joshua
By Ikhili Ebalu, Benin City.
Bar. Ken Immansuagbon, popularly known as Rice Man, has expressed shock over the passing of the legend, icon, and music maestro, Prof. Victor Uwaifo, whose death was announced on Saturday evening.
In a statement personally signed by the Edo born quintessential educator, Bar Ken Immansuagbon said the death of the music icon has created a big vacuum in the music industry and even the academia.
According to the generous popular Rice Man, “It is with heavy heart I received the news of the passage of the iconic music man, as I used to call him even as an elder brother.
” He was a heavyweight champion in the music industry and added scholarship to his uncommon achievement even against all odds. His first degree was at the age of 54, with a first class. He got his Masters’s degree two years later and became a doctor of letters at 77. Those are no mean achievements for legend.
“He was an illustrious and distinguished son of Edo States who exported our indigenous culture outside the shores of the country taking along the Edo music to world arenas.
“As an avid lover of highlife music, I was a keen listener to his music with his hit songs, ‘Joromi, Guitar Boy, Arabade, Ekassa Series and Akwete. No doubt, his era was the golden music exponents in the country.
Bar. Ken Immasuagbon also added that the contribution of Late Sir Victor Uwaifo to the development of the music industry and education, which earned him the National Honours of Merit; Member of the Order of the Niger(MON), cannot easily be forgotten. He added that apart from music, he was also a sculptor, a music instrument developer and inventor, a teacher and a nation builder.
“We shall sorely miss him, no doubt, but I take solace in the kind of accomplished life he lived till he was 80. I pray to God Almighty, in his infinite mercy, that his soul should find repose with Him eternally. I console the immediate family he has left behind and the vacuum his absence will create, and hope God gives them the fortitude to bear his absence.”
