Sosei began airing on Nigerian Television (NTV), Port Harcourt (as the station was known at that time), and ran for over two years. Emmanuel Okutuate was the principal character of the television drama. Many years after the series ended, Okutuate continues to be known, called and addressed as Sosei.
Produced and directed by Adiele Onyedibia, the television comedy tells the story of a village boy who was a farmer understudying his dad. Too lazy to continue on the farm, he left for the city to fend for himself, surviving only by his wits from day to day.
Since Sosei, Okutuate has featured in several stage plays, including Odumegege, by Minimah and Strange Affair, by Comish Ekiye. He also played the role of Alinco in The Family, by the same author. An accomplished actor in his own right, Okutuate has his reservations about Nollywood. He decries the brazen lack of reticence in movies which portray sex scenes.
He said: ‘We don’t have to corrupt our children. It’s not everything the Americans do that we should copy. We should portray good morals for the young to emulate, and the Under-18 prohibition should be observed’. It was a valid point that he reiterated at the Enugu summit of the Actors’ Guild in 2002. Okutuate declares that the industry is well advanced now to attract more salutary comments.
‘But there are poor productions, the danger of improvisation, of stories that don’t make sense, and episodes that have no link because production was done in a hurry. Producers should take their time to do a good job’, he said. Even so, Sosei believes that there is great seriousness in the movie industry now, great improvement in story lines, to say nothing of great actors and actresses alike.
‘We have memorable stories in the Niger Delta’, he said, drawing attention to his home. ‘We are yet to shoot our films. The Igbo will not come and do it for us. Neither should we expect the Yorubas to bail us out. That’s why government and our money bags should do well to sponsor new films about our environment and our people. We need to really promote and market ourselves. As it is, AMAA (Africa Movie Academy Awards) has not reckoned with us enough. Neither has it created chances for local actors. That’s the whole idea about the Ijaw Film Initiative’.
Born Emmanuel Ayebawanaemi Okutuate on 2 July 1949, in Oloibiri, Sosei attended St. Luke’s School, Nembe, Bayelsa State, and finished in 1965. Four years later, he began secondary education at Nembe National Grammar School, before rounding up at Stella Maris College, Port Harcourt in 1974. That same year, he took his first job with the Rivers State Council for Arts and Culture as a part-time actor, right after his school certificate exams. His appointment was confirmed in 1975.
He recalled: ‘We were the first set of actors to be paid salaries in all of Nigeria. That was under the government of Alfred Diete-Spiff’. In 1980, Sosei was recommended for a year-long course in acting under the guidance of Prof. Wole Soyinka at the then University of Ife. Emmanuel also remembers his years with the roving theatre under the famous playwright, Ola Rotimi, in his days at Ife. ‘We toured widely and ended up at the national theatre’, he recalled.
In 1987, Sosei joined the crew of Basi & Company in Enugu. He played the role of Boy Josco in the popular comedy serial by Ken Saro-Wiwa until 1990 when the crew disbanded owing to Saro-Wiwa’s confrontation with General Sani Abacha, leaving out many episodes which could not be aired, sponsored as they were by former military President Ibrahim Babangida.
Sosei returned to the Rivers State Council for Arts and Culture in 1996, but was not reabsorbed. Not quite two months after he returned to Port Harcourt, his home state, Bayelsa, was created. ‘So, we relocated. I wasn’t re-instated, so I had to start all over at the Bayelsa State Council for Arts and Culture. I did 10 years in service and retired in 2009. I headed the music department, and started the band, a one-man band playing the keyboard all by myself. I sang and backed myself’, he said. And so saying, Sosei is quick to remember his soulful track Inamunongu as ranking amongst his favourite compositions.
Okutuate brought the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria to Bayelsa State single-handedly when he hosted the body on Thursday, 16 May 2002, in Yenagoa. He was equally active in the formation of CAORBED, a registered entertainment development organisation covering all the Niger Delta states, namely Cross River, Akwa-Ibom, Ondo, Rivers, Bayelsa, Edo, and Delta. ‘The Actors’ Guild is not happy about it, but that is what freedom of association is all about’, he maintained.
Okutuate is only too glad to reminisce on his days in Enugu when the Basi & Company crew lived as one family under Saro-Wiwa’s veritable guidance. He fondly remembers Albert Egbe, the original cast for Basi, the smart alec who walks with the soft bounce of a con artist in his bedsitter, and dreams about making millions in the everyday schemes of Lagos. In like manner, Sosei remembers Zulu Adigwe, who inherited the role when Egbe left with his head held high.
The pioneer Boy Josco also remembers Tekenah Harry-Macdonald, who played Alali, the excitable youngster who was too ready to do the bidding of his friend and master, Basi. And then, there was Lasa Amoro, the actor with the slow deliberate speech and avuncular manners who played the role of Dandy, the bar tender always waiting to be part of the next grand plot.
Mildred Iweka (alias Segi) was always there to enlarge her eyeballs with wonder and great seductive appeal. And, for grand controlling effect, there was Madam the Madam, the ostentatious landlady who repeats the mantra that everything is a matter of cash, a role appropriately suited to the loveable Aso Ikpo-Douglas.
After many years, Okutuate would be only too glad to re-unite with this excellent cast on stage again, in a play pandering to the delight of a nation that loves to laugh at itself.
