Guardian

TALL, pretty, vivacious and very articulate Belinda Effah got the right icing on her shimmering career cake when she was named best promising actress at the 2013 edition of the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). The star of Frank Rajah Arase’s The Refugee and Charles Novia’s recent hit Alan Poza got a well-deserved nomination and eventually won the award for best promising actress for delightfully interpreting the role of Kokomma, the lead role in the movie of same title. Belinda was believable as Kokomma. Moviegoers say she was so attached to the role that she made it look as though she was relieving a personal experience. No wonder the hall roared with applause when she was named the best promising actress on the continent on the strength of her beatific acquittal of the role.

“The AMAA Award has humbled me and I feel very honored,” she said. “I am very grateful to Almighty God as He alone did it for me. But I must also thank the entire Royal Art Academy family, to Emem Isong and Uduak Isong Oguamanam and the director of the movie Tomrobson for the opportunity’’.

An occasional model, was she relieving a personal experience in Kokoomma? She laughed out loud and replied: “Abeg ooo, I have never been raped, neither do I know anyone who has been raped before. As an actor, you have to become the character you are playing for proper interpretation and that is what I did. I became Kokomma the victim of rape. That is how I was able to carry the role, which earned me an AMAA.’’

Described by colleagues as intelligent and focused, Belinda ventured into acting in 2006 after she took the decision to participate in a reality show dubbed Next Movie Star. She was not lucky with the show and things proved difficult too afterwards. It was difficult getting acting roles. To make ends meet, Belinda took up a paying day job, which she later dumped in 2011 for the movie industry and since then, she has not looked back.

“I came back to the industry in 2011 and things started sorting themselves out,’’ she enthused.

Acting for Belinda did not start from when she decided in 2006 to be part of the television reality show. She had always loved the arts and had a flair for writing. She wrote a lot of short stories and poetry and was a vibrant member of her church theatre department and choir. Though she later studied Genetics and Biotechnology, her passion has always been for the arts. So, when the opportunity presented itself, Belinda seized it and today she is regarded not only as a fast rising actress but one of the most dependable among her contemporaries.

A native of Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State, Belinda an old girl of Nigerian Navy Secondary School, Borokiri Port Harcourt, and an alumnus of the University of Calabar was raised in Calabar, the Cross River State capital. She grew up with her parents and siblings and described growing up as fun.

“It was a love-filled home. We shared great moments together,” she says adding that rather than object to her decision to venture into the arts, the Effah’s were very supportive. “My father ensured all his children have a good education to at least a first degree. Afterwards, we had the liberty to choose our career. I had my first degree and I delved into acting and I got my family’s blessings,’’ she said.

Star of critically acclaimed productions such as The Room, Udeme Mmi, Mrs. Somebody, Lonely heart, Encore, Havillah, The Hunters, Jafaar’s house, Mama Africa and After the proposal, Belinda described all her movie appearances as challenging but named her first movie role which was in a short film titled The Room as her most nervy movie outing.

She said: “I was very nervous on my first day, as it was an MNET production and I know how detailed they can be. So, I had to show I had what it takes to act’’.

Outside the prolific Emem Isong, Uduak Oguamanam and the crew at Royal Arts Academy, Charlize Theron and Africa’s leading actor Majid Michel are the other two acting personalities that have continued to provide Belinda with the right kicks and encouragement to succeed. ‘

“I like Charlize Theron because she is the first lady of African origin to win an Oscar. I love her unique way of interpreting roles and I love her tenacity. Majid Michel is what you will call a method actor who is very focused and always delivers on any job he takes on,’’ she said.

For Belinda, it has not been a smooth ride down this road, however. She has had a couple of bumpy moments. She also says that it does not worry her when some male fans lust after her or when the gossip press puts a search light on her.

“There are odds that come with the trade so I don’t find these things strange. I am just coping fine and really it has been a bumpy ride for me in the industry and it got to a point where I had to take on a day job so I could survive. I believe when life throws you lemons you make lemonades. There is no easy way to anything. I appreciate whatever challenges I have gone through in my acting career. It has helped sharpen me to the person I have become. And I am happy for it. In fact, acting makes me happy and that is my staying power’’.

Courteous and humble, Belinda will do anything to keep clean, neat and healthy friends and would avoid untidy people and environment. She said: ‘’cleanliness is next to Godliness, and so I like clean, neat and healthy people and environments. How you take care of yourself and your environment goes a long way to show the kind of person that you are and how detailed and committed you can be as an individual’’.

Belinda would skip any question that has to do with her relationship with the opposite sex but would list qualities that her ideal man must possess if they have to co-habit.  “I expect a God-fearing man who is capable of being a man and not a boy. Relationship is about two people and not about self. So, the person must understand the true essence of relationship before embarking on one with me,’’ she surmised.

A Second O’jez Honour For Peter Igho…Tomorrow

FOREMOST Broadcaster and current Director General of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), Peter Igho, will take his turn again tomorrow to receive the O’jez Entertainment Award. The award, which holds monthly at the celebrity restaurant, O’jez, inside the National Stadium complex, Surulere, Lagos, is given to individuals in recognition of their service to the entertainment industry.

It is the second for the television man Igho who was honoured shortly after he retired from the NTA. The O’jez Entertainment Award had played host to several deserving Nigerians, which include Chief Dele Momodu, Ken Calebs Olumese, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and Kenny ‘Keke’ Ogungbe among many others monthly in a period spanning more than a decade now. Only Igho, the late Ambassador Segun Olusola and Steve Rhodes have been honoured twice.

But Igho is returning to receive the second honour because of his accomplishments. Former Director of Programmes and member of the Management Board of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, for many years until he retired from the broadcast industry, Igho is now blazing the trail at the National Lottery Regulatory Commission where he is Director General.

Chief Host of tomorrow’s event, Nollywood star Zach Orji in a statement signed by O’jez media Company, Media Image Managers, MIM said the broadcaster’s years at NTA left an indelible mark in the nation’s entertainment industry.

“No producer or actor worth his salt will ever forget the name Peter Igho,” Orji said in a statement. “Till date, his name rings a bell in the nation’s entertainment sector for his contributions and assistance to practitioners. He was like a father to all practitioners. Similar thing he is doing at the National Lottery Regulatory Commission and that is why the prestigious O’jez Entertainment Award, the only monthly award series that has been on for more than a decade now, decided to honour this very rare Nigerian. Peter Igho deserves this honour and many more.”

The organizers have assured that the award night would be filled with lots of fun as the O’jez Band has been prepped to perform special tunes for the award recipient. Chief Joseph Odobeatu, Chief Executive Officer, O’jez Entertainment Limited stated in the signed statement that all the in-house comedians including wave-making Elder O, Elenu and MC Shakara would deliver their best jokes ever on that day. Also veteran highlife musician, Pa Fatai Rolling Dollars would deliver evergreen highlife tunes with his hit song Won kere si Number.

For his part, Igho expressed gratitude for being found worthy for the O’jez Entertainment Award. The former broadcaster and now lottery regulator who was called Mr. Television during his days at the NTA promised to keep serving the nation better in any capacity even as he reiterated his resolve to do all that is possible to make the National Lottery Regulatory Commission an enviable agency. Call time for the award is 7pm.