For Peter Olawale Ojo, the top award has been due for a while. Yes, Wale Ojo, my man, the multi-talented actor, musician and dancer. He calls me Uncle. Our kids call him Uncle Wale. And all that is from our several years of relating since we were first introduced by his mum in London in the 90s and we have been family then, keeping track of, and tab on each other.
Dedicating to his mother, his Best Actor Prize from the 10th Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards, AMVCA, ceremony held in Lagos last Saturday was the least he could do. His mum, Mrs. Teresa Ojo, my Edo sister and I were discussing the prospects of Wale winning the coveted award when we met at her elder sister Maureen Ehizele’s 90th birthday event in Lekki on 27th April and she expressed some doubt because she said there were some other very big-name actors on the nomination list and it would be tough, but I am sure that even in her fears, she was praying for her son to come out tops. And Wale, the scion of Lady Teresa of Opoji and late Mr. Ojo of Ibadan has come up good, and his big brother Paul, and other family members and friends would also be rightly and mightily proud of how far Wale has gone! The beautiful comments and goodwill messages on his social media handles testify to this.
It’s been a long way from playing major roles in the sitcom, ‘Meet The Adebanjos’ and the original Nosa in ‘Tinsel’, as well as in other entertaining movies and series.
As my ‘landlord’ in W6 in London – he always gave up his flat for us to stay – Wale and his friends would drum and play the sax and sing Fela songs till late at night with all the gusto they could muster. But the London boy who would sometimes speak with Cockney accent was also very much at home speaking and acting in Pidgin and his versatility has no doubt got him to the top. We shouted and sang and ‘danced’ over the phone yesterday morning, on what more was to come.
The AMVCA, an annual award presented by MultiChoice and hosted last weekend, recognises outstanding achievements in television and film.
Wale won the award for Best Lead Actor with his performance in the movie, ‘Breath of Life’, which cleared several other awards including Best Movie. Other nominees in the Best Lead Actor category included acting heavyweights like Stan Nze, Marc Zinga, Gideon Okeke, David Ezekiel, Richard Mofe Damijo, Adedimeji Lateef and Gabriel Afolayan.
The list of winners of the AMVCA 2004 include Campbell Precious for Best Makeup in Mami Wata; Best Art Direction – Abisola Omolade in Over The Bridge; Best Costume Design – Lola Awe in Jagun Jagun: The Warrior; Best Writing TV Series – Volume (Mona Ombogo); Best Writing in a Movie – Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (Tunde Babalola); Best Sound Design – Grey Jones Ossai in Blood Vessel; and Best Editing was won by Antonio Ribeiro in The Black Book.
Other winners are Best Indigenous Language Film (West Africa) – Jagun Jagun by Femi Adebayo; Best Indigenous Language (East Africa) – Ormoilaa Ogol in The Strong One; Best Cinematography – Over The Bridge by KC Obiajulu; Best Indigenous M-Net Original – Irora Iya by Adeniyi Joseph; Best Digital Content was for Medical Negligence and Copyright Infringement — Isaac Ayomide Olayiwola by Layi Wasabi; Best Short Film – Broken Mask; Best Unscripted M-Net Original award went to Nwuyee Bekee for Foreign Wives; Best Scripted M-Net Original went to Slum King.
Best Supporting Actress award went to Genoveva Umeh in Breath of Life; Best Supporting Actor was Demola Adedoyin in Breath of Life; Best Lead Actress is Kehinde Bankole in Adire. Still on the roll is Best Multichoice Talent Factory Movie, won by Her Dark Past; Best Unscripted Series went to Gh Queens (Season 2); Best Scripted Series – Itura; Best Director is BB Sasore for Breath of Life; Best Movie went to Breath of Life.
In all, Breath of Life, the movie featuring Wale Ojo received 6 awards! It was a haul! The movie received 11 nominations across the different categories, including Best Movie, Best Director, and Best Lead Actor.
Next up for Wale is the general release on 14th July 2024 of ‘The Man Died’, a movie which is inspired by the memoir of Prof. Wole Soyinka, and Wale plays the role of the legend in it. More laurels to come, I wager!
