Rest in peace Mr. Gideon Nwaomu of Giddy’s Place Asaba who died early this morning in Asaba Delta State.
You never really recovered from the fracture you suffered that took you to India in search of a cure and mostly importantly, the wicked destruction of your means of livelihood, Giddy’s Place, on the instruction of the then Delta State governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduangan, for politics and recently a kidney transplant you underwent. Rest on brother till we meet again.
Watch out for the story of that destruction on the orders of Uduangan that quickened his death.
Below is a tribute written by this writer and published in Newdawnngr.com on June 22 2023 to mark his 68 birthday.
Tribute: Gideon Nwaomu: Cat with nine lives!
Gideon Nwaomu
If there is anybody that is worth being described as a cat with nine lives, that person is Mr. Gideon Nwaomu, the founder of once very popular relaxation spot, Giddys Place, Asaba, Delta State.
Giddys as he is known by friends has seen it all; he has seen 99 and only one is remaining.
No wonder he is hugging the headlines again, this time for all the positivity. Nwaomu recently clocked 68 years old and could not help but returned all the glory to his creator with a church thanksgiving held in Asaba last Sunday.
With wife inside the church
The story of Nwaomu is a moving one for those who know him closely as an artiste manager, hospitality place operator and a ‘politician.’
However, this writer is going to limit this tribute to his sojourn in his entertainment career that took off as a keen follower of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in the 1980s while domicled in Lagos, a journey he is not ashamed to tell all that cares to know his trajectory.
From Fela’s commune in Gbemisola and Afrika Shrine all in Ikeja, he graduated to a roadie for a popular female musician turned politician. After years of being a part of those that took care of the singer’s instruments and heralding her arrival at shows, he left to become an artiste manager.
A restless and hardworking soul, he managed two artistes; the late Chris Hannen of Ozigizaga and Junior and Pretty of Fufu Flavour fames from obsecurity to prominence in the late 1990s.
It is on record that it was under his watch as a manager that Hanen won the Best New Artiste Award of the Performing Musicians Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN) in 1990
As a rolling stone who is tired of doing one thing over and over and getting same result, he left artiste management for nightclubbing. He managed several nightclubs within the Ikeja axis in the 1990 era.
When Delta State was craved out from the then Bendel State on August 27, 1991 and when his bosom friend Ibrahim Kefas became military governor of Delta State four years later, he saw the opportunity to return home and invest in the development of the state’s tourism and entertainment industry by establishing a relaxation spot known as Giddy’s Place in 1994.
It was in Asaba that Giddy blew; just to borrow the language of now generation. From relatively obscurity, he grew Giddys Place to a celebrity hangout status where all the who is who in the state capital congregate to share love and friendship together with the green bottle and good music; he became as popular as the naira note. This was the wave he was riding on when the first unexpected tragedy occured. A road accident that left one of his arms damaged.
That was the beginning of his challenges. He became a regular face in many hospitals in the state to the extent that he sought cure for the hands at an Indian hospital; for many years he carried Plastic of Paris (POP) and iron rod inside it to the extent that a pal counseled him to chop it off.
Gideon in Giddys Place in POP flanked by pals
It was in this situation that Dr. Emmanuel Uduagan, the then governor of the state, came with his demolition men ( Nwaka, Omare and Funkekeme) and caterpillars and pulled Giddys Place down with the excuse that the place was rendervzous for criminals and undersereable elements in the state capital. Meanwhile, the real reason he came after Nwaomu and his Giddys Place and levelled it to ground zero like the famous World Trade Centre building in New York, was that he hosted Chief Great Ogboru, who was seeking to push him (Uduagan) out of office as the governor of the state. He hosted Ogboru, the late Senator Ewerido and other All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state during their state wide electioneering. Uduagan played God where no man should, in the name of politics! Today the APC is now in charge in Nigeria. Thus began the ‘suffering’ of Giddys as he moved Giddys Place from place to place in the state- first to Awani Road, then Nnebisi Road by NEPA bus Stop.
But in spite of all, Nwaomu refused to give up as ‘ die, die no dey him dictionary’ as Fela once sang. He took the case of the vendatta demolition to court beginning from a high court in Asaba and in 2019 he laughed last as an Ughelli based high court gave him victory. It declared the demolition which was supervised by two commissioners , one of them an Anioma brother of Nwaomu, as illegal and ordered the state, which was then governed by Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, to return the land to Nwaomu, pay him over N.2b in compensation.
This was done. And as soon as the money was paid after some negotiation, the land was sold and Giddys relocated to his Ubulu- Okiti village to invest in farming.
And so it was not surprising to some of us who knew Giddys checkered history when he closed down his Anglican church to blown a sax in praise of God.
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