Every time I talk, family, friends think I’m joking –Chief Zebrudaya of New Masquerade fame
Published November 23, 2019

Chika Okpala, popularly known as "Chief Zebrudaya Okoroigwe Nwogbo, alias 4.30", is a comedian in the now rested TV show, New Masquerade, tells RAPHAEL EDE about his career, relationship and views about the alleged marginalisation of Igbo people

You were part of one of the most iconic TV shows in Nigeria’s history (New Masquerade) and famously known as Chief Zebrudaya alias 4.30, where did the names come from?

Let me start with alias 4.30 which was given by the people of Mbaitoli. It is Zebrudaya Okoroigwe Nwogbo alias 4.30, MON, MFR, MON without EY. 4.30 is for someone who is able to drink ‘Tonbolikwo’ (palm wine). If you are able to drink from 4.30pm to 4.30am without getting drunk while still making sense, you will earn the title of alias 4:30. So, you will add 4.30 to your name. But if you are able to drink from 1:30pm to 1:30am, then you are alias 1:30. It is like MON, MFR or OON, and all that.

James Iroha, or Giringori Akabogu, who was the creator and writer of the show, died in 2012, how much do you miss him?

I miss him very much. He started with OON. I came up with MON, MFR (laugh). He had a vision that only he could interpret if he was alive. Any other person brought into the show might have his own vision, different from what the originator had. So I miss him in that regard. He never imposed his vision on me about what to do about ‘The Masquerade’. When I took over, I knew it was a programme that could right the wrongs of the society. I went on to inject my own vision here and there, while not losing touch with the original vision.

Apart from Iroha, Christie Essien Igbokwe (Apena) and Claude Eke (Jegede Sokoya) have also died, do you think they have been well remembered and honoured?

No! They have not. I will say they have not because they were the original team that made Masquerade and the New Masquerade successful. They made us enjoy our stay on earth; from 1976 to 1983 for the Masquerade and 1984 to 2005 for the New Masquerade. If the New Masquerade did not do well, it wouldn’t have lasted that long. We had new episodes every week; we never repeated a show.

We took the show beyond the shores of Nigeria, to Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cameroon in Africa because they are English and pidgin-English speaking countries. We went to about four states in America and visited London, England four times to perform. They need to be given national honours. There’s nowhere today where you will mention Chief Zebrudaya, Clarius, Giringori, Ovuleria, Apena, Jegede Sokoya and people will say they don’t know them.

Before you accepted to play the role of Zebrudaya, had you been doing comedy?

I would say I had interest in comedy but I had not been doing comedy because I didn’t know I was doing comedy.

When you met Iroha and you agreed to play Chief Zebrudaya, how easy or difficult was it to interpret the role?

That is why I said I didn’t know I was doing comedy. When I talk of Masquerade and New Masquerade – James Iroha produced the Masquerade and left. Chika Okpala took over and produced the New Masquerade. He introduced all the gadgets and took it to another level, so it was called New Masquerade.

During my days at Prince Memorial High School, my father was in Onitsha selling textiles at Onitsha Main Market. Remember that before and during the Nigerian Civil War, Onitsha Main Market was the largest market in West Africa and it was visited by the French, Spanish, English and others, who spoke their languages.

Each time I came back from school, I wondered how my father was able to communicate with the foreigners who came to buy things from him. He dropped out of school when he was in Standard Two so he was not really educated.

I would go to the market and sit by him to find out what was going on as he was making money. How did they speak to him? He would combine English and Igbo and create a blend. At school, I tried to write essays that way and my teacher said: ‘If you write this kind of English, you will never get out of this school. Nobody who mixes Igbo and English in writing will pass school certificate examination.’

I said, ‘Sir, my father uses this language in the market, makes profit and we eat. He pays my school fees for you to be paid your salary. So, allow me to speak this language and see what it will bring.’ Instead of ‘absolutely’, I could say ‘gbamsolutely’. He said although what you have written has some sense because we understand the meaning but we can’t allow this in school certificate examination.

So I agreed and I kept them to myself but kept taking notes of what my father was saying in the market. When the war (Biafran War) broke out and we couldn’t continue with schooling, all of us returned home. Then luckily, a boy from Dennis Memorial Grammar School invited me and some others from Awka Etiti to join him.

We could not join the army because we were not tall so we thought what should we do during the war, that was how we started organising shows to entertain at the army headquarters.

At that time I was 13 years old, while the eldest among us was 16 years old. But unfortunately as the war continued, the writer of our show, the boy from DMGS, was conscripted into the army.

So did it fail?

I had a section called teaser. The teaser was played before we started our main show of criticising what was wrong in the society, in pure English. We called that teaser ‘Okosisi’. That teaser had a form of comedy in it and it carried me on till after the war.

When I came to Enugu, while I was looking for where to stay, I saw Red Cross Society office and I had worked for Red Cross during the war, so I went there and showed them my ID as somebody who had worked with the Red Cross at Nneobi. They accepted me. I was put in charge of clinic kitchen. There was a clinic kitchen there where people who returned to Enugu were fed. Later, I heard that a drama group would be formed by the rehabilitation commissions. I went there and told them how we were able to perform at army headquarters using some teasers. They said, ‘In that case, you have experience so you should be in charge of the theatre group.’

One day, I saw my friend that was conscripted into the army. He told me there was a place they were doing rehearsals with James Iroha. There were top government officials involved. When I got there, someone told me it was for ‘senior’ people and that I should sit down behind. I was saying no, I could act. Then James Iroha came and said he found me interesting.

He said he was the producer of a play, ‘Sons and Daughters’, and that he would cast me as a backup artist to some other actor. I said no problem provided I was in the group and in the cast. Eventually we prepared ‘Sons and Daughters’ by Joe De Graft of Ghana and it was a wonderful piece. The then administrator of the state, Dr Ukpabi Asika, sent for us to perform for him and we went there and it was wonderful.

He later took us to Kaduna for the army week and we performed there. We met so many army officers, including Theophilus Danjuma, and shook hands with them. Two weeks or three weeks later, we got a message that the Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, would like to see our play which was being talked about so much.

A presidential jet came and took us to Lagos. We were applauded after the performance. We were so happy. For the first time, I shook hands with the man we had fought the Biafran War with, Gowon.

He liked us so much. He said, ‘Look, we are brothers and sisters, we should forget about the past.’ That was how the show catapulted me to fame. Then James said he had a group called ‘In the Lighter Mood’ and intended to reactivate it on TV because it died during the war. Eventually it was reactivated and we started ‘The Masquerade’ and covered our faces because we needed to tell the military government the truth about what they were doing to the masses.

In Igbo parlance, masquerade is spirit, so it can say anything and cannot be touched. This was how the name came about.

I did not find the language difficult because I had already developed interest in the way my father used to talk in the market. It was different. The words were coined n a way that the programme was entertaining and educative at the same time.

You actually look funny. Do you family and friends take you seriously when you relate with them?

You have hit the nail on the head. Every time I talk, they think I am playing. They think – don’t mind the man, he is acting. So it is difficult for me to convince them when I am serious. My family and friends find it difficult to know that this man is serious.

You went back to get a university degree in 1996, what led to that?

In 1996, I went for a master’s degree. I had my first degree in 1994. I started by getting a diploma at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1989. Then I was doing the programme concurrently with my first degree at Anambra State University of Science and Technology before it was changed to Enugu State University of Science and Technology. At ASUTECH, I was the President of Students’ Union Government for ‘Masters’.

We called ourselves Masters because we were not regular students. In 2005, I went for another master’s degree in management at the National Open University of Nigeria. So, I have two master’s degrees – one in mass communication and another in management. I have my first degree in mass communication, a diploma in mass communication and a master’s degree in mass communication. I went to school because I felt what I was doing had to do with research and good storytelling. And I should master the art very well.

So if you see me presenting shows, you will know that this man must have done his homework.

How awkward did you feel in class as you were already over 40?

A comedian never feels awkward anywhere he is. He finds his level anywhere he is. When I talked to my lecturers, they understood that a comedian was talking and everybody in class would listen to find out what I wanted to say and how I would say it. I said I was the President of the Students’ Union. If I was not entertaining enough, they would not have elected me. I was not made the president because I was more knowledgeable than others; it was because the way I communicated with them was very interesting.

Interestingly, it was The Masquerade initially and was done on radio before moving to TV as the New Masquerade, how did you adjust to being part of a TV show at the time?

The Masquerade was started by James Iroha. When it became the New Masquerade, the transformation had to do with the script and setting. When James was the producer of the Masquerade, he was writing the script almost alone, although I did write. Davis Offor (Clarus) also wrote but he adjusted the script and made it his own.

Then when I became the producer of the show, I wanted to show a difference; one in the setting. When James was producing it, the setting was a one-bedroomed apartment. When I took over the production of New Masquerade, it became a duplex.

There was enough time for Ovuleria to come down, for Clarus and Giringori to fight from the kitchen, for Jegede Sokoya and Natty to come in from the other wing of the house and for those passing by to see them. This was another innovation that drew the viewers closer; they felt it was real because viewers lived in duplexes and this was what happened in public space. So we tried to reflect public experiences in the show.

Regarding the script, I recruited four writers, including Nkem Owoh. Chris Obirapo, who was a director then at NTA national headquarters, Lagos, joined me to produce the New Masquerade as a director while I was the producer. So I was able to carry on for 25 years; each week had a new script and a new dimension.

What kind of man are you at home? Is it any close to the character you played for so many years or a total opposite?

Home is home; studio is studio. They are two different things but it is not too easy to differentiate between how an actor acts and his behaviour at home or mannerisms. Sometimes both of them get to mix because it is the same person playing the roles and when I am acting, I need to show I am a human being and an actor. So I married the two to make it.

But when I am talking seriously as Chika Okpala in my home, you will know Chika Okpala is talking. But most of the time when I scold, you will think it is the Chief Zebrudaya that is scolding. My wife fails to understand me all through. She feels she doesn’t know when she is talking to Chief Zebrudaya or Chika Okpala, her husband. She feels that all the time, I am joking.

Over the years, were there some attributes of Chief Zebrudaya character that stuck to you?

If somebody has played a role throughout his life, it is difficult to divorce him from his mannerisms. It is not that he is never serious, he is serious but he sees things you see from a different perspective. For you to succeed as an actor, you must have a third eye; you must see things differently from how other people see them. What they may see and react in one way, an actor may see and react in another way.

What are the major differences between the way your art was done in those days and now?

In those days, acting was taken seriously because there were so many people ready to take over from you. In those days if you made a mistake, they would say let us try another person and you would feel bad and sad. So once you got a role, you would work hard to retain that role, which was what I did in those days. But now, anything is thrown out in the industry.

They don’t even rehearse scenes; they just go to the location, they give them scripts and they read. They will say, okay, action. Whether they get it or not, they will take it like that. In acting, you have to rehearse your lines very well, and not just your lines, but the movements as well.

What changes will you like to see in the industry?

People are so much in a hurry to get there but we have to return to how things should be done. Now, you will hear, ‘Oga, they are calling me from another location.’ Which other location? You have not finished the one you are here for and done with rehearsals, you are going to another location. At the other location, they will say they are calling them from another location again. Those things won’t make the production to come out fine.

There is much agitation in the South-East for a state of Biafra, what is your position on the matter?

People who were contributing to the Gross Domestic Product and development of Nigeria were marginalised. It wasn’t for any social reason but hatred. Yet they turn around and run to the television and say do not make hate speech. Is it not the government that makes hate speeches? Are they saying it is wrong for somebody you are oppressing to shout out to say you are oppressing me, which I think is what the people in the South-East are saying?

They are saying, you are oppressing me, if you don’t want me anymore, let us part ways. It is not their intention to part ways. It is not possible for anyone to kill an entire race.

If there is no competition, then there is no humanity. That is why we have football – in all the games we play, we compete. Don’t hate them. Why did I go back to school when I was much older? Is it not to learn?

SOURCE: https://punchng.com/every-time-i-talk-family-friends-think-im-joking-chief-zebrudaya-of-new-masquerade/

Why won't they when your face and posture suggest laughter. Anyway my favorite nollywood comedian of all time remains NKEM OWOH aka UKWA. Dude funny gan

I love this piece...this should be moved to the front page