After years of cracking jokes about the Bakassi Peninsula on the Gulf of Guinea in the height of the crises between Nigeria and Cameroon, Okey Onyebgule became fondly known on stage as OKEY BAKASSI. A brilliant comedic man who is not only known as a Nollywood actor but dabbled in politics as Senior Assistant to the Governor of Imo State, Nigeria. While working as an adviser, he worked towards bridging the gap between the state and the entertainment industry, emphasizing the importance of piracy laws to protect the creative works of the artists and the government creating avenues for young artists to grow their talent and earn a living from it, rather than being unemployed and a borden on society.
Okey sees the current President Buhari of Nigeria’s administration as having a lot of horizontal growth and improvement in Nigeria. He described it as horizontal growth, because for Nigeria to move forward a lot of foundational restructuring has to be done. The current president he said is doing a good job, especially in the area of corruption where elected officials are now being forced to take responsibility and be accountable for their decisions and actions.
Also known as a disciplinarian, without hesitation, he will tell you, “If I pay the bills in the house then I have to be the one how calls the shorts when it comes to discipline.” Okey’s parents did not spare the rod on him while growing up. Today he comports himself with diligence making sure to always arrive on time to all his comedy shows, respectful of his fellow human beings and fans. He believes children should be disciplined considering its a very challenging world out there and it’s the responsibility of a parent to groom a child to positively face it as adults. Elaborating on how as a child he was his fathers TV remote control. Always running to change the channel when ordered to and had to ask for permission to turn on the TV at home. Today he says, a parent walks into the leaving room and wants to watch the news but has to ask for permission from their child to change the channel. Simply because the child is playing a video game and wishes not to be interrupted. “Who is the parent and who is the child?” He asked. Blaming a lot of the ills of the world today on adults who where not disciplined as children.
Sadly we see the next, and next generation of children still not being properly disciplined. When a child has no respect for their parent, it would be almost impossible for that child to respect other human beings or authority. As a stand up comedian, Okey Bakassi says it is more challenging of all other entertainment art because a comedian does not have a backup. One is typically alone on stage and can not afford to go blank. He has to be at his best mentally to keep the jokes flowing. While cracking a joke, his mind is also preparing a follow up joke. Jokes also have to be well structured to create laughter in the listener.
Two months prior to Okey Bakassi’s comedy show in Houston, Texas, his fans were kept on high alert with numerous adverts and even a video update of his arrival at Bush Continental. The African community in Houston, anxiously looked forward to attending the show and they were not disappointed. He kept the jokes flowing with punch lines that almost cracked ribs. Accompanying acts included Babatunde, Comedian ProFB, MCPC, Shola Iyiola and Nwa-JESUS.