Onyeka Onwenu, Nigerian singer and human rights activist, has finally reacted to rumours that she had a secret marriage to Olusegun Obasanjo, ex-president, and an affair with Fela Kuti, the late musician.
The veteran singer spoke during the latest edition of #WithChude, a show by Chude Jideonwo.
Rumours had swirled for a long period of time that Onwenu allegedly slept with Obasanjo and married the former president secretly.
She was also accused of sleeping with Fela, Sony Okosun, Sunny Ade among other prominent figures.
But in her reaction, the ace music star dismissed the claims as “false”. She also said she decided to keep mum over the years because she considered such rumours as “insignificant”.
The singer also wondered why she would have kept the supposed marriage to Obasanjo secret if it actually happened as alleged.
“I was accused of sleeping with Sunny Ade, Fela and Obasanjo. They even went to the extent of saying I got married to Obasanjo secretly,” she said.
“If he approached me to marry him, why would I keep it a secret? We would have made it public so that was funny.”
The singer, however, confirmed that she received a marriage proposal from Fela.
According to her, the late Afrobeat icon’s gesture was due to her support for him when he was jailed for his activism.
“Fela is a trickster. He knew I’d say no. I think it was his way of thanking me for coming out in support of him when he was jailed,” she added.
‘It almost killed me’ — Onwenu speaks on dealing with abusive marriage
During the interview, the singer also opened up on how her marriage to her former husband almost killed her due to abuse of various forms.
“I have a lot of regard for (my ex-husband). The marriage was incredible, it was incredibly beautiful, it was passionate, We were friends,” she said.
“We were the sort of friends who could stay in the house for a month without stepping out and we were pre-occupied, reading (the) newspaper, doing whatever. He was a very good friend.
“But sometimes when things happen to people they changed and sometimes, instead of taking it out on the people who have caused the problem, it’s expedient to take it out on the closest people to you, that happened.”
Onwenu said she initially tried to endure the abuse in the marriage because of her children and love for the family but had to pull out after it started taking another toll on her.
“Why did I take it for so long? Because I loved him and I loved my children and my children loved their father. So you make sacrifices because of the family,” she added.
“But there comes a time when you have to say, I’ve done enough of the sacrificing and if you really care about the children, you save yourself, because it could have killed me, it could have killed me. So, you save yourself.
“I was going down and then, my brother comes in. It took my brother calling me aside one day to say ‘you’re losing yourself.”
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