“I wept like a baby” – Nollywood’s Charles Novia pays touching tribute to Efere Ozako

by Charles Novia

Efere Ozako

He was always there. He would listen and advise. He had a phrase he used which was very ‘Bendel’ and which I fondly remember him for. ‘Dem don broke you the bread?’ He would ask. It means ‘Have you been paid?’. Oh, Efere!

My heart jumped into my mouth when I heard the news of Efere Ozako’s
death, early that morning on the 18th of April 2013. I had just woken up
and the calls kept coming from friends and colleagues, most of them
calling to confirm from me if the news was true. I wept like a baby for
the better part of the morning. My mind kept asking the same question
many who knew him were asking in our collective grief; ‘How can Efere
die?’ Not ‘How did he die?’ Just a tear-jerking ‘How can…?’. As if
Efere Ozako, while he lived was too big, too loved, too huge a
personality to die.

Rushing down to Efere’s house in Surulere that morning with Fred Amata
and Fidelis Duker and seeing the sad, sombre faces of those already
there in groups, drove the pain home. Grief found a mix with anger,
tears found a friend in disbelief. Shoulders shrugged either in
resignation or in forbidden reality as a condolence register was set on
a table. And then it sank home; Efere was gone! The lovable,
intelligent, brilliant, hard-fighting, Entertainment Lawyer, who
pioneered Entertainment Law in Nigeria and was a friend to almost all
that matter in the Nigerian Entertainment sector, is no more! Oh no! The
pain is too hard to bear!

Efere believed in Nollywood. He grew with Nollywood. He fought for the
Entertainment industry to find its niche and glory and worked as hard as
the practitioners to move the industry forward. Almost two decades ago,
he saw the future growth of the Entertainment industry and set up his
law firm to wholly handle all matters of Entertainment Law and
intellectual property issues. Efere was proudly called (and proudly
accepted that he was) ‘The Entertainment Lawyer’, a befitting honour to a man who pioneered a legal genre in Nigeria. As most of the top players in Nollywood grew in prominence and promise, Efere grew with us. He advised us. Ate with us, celebrated with us. Loved us as we loved him and most of all; he was our friend. He was the friend. He was a friend.

Smiling through my tears, I remember my first encounter with Efere in
1998. It was at Opa Williams’ ‘Nite of a thousand laughs’ at the National Theatre, Iganmu that October evening. I came for the second show and was among the huge crowd in line waiting to buy a ticket. I noticed this hyper-active young man with a mischievous grin on his face, dressed in jeans and a T-Shirt greeting people. He stopped as he saw me.

‘Bros, I hail o’ I greeted him.

‘Wetin you dey do for here? Oya, go enter now now!’ He said and dragged
me through the entrance with a curt ‘Na my brother be dis’ to the Security Guards. I swear, I was flabbergasted. He didn’t know me from Adam! Or did he? Till today, I still wonder why he did that and I never bothered to ask him. And now I will never know.

Thereon, Efere became my friend. He was always passionate about Nollywood. He had a professional disdain for people in the industry who
circumvent the rule of law. His mantra was always, ‘Get a lawyer involved in anything you do. It doesn’t have to be me!’. He opened our eyes to the importance of signing agreements and contracts early in the formative boom of Nollywood, when it was the fad to do business with just a shake of the hands. He made Entertainment grow from the legal
angle. Most of all, he showed us a human side of law; he broke down
walls of our halting mistrust and apprehension about lawyers and made us
all realise that he was one of us. He was never against us. He wanted us
to grow. He had a healthy respect for the arts and the artistes. Well,
he was quite a legal bohemian himself with his love of power bikes
generally known and a commendable attendance of almost every concert and
stage show in Lagos. Oh, Zakilo! Na so? Na so? So we nor go see you
again?

Efere was my lawyer and my friend. He represented me in a civil case in
2003. He warned me before the case started, ‘You must promise me never
to ask me to withdraw from this case. We will win in the end but don’t
ever ask me to withdraw’. When the case dragged on for two years, I
asked myself if I wasn’t mad to have promised him that! But he was
resolute, always in court at each court date, following all aspects of
the case and urging me not to worry. And he won the case for me. The day
we got judgement, he was ecstatic and hugged me, all smiles. ‘Thank you
for not withdrawing this case. I wanted to prove a point with it in your
industry.’ He said. He had only proved much more to me that he was a
unique personality.

We travelled together a few times to South Africa and America for film
seminars and festivals. He earned the respect of International Film
Producers and lawyers with his in-depth knowledge of the film industry
in Nigeria, as a lawyer! Each time Efere spoke, business card exchanges
would follow rapturous applause. Everyone wanted a piece of his legal
brilliance.

At my book launch in November last year, Efere was present and stayed
till the very end. ‘Charles is my younger brother.’ He said, a statement
which touched my heart not because I didn’t know he regarded me as such
but just the way he said it; he meant it.

Efere was one I could call for anything. Official or personal. He was
always there. He would listen and advise. He had a phrase he used which
was very ‘Bendel’ and which I fondly remember him for. ‘Dem don broke
you the bread?’ He would ask. It means ‘Have you been paid?’. Oh, Efere!

He adored his wife and children. He would talk about them with pride. He
was everybody’s brother. Efere livened up any event when he mixed with
the crowd. Never a dull moment with him.

As actors, musicians, lawyers, media practitioners trooped to his house
to pay condolences to his wife, our collective sadness was evident.
Someone captured the essence of it all by pondering out; ‘how can Efere
who took everyone’s problem as his headache be felled by a headache’. We
were told he had been complaining of recurring head aches over the past
few days before he was rushed to the hospital. He died at the age of
forty-six.

It is hard to believe Efere Ozako is no more. Nigeria has just lost one
of its brightest gems in legal history. I have lost a friend and a big
brother.

Rest in peace, Efere. Death is just one case I wish I could have
withdrawn you from.

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