Notable Abuja Artiste, Patrick Otoro, Turns 50, Says, ‘My Father Wanted Me To Be A Reverend Father’ By Chukwuemeka Okereafor

ONE[/i] of Abuja’s foremost theatre artistes and broadcasters, Patrick Otoro, turned 50 today.

The ‘confirmed’ University of Port Harcourt Theatre Arts graduate recently produced Her Majesty’s Visit, a stage play that thrilled audiences in and around Abuja.

In a chat with Naija Magazine Online, Mr. Otoro thanked God for everything.

[i]‘I’m grateful to God, basically, that’s it! I don’t know how I got here, but I’m here now (laughs)...It’s been 50 years of pain, laughter, cries, joy, mixed feelings…I’m grateful’.

Asked how he felt at 50, he jokingly retorted, ‘I don’t know…nothing really has changed. Maybe I’m waiting for one fairy to come and do ‘griegrie’, sprinkle some dangling things (laughs)…’

He remarked that been 50 gives you a feeling that ‘you are closer to where you are going, than where you are coming from’.

‘I’m abit more circumspect now, about my existence more generally. I’m more conscious of my legacy now…If anything happens today, what will people say about me…it’s strong on my mind right now’.

He expressed gratitude on how he had spent the last 20 years of his life…'in church, serving God.'

He also expressed excitement at the rate of evolvement of the entertainment industry, though unhappy at the low rate of theatre arts practice in Abuja and hoped that he would still contribute to live theatre in Abuja.

On an alternative career, he quipped, ‘I would have been a Reverend Father, that’s what my father had always wanted me to be. I come from a Catholic home, my grandfather was a Catechist, my father did everything to put me in the seminary, to make me a mass servant, but I didn’t like it…I’m not an academic per se, I’m an activity person, and theatre just fits into my kind of person generally speaking’.

He plans to start building people, to help as many people as he can to be whoever they want to be.

‘I want to encourage as many young people as I come across, to help them find their life and achieve their dreams’.

He also used the opportunity to thank his wife and children.

‘The last 18 years or so of my life has been awesome because of who gave me as a wife. She has been a friend, she has helped me…times I have been very low, she has reminded me severally that I am better than whatever I was going through…don’t let circumstances pull you down…look up, she would say. I’m grateful for my wife, I’m grateful for my children, they are not demanding. Anything I have and give to them, they gratefully receive, I can’t remember when my children pressured me to do something for them…I’m not sure I would have survived if I didn’t have children who understood what it means to be high and to be low…’

‘God has planted certain around me, my friends, my pastors, that have helped me to be who I am. To all of them I say thank you. You have my 50 years a very memorable one. All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you.'

Culled from Naija Magazine Online www.naijamagazineonline.com