Sitting in her conference room with a few other colleagues the other day, nothing warned us, at least not me, that it would be Lady Christy’s last interaction with the press and hence the public. Date was November 2nd, 2010 and it was nine days to her 50th birthday.
The purpose was simple and defined: the journey so far and the future in view. Received by her husband who manages her affairs and runs the family company, the celebrant walked in dazzling in a red Kaftan, head tie and her signature red lipstick. And the atmosphere changed almost instantly.
There’s always been this spiritual side to Christy either as Essien or Essien-Igbokwe. On this particular day, she wore it like gloves. Apart from speaking on her thirty-one-year-old marriage, thirty-four-year-old music and movie career, her all male children, PMAN – which she formed and remains only female president of in history, her awards and her ‘hey-days’ of fame; Christy spoke freely, perhaps for the first time, of how she interacted with angels and heavenly bodies without inhibition.
And even though she made it sound as simple, effortless and natural as possible, she reminded us quite subtly of her ‘extra-terrestrial powers’ and capabilities. She was a pleasant and queer being. If before that day I had ever nursed an evil thought towards Christy, I would have stooped to my knees, confessing and begging for forgiveness. Yes, the atmosphere was that intense, and spooky if I must say.
Starting out early in life on her own, she held on to her late mother’s prophecy of greatness. Her fearless teenage years, as she narrated in that interview, later graduated to being mystical as angels gave her songs and album titles, which spurned hits after hits with a limousine parked in her residence till date, as part of her trophies. Her name has been around for so long that we argued her age right before her that last day.
It is impossible to think or believe that Christy had no premonition of her death and that she would surrender to death in sickness. It is easier to believe that it was a spiritual battle and her angels were running other errands when the evil one snuffed life out of her. Or could it be that spiritually gifted Christy decided to walk through the valley of death out of her own volition? It would be even more believable to hear that Uduak Essien prophesied her own death and perhaps much more prior to her taking ill or while on her sick bed. Is Christy Uduak Essien Igbokwe really gone?
She loved to laugh. And she did a lot. Whether as the wife of Jegede Shokoya (a cantankerous role she played for many years in ‘New Masquerade‘, a famous early TV soap in Nigeria) or when on stage as Nigeria’s lady of songs; Christy’s life spoke of real life struggles and sermonized women and children. Now that she is no more, and with the romance-crazed generation we have today, who will preach to our children. Nje omo mi a seun rere bi?
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