It was an atmosphere of Naira rain and showers of blessing on Madam Grace Owoola Oyin-Adejobi, aka Iya Osogbo, a veteran actress, the widow of the late foremost actor Chief Oyin Adejobi, while featuring on a radio programme in Ibadan, Oyo State few days ago.
On Tuesday August 18, 2020, Iya Osogbo was a special guest on Kola Olotu Live, an Ibadan based renowned broadcaster’s radio programme to celebrate nine decades of Mama Oyin Adejobi in the land of the living.
As the programme was in progress followers made good their desire to bless the aged thespian. Belling the cat was Mr. Stephen Akintayo the Lagos based business man and the Chief Executive of GTEXT HOMES who deemed it fit to celebrate her and give her a cash of 500,000 Naira to celebrate her birthday.
Immediately this was announced it was a torrent of outpouring financial gifts to the 90 year old celebrant from different parts of the world, to such an extent that the host Mr. Kola Olootu promised Mama Oyin Adejobi a harvest of goodies.
Making his presentation the chief donor Stephen Akintayo disclosed how he lost his mother at a tender age which has prompted him to decide to help people in their old age.
This he also mentioned on his social media handle, “My mother died too early. That gave me soft spot for old women who enjoy longevity. When I saw mama Osogbo on @officialarole show, I convinced Gtext Homes management to honour mama’s 90th birthday. We must treat the widow and elderly well. Today on Kola Olootu’s show, Gtext Homes honoured mama who preferred cash gift of 500,000. She will still celebrate with two sumptuous birthday cakes.”
Popularly known as Iya Osogbo, the actress and widow of the late Pa Oyin Adejobi (1926-2000), was 90 years on Sunday, August 23, 2020.
Iya Osogbo’s story has it that she was born to a contractor father and trader mother in Osogbo, in the present-day Osun State. She loved acting from childhood but never thought she would make a living from it. After studying up to Standard Four in All Saints School, Osogbo where she was an active member of the Drama Society, she learnt tailoring. She opened her tailoring shop after her apprenticeship and ran it for some years before she married Pa Adejobi.
Interestingly, she and the late theatre guru had known themselves for a long time before they got married. Apart from attending the same school, Pa Adejobi was also choirmaster at the Anglican Church she attended in Osogbo. She didn’t hesitate to answer in the affirmative when he proposed, and from then on, acting became her life.
Though some people believed she got her stage name Iya from the movie, ‘Eran Iya Osogbo’, the name predates the film by decades. She disclosed how she came about the appelation in a media interview: “My husband ran a television series called Kootu Asipa (Ashipa’s Court). The nickname came from there. Some persons started calling us the names we used in some plays which many of us did not like. We complained to my husband, and he used an episode in the series to stage a play in which punishment is meted out to anybody who calls another a name he or she does not like. He later asked us the name we wanted to bear in plays, and I said Lagbenjo Iya Osogbo. Kareem Adepoju said Baba Wande and Alabi Yellow chose Alabi Yellow.”
Mama was an active member of her husband’s Oyin Adejobi Theatre Group which also had the likes of Lere Paimo (Eda Onileola) and Kareem Adepoju (Baba Wande) at some times. Others were Tafa Oloyede (Adewunmi Adewoye), Kola Oyewo, and the late Alabi Yellow (Dayo Akinpelu) who all went on to become stars.
Her first appearance in the Company’s production, she said, “was in 1953 at the Billiard Room in Osogbo when we acted Paradise Lost. On that day, my husband lit the corners of the room with local lamps for illumination. The audience was huge that day.”
But apart from acting, she was also a ticket seller for the Company’s productions. The Oyin Adejobi Theatre Company produced several stage plays, TV series and movies including the unforgettable ‘Kootu Ashipa’, ‘Ile Iwosan’, ‘Aye Nlo’, ‘Orogun Adedigba’, ‘Omo Ole’, ‘Iyekan Soja’, ‘Karunwi’, ‘Oju Olore’ and ‘Ekuro Oloja’ before Pa Adejobi’s passing in 2000.
After her husband’s demise, Mama continued acting until some years ago when she stopped entirely because of her advanced age. Before that, she had restricted her appearances to evangelical films, explaining that: “when my husband was alive, we mostly used the bible in our plays. Our theatre group didn’t know how to use incantation in plays.”
Meanwhile, there have also been prayers and encomiums on Messers Kola Olootu and Stephen Akintayo for bringing Iya Osogbo’s 90th birthday to limelight, noting that this is the way celebrities ought to be celebrated in their lifetime.
Olayemi Rotimi wrote, “Happy birthday grandma, more sounding health. This is the best way to be celebrate this type of legend, to be celebrating them when they are still alive, not when they are under six feet. Kudos sir for this great programme, greater height to Kola Olotu”, and to Eunice Adedoyin it was mama’s time to reap what she had sown, saying “Whatever you sow you I’ll reap. Mama you made people happy when you were young, now people make sure you are happy at old age. Mama you I’ll live long and you I’ll not suffer or lack good things of life. Mercy of God will not depart from you in Jesus name. Amen.”
The birthday could not be physically celebrated due to the state of things and Covid 19 lockdown and limited social activities across the world.
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