In 2017, Nkem Owoh was the lone recipient of what is considered the highest honour of the AMAA- The Life Time Achievement Award
By Eugene Onyeji
Nollywood veteran, Nkem Owoh, popularly known as Osuofia is a Nigerian actor and comedian.
Nkem Owoh who has been gracing the screens of Nigerians for many years, was born on February 7, 1958 at Amagu Village, Udi Town, Enugu State, Nigeria.
Owoh began his acting career right from his university days in various television and film productions.
In 1987, Owoh featured in the screen version of Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, a classic TV drama but his first role in a movie was in Circle of Doom where he played the role of a customs officer.
Ngozi Nkem Owoh, nee Ikebude, is the lawfully wedded wife of actor Nkem Owoh. She married the veteran actor in 1998 and she is the proud mother of his two daughters.
The father-of-two is an engineering degree graduate from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.
He has also earned a number of aliases, with four of the popular ones being Pam Pam, Atinga, Akidi and lately Osuofia, a screen name that has somewhat replaced his real names.
The lanky actor and scriptwriter got his nickname, Osuofia due to the character he played in the blockbuster comedy movie Osuofia in London in 2003. The movie, though not his first appearance, is considered as one of the most prominent in his career, which earned him Best actor in a lead role award from the African movie academy awards (AMAA).
In 2007 Owoh was arrested in Amsterdam, Netherlands (Bijlmermeer neighborhood in the Amsterdam Zuidoost borough) as the result of a seven-month investigation by the Dutch police dubbed “Operation Apollo”. Owoh was arrested while performing a musical show when the police raided the event and arrested 111 people on suspicion of lottery fraud and immigration violations. Owoh was later released.
In 2008, he won again the African Movie Academy Award for “Best Actor in a Leading Role” for his role in the Nigerian film Stronger than Pain.
Owoh is also a musician, known for performing the song I Go Chop Your Dollar which is about advance fee fraud. The song was featured in the film The Master in which Owoh played the role of a scammer. The song was later banned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC). He also sang know me when am poor and Mama No Know ‘N’ Pikin Again. Etc.
In November 2009, Osuofia was kidnapped in eastern Nigeria and his kidnappers demanded a N15 million-naira ransom. The actor was later released after his family members allegedly paid a ransom fee of N1.4 million naira.
In 2017, Nkem Owoh was the lone recipient of what is considered the highest honour of the AMAA- The Life Time Achievement Award (LTAA).
Read Also: 16 Nollywood actresses who got married more than once
At 64, his estimated high net worth of $4 million has helped him to be among the top ten richest actors in Nigeria as of today.
Owoh’s latest movie is Chief Daddy: Going for Broke which was officially released January 1, 2022. He played the character, Shoffa Donatus.
The legendary actor has acted in scores of movies and he is seen in the film industry as a genius at interpreting roles. He manages to effortlessly tickle the audience with his witty utterances and reactions which leaves movie lovers in stitches.
A self-made actor and humour merchant extra-ordinaire, whose fans giggle with excitement each time his name runs out on the credit line of a movie, a huge screen favourite and Nigeria’s hottest acting celebrity, Owoh is arguably one of the most sought after and highest paid movie actors in the Nigerian screen acting scene.
The happy looking Owoh, is not without his own pain. He was the younger brother of Bartholomew Owoh, the Nigerian killed over the offence of drug trafficking by the military junta of Major General Muhammadu Buhari in 1984.
At the time of the offence, drug trafficking was not a capital offence, but the government promulgated a decree and retroactively applied it on Bartholomew Owoh, Bernard Ogedengbe and Lawal Ojuolape. The trio were publicly shot.
