I was still asleep that morning when a knock came on my door. I was not on duty, so it couldn’t be the station driver. I got up to open the door, and was pleasantly surprised to see my mother and her younger sister, Nana, standing at the threshold. My excitement knew no bounds, and my mother could not hide her joy. They had travelled by train through the night, from Port Harcourt to Makurdi.
They came with good news. I was now the father of a baby boy, my first child. I couldn’t see what he looked like, because they hadn’t come with a photo of him. I could only imagine what he looked like as my mother and her sister narrated the circumstances surrounding his birth. I had decided on a name long before he was born, and I proudly called it out to my unexpected visitors.
His name is Daurembi — like father, like son. My mother could not but agree that indeed he looked every inch like me. Nana thought so too. I couldn’t wait to hold my baby boy in hand, but I couldn’t leave my duty post just like that. My mother and Nana stayed with me for one full week in Makurdi before returning to Port Harcourt. I had to wait one more month before I could set eyes on my first fruit. Many years later, I was to write about him in simple terms.
RembiI Nengi-Ilagha is at the Nigerian Television College, Jos, Plateau State, coping with an unfamiliar cold. Thursday 13 February 2020, marked a milestone in his life. He stepped out in his matriculation gown, and began a new adventure.
It is his first trip up north, and he will be staying for the better part of two years. In the intervening period, he will be studying everything there is to know about television. When he earns his certificate in the end, he will be speaking with professional authority about television.
He will interact with Christiane Amanpour and Richard Quest and Fareed Zakariah, and all of them will find him competent to work with CNN in Atlanta Georgia, in London, or in any one of the far-flung outposts of the cable network around the world, in Europe or in the Far East, and his pay will come to him in dollars.
Rembi joined AIT, Yenagoa, as a cameraman. In the course of duty, he soon became familiar with the buttons and switches on the wide panel of the console. He began to take an acute interest in editing pictures, fascinated by the fact that he could freeze a scene, cause it to race forward, or rewind.
He came to realise that the angle from which a shot is taken is very important with regard to perspective. He learnt to align voices, as disparate as they may be, vowel after vowel, consonant by consonant. The result always came as a surprise.
One day, Rembi made up his mind that he would appear upon the satellite clouds of space. He would stand before the camera, not behind it, and speak English like a thoroughbred. He would coordinate himself properly, summon his confidence, and say the next meaningful thing that the world could relate with. He had seen his bosses do that so often. They just walked into the studio, the camera on them, and talked their heads off.
They held the microphone and reported what they know with that professional competence that comes with practice. For instance, he loved the way Tari Joshua flowed through his stories, and he liked the brave face that Ovieteme George brought to his reports. That was enough ginger in the tea. Rembi soon filled up the screen with his trademark smile, and the result began to compel calls of commendation.
Rembi’s first job, and his very first media outing, took him far from the first day he resumed work at DAAR Communications Plc in 2008 till the day he left in 2014. His primary assignmen was non-linear editing. “I also reported and presented a programme of my own. I did numberless voice overs as well”.
Not surprisingly, Rembi Nengi-Ilagha was voted presenter of the month for September 2014. Rising Up, a magazine programme shown on AIT Yenagoa every Saturday, was his baby. His first major assignment outside Bayelsa was to Oghara, Delta State, where he reported on the havoc of oil spills in the beleaguered oil-bearing communities.
For the first time, Rembi’s report went international and he received accolades from a good number of friends, acquaintances and admirers who called in to say bravo. The award from AIT remains valid always.
Rembi has always had a strong attraction to entertainment. His favourite channel on international cable television is E-Entertainment, featuring showbiz impresarios, household divas, fashion designers, world-class entertainers, and sundry buffs of the big screen.
He had always dreamt of being part of it all, and not just part of it all, but in the steering seat, the cockpit of events, the microphone in hand. As he puts it, “I have always dreamt of being on the red carpet and eventually, when I stepped on the red carpet, I realised I did not only want to be on the red carpet but I also wanted to be the host on the red carpet”.
Rembi has been deeply involved with the Bayelsa Movie Festival Awards, an answer to the famous African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). Unlike the latter, however, the local version seeks to promote and celebrate Ijaw stories, and to appreciate talents, languages, fashion, cultures and people indigenous to Bayelsa. The first edition of the programme took place on Friday, 30 December 2016, at the Aridolf Entertainment Centre, Yenagoa, and turned out to be an eye-opener for many enthusiasts of Ijaw culture.
In February 2016, Rembi got his second major break as a television host to reckon with. He became the principal presenter of a general interest entertainment programme on Silverbird Television, Yenagoa. His programme is entitled One Hundred Percent Bayelsa. “The big idea behind the programme is to encourage and promote young and up-coming Bayelsa artistes in music, dance, comedy and general entertainment”, he explained.
The title depicts the concentration on Bayelsa artistes. Rembi’s producer was Solomon Daniel Ebikienmo, who had the. The title came from Rembi. The programme featured twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Silverbird Television, Yenagoa. The range of guest appearances on One Hundred Percent Bayelsa has been impressive so far.
First to appear on set with the host was Mr. Bestman, an up-coming music producer. MC Aproko showed up next in the spirit of stand-up comedy. Danny T, a young music artiste of great promise was the most recent guest on the show. The programme content, says Rembi, is broken into three segments. “We have a segment for interviews, another for features and another for events. Features included personality spotlights, profiles, street takes, and sundry topical issues of the day”.
Born on 17 Sunday April 1988, in Nembe, Bayelsa State, Daurembi Nengi-Ilagha first sat in a classroom at St Luke’s Primary School, Nembe, before moving over to the Young Women Christian Association Nursery/Primary School along Bernard Carr Street, Port Harcourt. He finally finished at the Family Support Programme, FSP, Nursery & Primary School, Marine Base, Port Harcourt, in 1999.
Rembi passed out from Bishop Dimeari Grammar School, Yenagoa, having studied for his school certificate exams from 1999 to 2002. He was a full-time boarding student throughout his college days at MacDonald Memorial International Institute, Port Harcourt, between 2002 and 2005.
He is a product of the College of Arts and Science, Agudama, Yenagoa, where he sat in class from 2005 to 2008. Today, he holds an OND and an HND in Mass Communication from the Institute of Management and Technology,Enugu, spanning 2008 to 2010.
Standing at an impressive six feet-two inches in height, Rembi’s big dream is to be an international presenter on radio and television. His interests and hobbies, by whatever name they are called, remain fashion, styling and entertainment. In other words, Rembi can design and build a wedding gown, tie a delicate scarf for a lady, retouch a lady’s hair in the salon, and do the cat-walk in the male modelling category to great cheer. His interests are that diverse.
Rembi does not pause to name his mentor in fashion and designing. Without blinking an eyelid, he confesses as follows: “The French designer, Oscar de la Renta, that’s my mentor. His design pieces are legendary”. In fact, Rembi sometimes imagines himself as a world class designer going by the stage name, Dani Renta, to underscore his fascination with Oscar’s art.
Rembi saw himself as a vital stakeholder in the Bayelsa project. At 23 going on 24, he said, Bayelsa has not made impressive progress as a state. “The pace of development is rather too slow, especially when you consider the fabulous federal allocation to the coffers of the state over that time bracket.
“There are great challenges in the medical and educational systems, and the power sector. What’s more, the entertainment industry is practically tottering on its feet, in spite of the fact that Bayelsa has hosted AMAA festivals serially. We could do better. Even salaries come in halves, and that’s not flattering for an oil producing state”, he said.
Rembi knew what he’s talking about. He held abiding memories of South Africa. He was there as a boy for all of three weeks in 2005 on a schools excursion programme, and the enchanting sights and sounds he witnessed on his first trip abroad remain fresh in his mind.
“I was in Sandton City, Johannesburg. It is a beautiful city, a city for vacations, a hub for tourism. That’s the sort of city I expect Yenagoa to be. Sandton City should be one hundred percent Bayelsa. The visit remains memorable for me, and I don’t mind repeating it, but not with the current xenophobic fear of Nigerians in South Africa”, he recalled..
His passion for television led him through the gates of the Nigerian Television College, Rayfield, Jos, Plateau State. He was popular among the student population for his quiet disposition, his calm temperament, and his active search for results. On Thursday, 18 March 2021, Daurembi Nengi-Ilagha breathed his last, an oxygen mask over his face, at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau State.
He had taken critically ill, and was rushed to the hospital by neighbours a few days before. His remains were conveyed by his father, and a family friend, Omale, from Jos to Yenagoa the following day, and laid to rest on Saturday 30 March 2021 in Nembe.
He is sorely missed by his parents and all his brethren.
To be continued
