Onyeka Onwenu to adapt memoir into new TV Series

Veteran singer, journalist and actress Onyeka Onwenu, has revealed that her autobiography dubbed, My Father’s Daughter, is currently being adapted into a multi-part TV series of the same title.

The award-winning singer, who recently clocked 70 years, revealed that the series, which is being directed by the acclaimed filmmaker, Izu Ojukwu, will star Nollywood superstars including Richard Mofe-Damijo, Yinka Davies, Nse Ikpe-Etim, among others.

She disclosed this in a media parley, held recently, in Lagos, which also had the attendance of prominent Nigerians including: Susan Hedef, Edwin Igbokwe, Betty Ijeoma of the Mbadiwe family, Teco Benson and Soni Irabor, among others.

Produced by Chichi Nworah, My Father’s Daughter is a cinematic adaption of the memoir which follows the life and times of the veteran singer, from her childhood, to date, reliving her experiences with the political transformations, the bloody civil war, her iconic musical career, and her struggles with feminism, among many others.

According to Onwenu, the 450-page book, which was released in 2020, and edited by the renowned Ngozi Osu, does not capture the entirety of her stories, hence the idea for the series.

She also emphasised that the book is more of a material for national reflection, more than a mere retelling of her life’s history.
She said, “This project is coming at the right time. I don’t know how it came to be now, but I know that it was just when it was ready. It is the right time in the history of our country, looking at all these (happenings), wondering where we went wrong and how we can get out of this quagmire.

It is a good time for those of us born before independence to talk about what we experienced. The school system then was so much better. When I went abroad, I was beating everybody in English Literature. It was something to be proud of, but now we seem to be falling backwards. And if you are breeding a nation, without educated people you are programming yourself for total failure.

“With the book, we had to cut out a lot of things. There are stories that we have not yet written. And that is where the series comes in.”

The singer also revealed that this is “not the first time that I am trying to do a film. The other previous ones that I tried, one of them was scuttled by COVID-19. And the Lord led me to this, and I knew that this is the one I am to do.”

On the inspiration behind the title, she restated that her work is dedicated to her late father Dixon-Kanu Onwenu, who shaped her audacity, intellect, and doggedness that have pushed her into the limelight.

“I am my father’s daughter. That is the love that defined me. I wish every girl had the kind of relationship that I had with my father. But then, if you had that type of relationship and before five years you lost it, it is something that follows you throughout your life. And you can live it in grief, which I did for a long time, but you get to a point where you remember them, it puts a smile on your face, and you are grateful to God that he blessed your life with such a person.”