•Veteran Actor, CHARLES OLUMO Tells City People
Everyone calls him Agbako. Some call him Charles Olumo. Those are his stage names. He is a veteran actor. And a veteran Theatre Practitioner. His real name is Alhaji Abdulsalam Sanyaolu. This Abeokuta-born veteran actor is very popular for his roles in the many Yoruba movies he has acted in. He is now 98, but he is still very strong, though ailing due to old age. He lives in the Atan area of Ota, near Bishop Oyedepo’s Winners Church.
Most of Agbako’s contemporaries in Theatre & Movie industry like Hubert Ogunde, Oyin Adejobi, Baba Sala are dead.
Last week Thursday, City People went to visit this stern-looking fellow with a devious character in most movies he was cast to play. We were joined by star actress, Foluke Daramola Salako, who through her Passion Against Rape & Abuse in Africa Foundation, (PARA Foundation) has been taking care of the aged in Nollywood. We all drove in a convoy of cars to Ota to meet with this elder statesman. It was a memorable day for the aged actor when he saw the powerful team. We met him in high spirit. Baba Agbako was very happy.
A few days before our visit, he had met with Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who hosted Nollywood veterans. So happy was he at the party that he danced and danced. He held on to the hands of Gov. Sanwo-Olu and danced his hearts out.
He has a very rich history behind him.
Despite being a Muslim, Charles Olumo started his acting career in a church in Abeokuta, before hitting the mainstream. Agbako was known for his radical and rascally mode of acting which earned him a stereotyped role of a villain in his early days of acting. Charles Olumo’s contemporaries in the film industry include late Hubert Ogunde, late Duro Ladipo, late Moses Oliya, popularly known as Baba Sala, late Oyin Adejobi among others. So if you call him the last man standing, at 98, you won’t be wrong. Charles Olumo is one of the living legends from the veteran filmmakers and actors.
How does he feel at 98? How did he take the recent hosting of about 35 Nollywood veterans by Gov. Sanwo-Olu and Foluke Daramola’s PARA Foundation?
He is the oldest of all the veterans. He is 98 and Iya Osogbo is 93. Throughout the party, Baba Agbako was dancing. The party didn’t end till about 11pm. They had so much fun. He and the other veterans took photos with the Governor.
“I am happy to be 98,” he told City People. “I feel fulfilled. The Lagos State Governor made me happy. I appreciate him. I thank him very much. I was very happy. I never thought I could ever meet the Governor face-to-face like I did that day. He held me. I also held him. I was very happy. Please thank Foluke Daramola for me. She is one of the reasons I am still alive today. Please pray for her to be successful. I pray for her all the time.”
“God will bless her. God will bless you. God will bless City People for taking out time to come here to visit me”.
What does Foluke Daramola do for him that has kept him alive at 98? “She buys me food stuff”, he replied. “She gives me money. She keeps telling me, Baba ema ronu. Don’t think about anything. You lived a good life. She is always advising me. She is always calling me. Is that not enough?”.
Why did he dance so vigorously at the Governor’s party? “Yes, I danced a lot because I was happy”.
We got him to tell us a bit about the operation (surgery) he did a few years ago, plus how the doctor asked him to rest and he didn’t rest and he fell ill again, after he went to a location because of his passion for the job. This led to his prostrate issues.
What is the situation of his health right now?
“I thank God. It is true that after my surgery, the doctor said I should rest, that I should not stress myself at all. I said okay.
I won’t. 3 days after I was discharged, I had a show in Cotonou. I was to do a stage play there. So, I led a team of actors there. I went with the likes of Iya Rainbow, Abija, I took them along with me. But the audience wanted to see me perform on stage.
They said they had gathered there to see me. It is me they wanted to see.
I wanted to say No. But I gave it a 2nd thought and I jumped on stage. Once I got on stage, I got carried away. I forgot myself and I began to act. By the time I finished acting, my tummy had become swollen. That was how I took ill again. And I fell ill.
But I thank God. I feel better. That was over 10 years ago. I think what aggravated it is the way I act on stage. When I am on stage, I act with all my strength and energy. I always forget everything around me. As I was acting, people started shouting and praising me”.
Since then, how has his health been?
“I have not been too good. It goes on and off. Atimes my tummy will become swollen. Atimes I will have tummy aches and I will start shouting for help. I thank God. Doctors wanted to do an operation on me but I said No. I am already old. I am too old. What I am just doing is to manage my health”.
Whenever he wakes up every morning, what comes to his mind, we aked? “A lot of things. So many things. Is it the fact that I can no longer act? Is it the fact that I can no longer bounce on stage, like I used to do before? There are so many things to think about. Things are not going the way it should go. I thank my children.
I thank my children like Owolabi and his mum. My aburo, I thank Iya Rainbow. I thank Lagos Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu (breaks into 2 minutes prayers for Gov. Sanwo-Olu). He has won his 2nd-term elections. He has to come back. He will win again. I never knew he is a good man. He is a great man. He greeted all of us one after the other. I thank Foluke Daramola. I thank City People. Please thank Ebenezer Obey for me”.
Who are those he started with in those good old days when he started decades ago?
“Haa! There are so many of them ooo. I can’t remember many of them, like Jimoh Aliu. He is dead. I brought him into Theatre”. How come he and Iya Rainbow are close?
“I helped her years back. But I didn’t know she can remember the little help I rendered or that it can come back to work for me.
I invited her to be part of a film in Ibadan. I told her what role I wanted her to act. I gave her money. On the day we were to go into the village to start acting, she had a wound on her leg and it was so bad that we had to rush her to the hospital. I took care of the payment for treatment, apart from the money I had given her before. That is all I did for her”.
“After that, we have acted together. Baba Sala was also close to me. He was my junior on stage. The lady who started acting Iya Sala with him came from my group called Olumo Theatre Group”.
How did he get the name Agbako? “I gave myself that alias. When we were on location at Amoloko in Ibadan, one man came. He is in America now. He said he wanted to do film work. I asked him for his story line. He told me the story. What he called the movie didn’t tally with the story line. I said to him, look here, you are my child.
I can give you a good title. He said I should. I gave him Anikura. Me and Ajimasan worked on the movie. I played lead role in the movie and I was very visible in the movie. They all shouted Haaa! This man is good. The man who directed is Baba Gebu. He was my Director. He said, Baba, how come I bear different names in all the movies I have acted in.
He said, in Ogunde’s films I bear one name. In Ade Love’s movie, I bear a different name. Why not give yourself one name that you will be known for? I said okay. Baba Gebu is still alive. He is in Ibadan. I sat down and thought deeply. I now said let me give myself one BAD name that will scare them, a name that when you hear it and you see me, you will run. I said AGBAKO. That is how the name came out. AGBAKO. When I mentioned it everybody said Haaaa! Agbako Keee? That is how everybody started calling me Agbako at Bus Stops, Market places, etc.
If I enter bus, everybody will come down. Once they sight me, they will run away. I said Modaran. See how I gave myself a name that scares people away. I gave myself that name ooo.
That is how I started and the name stuck on me till today.
For those who would like to support Baba Agbako, you can send your widow’s mite to 4141173372 Sanyaolu Abdulsalam Ishola EcoBank.
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