At 90, I can’t venture into acting again – Iya Osogbo

Veteran Yoruba actress, Madam Grace Owoola Oyin-Adejobi, popularly known as Iya Osogbo on Tuesday said that she would never venture into the business of acting again in her life.

She also spoke for the first time about the day an excited fan nearly ran her into a gutter with her jeep vehicle on her way to the office of one of her children in Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State.

According to her, this experience has remained indelible in her memory because her thought was that the day was going to be her last on planet earth, except in the end it did not turn out as she feared initially.

“The fan eventually came down from her car to let me know that she merely wanted to exchange greetings with me. She later enveloped ten thousand naira and dashed me.”

Iya Osogbo who was the wife of the late versatile actor in the Yoruba genre, Chief Oyin Adejobi made these revelations while featuring on Parrot Xtra Hour on Radio anchored by Olayinka Agboola in Ibadan.

The veteran actress added that she started her acting career some 67 years ago and she also mentioned that she had already made her name before she acted in the film titled “Eran Iya Osogbo” thereby correcting the erroneous belief her admirers had held before now.

She said that unlike now when acting has become not only the in-thing and profitable, in her time, parents frowned at people, especially women who ventured into the profession as they were generally regarded as unserious types and therefore wayward.

Madam Oyin-Adejobi expressed her displeasure over the near-nudity being practiced by actresses in Nigeria, advising them not to be deceived by the pleasures of the world but to believe that they can succeed through dint of hard work and the grace of God.

On how she met her late husband, Oyin Adejobi who died in the year 2000, she said that both of them went to the same school and were also living on the same street, saying that right from the start of his career, he was never under a boss.

She said that apart from the death of her husband, the lowest point for her life was when her fourth child, a female died .

“It took me a long time to recover from that experience”, she said.

However, her happiest moment was when she gave birth to her first child, a boy in 1954.

Iya Osogbo narrated further that whenever their theater group went to stage plays or was showing a film in a cinema house, she was the one who used to sell ticket unmindful of what some miscreants might do, “as I know that they all love me adding that it was at Jebba that we raised the gate fee of our shows to twenty Kobo which had a lot of value unlike what obtains nowadays where the value of money is nothing to write home about”.

She admonished younger generation of Nigerians on the need to work hard and be focused.

“I got to attain this age because of God’s mercy. In addition, the Almighty also gave me the wisdom of preserving my body and being moderate in all I have been doing. Our youths should emulate this too. They should learn to be God fearing too.”

Iya Osogbo, who featured prominently in productions like Orogun Adedigba, Kuye, Kootu Ashipa and others will officially turn 90 on Sunday. She equally announced that there will be no formal event to mark the occasion.

She added , “All my admirers including colleagues and family members have agreed to postpone whatever plan they have to celebrate my 90th birthday because we must obey NCDC’s COVID-19 prevention rules.”