Here is how I remember Christy Essien Igbokwe: I’m seated on the floor of my father’s sitting room, close to the television set. It’s the early 80’s. ‘Seun Rere’ comes on and I remember the rumours that that came with its popularity: the singer had won a major international award with the song. Part of the price was a limousine; a long white limousine which she used to shoot the video for the song. I can’t remember if I had seen a Nigerian music video before that. I immediately became fascinated with this woman who got an international award and a long car just because she sang a song. A few years later, I would come to know her as ‘Apena’ Jegede Shokoya’s wife, in the popular NTA comedy series, The New Masquerade.
Over the years I have come to follow her career through music, advocacy, politics and administration. You could probably fault her for many things, but passion will not be one of them. Realising her first album at 16, she went on to many successes, including becoming the first female President of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN). Her passion for the things she held dearly showed through her music, including tracks like ‘Hear the Children Crying’ ‘It’s Time’ and ‘Akwa Ibom Mi’. Looking through her body of work, it is interesting to note that she shared that rare quality that her generation of Nigerian artistes seemed to posses effortlessly: the ability to sing in many Nigerian Languages. She sang in Yoruba, Ibo and her native Ibibio and was a crossover artiste in the true sense of the word.
Sadly, like many of her contemporaries, her musical career seems to have plummeted along with the demise of record labels in Nigeria. Somehow, her generation of Nigerian artistes did not make the transition to what currently obtains in the Nigerian music scene. Probably because they started their careers being signed to proper record labels, even international ones, it was hard to survive in the unstructured industry that came up after the likes of Polygram, Ivory, Emi, Tabansi etc had gone under.
At 51, Christy Essien Igbokwe could have stayed with us a while longer. I actually was a bit shocked to find out that she was ‘merely’ fifty-one. However much longer we would have wanted her to be around, decisions concerning who lives and who leaves for the great beyond her out of our mortal hands. Let us be grateful for her immense contributions to our national heritage; let us find solace in the music she brought forth with dignity and passion. Let us not be too sad that we have lost her at a relatively young age; let us be grateful that we ever had her at all.
Rest in Peace, dear Lady of Songs…
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