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Ego Boyo |
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One thing you will never
take from this lady is
her personal carriage.
It is not just about her
impressive height and
beauty right from when
she was Ego Nnamani and
now as a mother of three
children. As a single
and very attractive
actress, in the 90s, she
was never mired in any
scandal.
”How you end up thinking
is how you were raised
and perhaps some
experiences. But really,
I think that the way my
parents raised me is one
thing I keep coming back
to. The way I behave,
the way I react to
things and the way I
think is because of the
way I was raised; my
upbringing. I have some
experiences, but not
enough to make me change
the way I used to think,
or make me think
differently,” she says.
“With maturity you
change from things you
used to accept when we
were younger. I will do
this, I will not do
this‘. As you get older,
you begin to realise
that by living day in
day out and by listening
to other people‘s
experiences, having
experiences of your own,
you realise you can‘t be
so stuck in your ways or
stuck in some particular
behavioural patterns.”
But generally she
believes she is just
like the average person
next door. ”I am just an
‘alright’ person. I am
not fantastic. I am a
person in development, I
am growing everyday.”
And like the average
person she says the
things she really cares
about are ”My husband,
my children, and my
family. There is no
material thing that
makes me glad to be
alive. It is those
people in the world that
you care about. And I
like people that are
very humorous. People
that laugh at
themselves; that don‘t
take themselves too
seriously. I don‘t take
myself too seriously.”
Wearing a black attire,
she confesses that black
is a colour that greatly
fascinates her, howbeit,
for no particular
reasons. However, when
it comes to fashion
generally, Boyo says she
is her own woman. Simply
put, she doesn‘t dress
to please anybody.
Rather, there are
factors that determine
her dressing any day.
”It depends on the day.
I like fashion, I read a
lot of fashion magazines
and I enjoy them. But I
don‘t follow fashion
slavishly. There are
some things that are in
fashion and I wear them.
But it has to be
something that suits me.
It has to suit my
personality, it has to
suit my figure, and it
has to suit my age. I am
very particular about
dressing
age-appropriate. I don‘t
follow anything because
people are wearing them.
For instance, leggings
right now, total
disaster for anybody,
but people are wearing
them. And I won‘t be
caught dead in them. I
don‘t have any problems
with them, but I have
problems with those
wearing them. You have
to be slim or under age.
If you don‘t have slim
legs or you are not
under 12, you don‘t have
any business wearing
them. I went through
those entire micro-mini
stages but I have passed
them now. So,
age-appropriate is very
important.”
Now to her other side, a
side that not many of
her fans and admirers
are aware of. That is
her present
preoccupation with the
organisation, 40 UNDER
40 Nigeria. According to
Boyo, it is a novel idea
which intends, among
other things to select
40 underprivileged
children to be put under
40 mentors. By so doing,
the programme aims to
develop an institutional
framework through which
young Nigerians will be
equipped for success and
excellence. ”I know it’s
something people will
identify with. We had a
launch and a lot of
people responded. The
thing is a lot of people
have stuffs that they
want to do. They want to
help people; they want
to do charitable things.
Some people don‘t know
how to go about it. You
keep postponing it. Or
you are already doing
things but not
structured.
“A lot of people have
questioned me, sent
e-mails asking
questions. So, it is
something a lot of
people will identify
with. Up till last
Saturday, someone was
telling me she would be
interested in being a
mentor, different people
from all walks of life,
from housewives to
company executives.”
However, she explains
that some of the mentors
may not necessarily be
under 40 years. ”The
reason that we mentioned
40 and even under 40 is
that we thought that we
wanted to give these
children people of an
age they can still
identify with. A lot of
people that are in their
60 or 70 are people that
have had their careers,
excelled in them and had
moved on to retirement.
The major part of the
mentoring is to see how
these people have gone
through whatever they
had gone through and are
seriously putting in
good work ethics, and
had been completely
transparent in their
business dealings or
their professional
dealings; people that
are doing well without
anything fraudulent, a
person with a very work
or professional
pedigree. So, it has
nothing to do with how
they were raised but
what they are doing
now.”
Boyo is married to
Omamofe Boyo, the Group
Deputy Chief Executive
of Oando Plc. And
obviously working isn‘t
something she is doing
for money. But she
disagrees. Is she then
saying that her husband
isn‘t wealthy? She
replies with a rhetoric
query ”Really? Now, you
are telling something I
don‘t know. I have to
tell him that you said
so. A lot of people work
and even then, I am
working really at my own
pace. I am not even
doing what a lot of my
friends and others are
doing, which is working
for somebody else and
working at odd hours of
the day. I am lucky that
I can work at a job that
I like, I do it when I
want to do it, I can get
involved in courses that
I like. I am not
struggling; I am just
doing what I want to do.
Among her astonishing
qualities is her
prettiness which could
make heads turn, her
three children
notwithstanding. But
that she says has never
been something that is
capable of keeping sleep
from her eyes. ”I don‘t
even deal with it. I
don‘t know that there is
any great attention that
will now compel me to
have to deal with it. It
is not enough to even
make me have
conversation about it. I
get attention from both
sexes. So, I can‘t even
tell you this one is
greater. People walk up
to me and say ”oh my
God, I remember in
Checkmate. I don‘t get
men coming over to tell
me I love you.”
Like many other women,
she confesses to have
had one or two grouses
with her body. But that
”As I have gotten older,
I am used to it. I have
been seeing it for many
years in the mirror.
When I was young, I used
to say my nose is too
long and that when I
grow older, I am going
to do a nose job. And
you know this is my
daddy‘s nose. So he will
say what! Do you know
that people will kill to
have this nose? I have
gone through the whole
thing, but now I am used
to it; it‘s what I see.
And you know we read
magazines and hear
stories of people who
have gone to change this
or that. It is not and
my daddy used to say
that is not to say I
won‘t do anything. I
can‘t, because I am too
sacred. If there was
assurance that nothing
would go wrong, I would
do something now. Like
tuck, get my stomach
flat like it used to be
before I had children.
Then, it was flat. I do
exercises everyday, but
it is not the same,”
At present, she is one
woman that does not
regret being where she
is. ”I think that I
pretty much got to where
I thought I would. Then,
I used to dream of being
in entertainment and I
am doing that. So, I got
where I dreamt I would.
Ego Boyo won many hearts more than a
decade ago. Then as Ego Nnamani, she
played the role of Ann Haasthrope in
Amaka Igwe’s popular soap, Checkmate.
She tells Chinyere Fred-Adegbulugbe what
informs her style She was a great
actress, and still is anyway; only that
she is hardly seen on screen anymore.
But Ego Boyo‘s decision to quit acting
is something she says was inevitable. ”I
didn‘t want to act anymore and really
that‘s not what I was interested in. I
majored in film and television
production, not really acting. It wasn‘t
what I wanted to do. So, once I had my
fill, I left.” she explains. Isn’t she
likely to come back as an actress? Her
response was apt. “I am not sure, I don
really know.”
Ego Boyo
But even if she has quit acting, it can
be safely said that her presence as a
producer has effectively made up. Yes,
Boyo indeed does great movies and
documentaries. She seems to have the eye
for good productions. ”I think it is the
way the story develops. Sometimes, it is
the theme that attracts me to do a
particular movie.”
And what about pecuniary considerations?
”I don‘t know that anyone can say for a
fact that a film will make money, you
can‘t. Even in the Hollywood, they make
a film and they believe it will be a
blockbuster and it is a flop. So, there
is no genre of film that anybody will
tell you that this particular film is
going to make money. But it all depends
on how much money. Were you able to
cover your cost? I haven‘t done any
movie that I have been grinning to the
bank. I have smiled, but I have not been
ecstatically happy.”
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