters
There is Klint da Drunk, Ifeany Kanu and Do Good, among others.
You produced it?
Yes, my company produced it. Okechukwu Nnaeze is the one producing for
my company. He is one of the best movie producers in the country.
So, you have patented that name Mr. Ibu?
Ibu has been my name from childhood. It’s my grandfather’s name. So
the person wrote the script and added Mr.
What is expected of a comedian, is it just to make people laugh or make them learn from your stories?
Before you can make people laugh, you must separate your natural
person from the comedian. You must have an element of stupidity in you
to be able to interpret any character you are portraying. You must get
to the depth of that character and that’s the only way you can make
people laugh. You may not laugh, but your demeanor and language will
force people to laugh. Making people to laugh is one of the most
difficult things to do. You also tell them experiences that will serve
as examples for people to learn.
Do people actually see comedians as being stupid?
You must actually have an element of stupidity in you for you to make
people laugh. If you are not an idiot, you cannot be a good comedian.
Your demeanor, carriage, and body movement, will bring out that
creativity of a clown in you.
Do people still take you serious?
No, they don’t. There are some people that believe that I am a fool,
and anytime I am talking they don’t believe me or take me serious.
Sometimes in the meeting when they ask for somebody to pray and I
stand up to lead the prayer, they will tell me to forget it because
the Holy Spirit will think that I am joking.
They will say even say that my prayer will make Jesus to start
laughing. They stop me from praying so that I don’t end up spoiling
their prayer request or make the people that I am pray with to start
laughing.
That means you cannot go for any election or any political post?
It will be possible if appointed, they will see the other side of me they don’t known.
But if you contest what will happen?
Ha….. my brother, if I print posters, they will think it’s another Nollywood poster. They will not even read the content, they will yank it off.
I will tell you an experience. I went for a show and my poster was
there. I discovered that the children removed the poster and some were
using it to write. So I asked why, and they told me the poster was
distracting the children from concentrating on their tutorials.
A small child of about five years once met me when I was having a chat
with somebody, and he asked, Uncle, why do you have a wrinkled and
contour face. I told him to go and ask the mother if we can use
pressing iron it to make it straight [general laughter].
After a while, he came back again, and said Uncle, air is coming out
through your nose. My brother, I am supposed to breathe through what,
is it not my nose.
Why do you think that child made that comment?
I think he has been watching my face and seeing the way my nose moves
anytime I breathe. You know my nose is like an umbrella [laughter]
You have not been doing much of stand -up comedy
Yes. I have been doing that a lot, and I want the younger ones to learn from me.
Are you still a football agent?
Yes, I worked with a friend who is FIFA agent. We have been working
closely until he started cheating me. I told him I am not interested
in whatever any player brings because I have been able to help some
players move out of the country, let them just give me my credit.
Some of them have been behaving funny. Once the deal is signed and
their percentage comes, they will start avoiding me.
One of them spent one season in Malaysia, and after the season, the
Manager of the team called me and told me that they are interested in
retaining my boy. Edward is his name. I told them to go ahead and sign
him, and I ask that he should call me later, but he didn’t.
Even when he came back to the country he did not tell me. One day, I
visited Rangers camp because that was where he played briefly before
he left the country. It was there I met some of his friends who asked
me if I had seen him because he had visited the camp about three days
ago. They gave me his number which I called, he picked, I identified
myself and told him I wanted to speak with Edward, but he told me
Edward was sleeping. He forgot that I know his voice very well.
So, I told him to ask Edward to call me anytime he wakes up, and that
was how he switched off his line. I am not interested in how much he
is earning, let him just give me my percentage, both the old and the
new contract he signed. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear from him again,
but I heard he is back in the country after his contract expired.