Remembering Madam Blessing and her Studio

By Charles Okogene
If you were an entertainment writer in the 1990s and never visited Madam Blessing Studio near Balogun Bus Stop along Obafemi Awolowo Way, then you were not worthy to be grouped among entertainment writers.

The studio that was owned by Madam Blessing Dokubo-Russell, was a walking distance to John Chukwu’s (JC) Klass Niteclub if you were coming from the Ikeja end of Kodesoh Street under the bridge or the famous Balogun Street where Chief Ebenzer Obey lives or where Texen fashion was situated then. It was also very close to House of Maufechi and Rubbi Dubbi, another TGIF rendezvous of most journalists.

This writer, my late friends, Ogbonnya Amadi, Gabriel Orok, Smart Ariwodo, now based in America, Thomas Peretu of Presidential Amnesity office, among others rocked the pub to no end.
That done; the studio was more than a studio to us, it was also what Halim Mohammed of the then Today’s Choice Magazine would have described as a back street pub.
Here, most journalists converge on a it in the evenings before combing the night for where it was happening, entertainment wise. They straegise here before going out for the night to other clubs or return there to say goodbye to one another when the deal was done. Whichever Madam Blessing Studio was the hip with an owner who was very friendly, receptive to journalists,
Black Moses was the in-house producer then just as Angel Zizag was the in-house studio ‘rat’ then. One of his songs, ‘Goat Meat Pepper Soup’ was written and produced there. Unconfirmed story had it that Majek Fashek was a regular there before he blew with Send Down the Rain Song.
It was there I met the first civilian governor of Osun State, Isiaka Adeleke, for the first time. He had breezed into the pub in his usual ‘sheerubawon’ cammando fashion on his way from Oshogbo to his Ikeja residence. Spent some minutes catching fun and declaring for all who cared to have a drink before taking his leave. It was later I had from Madam Blessing that Adeleke was the next building neighbour to her caucasian husband who then was the managing director of Merchant Bank Limited owned then by the old Cross River State now Akwa Ibom/Cross River states.
With her rough hair and smile always on her face Madam Blessing like Dolu Ransome-Kuti, Fela Anikulapo-kuti’s only nurse sister then, moved about bare feet, not because she could not afford a pair of shoes then , but simply because
she wanted to be different.
She caused a stir the day she came all the way to Daily Times of Nigeria premise Agidingbi from her studio in her Volkswagen Beatle with scattered hair, bare foot and rumpled dress for an interview shortly before she lunched her album, God Bless Nigeria; a lunch that held inside one of the National Theatre halls. At the end of that interview, I faced a barrage of questions from friends/colleagues like Ebere Wabara, Festus Akanbi now the deputy editor of Thisday on Sunday, Isaac Anumanihe now of The Sun Abuja office, Dele Omojuyigbe now the deputy provost of Nigerian Institute of Journalism, among others whether she was mentally balanced to, which I replied with a yes.

Today, Madam Blessing Dokubo-Russel is far away Ireland with her husband enjoying grand old age!




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