Legendary highlife musician, Sir Victor Uwaifo, a Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Benin (UNIBEN) in Benin, Edo State, who died on August 28 at 80, will be buried on Friday.
Uwaifo’s interment in Benin will be after a funeral service at Sam Ogbemudia Stadium in the state capital.
The Nation, who was on Thursday at the palatial home of the music and arts icon at Victor Uwaifo Avenue, off College/Ekenwan Road, Benin, observed that the link roads were being repaired by officials of Edo state government, with many family members, relatives, associates and other dignitaries on the ground for service of songs.
One of the children of the Joromi/Mammy Water crooner, Uwaifo Peter de Rock, and the widow, Princess Osaretin, were so busy receiving visitors from across Nigeria and beyond, thereby unable to speak with our reporter.
Uwaifo, a Benin indigene, passed on at the Edo state government-owned Stella Obasanjo Specialist Hospital, Sapele Road, Benin, while he marked his 80th birthday in March this year, with pomp and ceremony, as he was celebrated across the globe.
The deceased, a First-Class graduate of Visual Arts at UNIBEN, was a Commissioner for Arts and Culture in the administration of Chief Lucky Igbinedion, while his undergraduate project of a king on a horse was a signature arts poster at the Ekenwan Campus of the higher institution.
Uwaifo was a master in playing guitar and stood out as the producer of two-headed guitars, with excellent dancing steps that stood him out, while he had a gallery/arts and culture/music centre at his mansion.
The Oba of Benin, Omo N’ Oba N’ Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, held the iconic musician in high esteem.
The Godwin Obaseki’s administration also planned to immortalise Uwaifo, according to Edo Chief of Staff, Osaigbovo Iyoha.
The Nation