Quote
Muna
Ibekwe: Death of a cat with nine lives!
Before
the death of popular Nollywood actor, Muna Ibekwe on Sunday, January 18, he had
been described as a cat with nine lives. Many around him were confident that he
would survive the ailment just has he had always survived the life-threatening
situations around him. As we all are aware now, the fair-skinned actor who has
been described as ‘very nice’ didn’t survive. Muna is gone, gone to be with the
winds but not without a story, a story that he shielded from the public, the
story he kept behind the camera while he basked in the euphoria of stardom and
‘light, action, cut!
After his death, iEntertainment’s investigation reveals Muna discovered his
kidney problem a long time ago but like most people, he thought he could manage
it. He ignored the pain and continued working without paying much attention.
According to a close source, he only took his drugs and medication once in a
while as ‘Muna never believed the ailment could lead to his death. He believed he
would survive it like he did the gunshot and death of his parents. He was not a
man given to worrying about things. He believed it was not a coincidence his
parents named him Munachimso, a name which means God is walking with me.’
The kidney problem persisted and Muna was eventually forced to seek the help of
a doctor in a Lagos. The doctor gave him a ray of hope. He assured Muna that
his worse fear of Kidney transplant might not happen if only he could do up to
20 dialysis. Vera Kanu, a mother figure to him in Nollywood confirmed our
findings, “I was with him to the last hour. He was to do up to 20 dialysis; the
doctor said if the dialysis improved his condition, the worse would certainly
be over. He will be okay only if he stays away from alcohol but you know our
artiste” she concluded.
Muna braced himself, kept the doctor’s appointment, spent money he had and some
he didn’t have but unlike his many past pains he had survived, this one proved
different. This one stretched the limit of his human endurance. This one
threatened his life in a way that it had never been threatened before. This was
hit him with so much pain that he slumped in his home, went unconscious and he
eventually gave up the ghost when he was on his tenth dialysis. Our source
continued “the dialysis was expensive for Muna. He was doing two in a week
sometimes. And he would need blood injection on each occasion. Each appointment
was costing him between N250, 000 to N300, 000; money he did not really have to
spend. His health was eating deep into his purse yet Muna refused to go cap in
hand begging for alms. He was a private guy who didn’t want the press or his
colleagues to feast on his pain, and cast aspersions on Nollywood’s industry of
beggars’.
Vera, his godmother corroborated the point. “He was managing it on his own. As
a matter of fact, he has been managing it for a while until Ejiro Okurame and I
came on board to help. We were combining resources to help him but there was
very little we could do to save him. We had to enlist the help of Patience
Ozokwor and Kanayo O. Kanayo (KOK) at a point. They rendered the help they
could until he died.”
Contrary to many reports Muna was not ready to beg or raise money because he
was too ashamed of what his colleague or press will say. “The guy was private.
He kept to himself a lot and most importantly, kept his private life private;
for instance, many people did not even know he was married with two children.
Such was his life. He didn’t want press or his colleagues to start prying. He
was particularly afraid of the press, hence his shutting his colleagues out of
his pain. He knew if some Nollywood people got to know about it, the press
would also get to know. He refused to beg to save Nollywood’s image, he
in-turn, lost himself.” A Nollywood star told us the press needs to take it
easy with stars, “we are human too and like every other person, we have our
pains. The press needs to be less judgmental. If he wasn’t too scared of the
press, perhaps, he would have reached out for help.”
Shortly before his death, Muna summoned enough courage despite his private
nature and contacted Nollywood actress and former beauty queen, Ibinabo
Fiberesima. He however, promised to get back to her, perhaps to discuss details
of his deteriorating health with her but fate struck a fatal blow and he never
did.
As much as causes of some ailments are mysterious, not a few people in
Nollywood believe Muna brought the pain upon himself and he was a victim of a
demon he couldn’t deal with. Muna was a chain smoker and heavy drinker. Despite
his condition, multiple sources revealed he was still consuming alcohol on a
regular basis. “Everybody in the industry knows Muna drinks a lot; even when
he’s shooting in the North, he has a way of finding alcohol,” a Nollywood
source told us. Muna was said to have taken heavily to alcohol after he lost
his parents in a ghastly motor accident. ‘As a matter of fact, he was supposed
to be in that car with them but by stroke of luck, he wasn’t and was spared.
Afterwards, Muna took solace in liquor but that never affected his job. He was
just like Sam Loco; he could drink the whole sea but when he hears the director
shout ‘action,’ he gets into character. Muna was a method character despite his
flaws’ our source reveals.
Speaking on the drinking habit despite his ailment, his godmother, Vera Kanu
said ‘It’s not like he drinks heavily like you guys said. He drank but not as
you are putting it,” she said with an emotion-laden voice. Speaking further,
“Muna even called me during the holiday that he is now okay and ready to work
so I should start bringing jobs because I was his producer. I told him thank
God and that I would start as long as he does not do what the doctor told him
not to do, which was drinking. The problem came back and he has been on it
since then till he died.”
Another thing many people do not know about him again is that he was one of the
three busiest actors. The other two are Mike Ezuronye and Yul Edochie. Muna is
also the first cousin of Yul Edochie, that makes him a member of Pete Edochie’s
family.
