Exclusive: How My Children’s Nanny Tried To Seduce Me – Digidigi Dunhill
By Orji Onyekwere
Digidigi Dunhill is a Nollywood actor that is known for his bad guy roles mostly. He is a single father, who kept his acting and music career in the cooler, to focus on bringing up his four boys alone without their mother. He speaks more in this interview with SAMUEL ONYEKWERE
What happened to your music career?
I found out that I have to raise my children alone when their mum left. I had to choose between pursuing my career and bringing up the kids. So, l decided to bring up my kids first and keep the music and acting career by the side. Again, l am the only son of my parents and l have to take up the responsibility. So, l chose to raise them over paparazzi and career.
What has been the experience like, raising these children alone as a single parent, a man?
The experience has not been easy coupled with the situation of the country. We are in a country where governments don’t help families in terms of providing welfare for families, just like it’s done abroad. No health care for the children, no benefits, you are just on your own. It was never easy waking up, having to take care of three years, five, seven and nine years- old children. You have to wake up by 6: am to prepare their breakfast, bathe them, take them to school, then come back to the house, and you start cleaning and you hardly do anything for yourself. By the time it’s 2:30, you start thinking of bringing them back home and before you know it, the day is gone and you are tired. That life was not easy; l had no choice but to face it.
You eventually became father, mother, nanny and housekeeper at the same time and also managing your movie career at the same time.
The only thing is that l was taking movies that were shot within town where l was staying because I couldn’t travel. The first time l got a nanny, it was terrible. When l go out, she brings boys to my house and my people started complaining. They asked me to bring in an elderly person and I brought a single mother with her daughter, all she wanted was to sleep with me and l had to let her go. This made me to lose hope in this nanny business, so l decided to focus on raising them myself and this gave me joy, seeing them grow and teaching them values.
But you never considered re-marrying for the sake of the children?
My brother, let’s be real. A lot of women shy away from this responsibility. When you’re a single father with 3,5,7 and 9 years- old kids, no matter how rich you are, once you bring in women at that age range; you are going to bore the person with your personal responsibilities. Nobody enjoys raising other people’s kids, taking responsibility of children that are not hers or his.
No man or woman will enjoy doing that. If she tries to do it and eventually have hers the attention will shift. There will be disunity. There are things you can tolerate, your children can tolerate from you that she may not. There are things your children will tolerate from you that they cannot tolerate from her. It’s just pure human psychology. No matter how we pretend about it, it will not work except maybe when your children are grown. She doesn’t have to bath, cook and take them to school. You know what it takes to wash the clothes of four kids on a regular basis.
Is that why you have to relocated from Lagos- Owerri then to Abuja?
You know Lagos with the issue of traffic and the lifestyle, there’s no way l could have coped. So, l decided to look for a place that is saner and l had to move to Owerri. Since it did not work between us, I decided not to let people know about this and people were wondering, we don’t see this guy in movies or hear his songs. People were wondering. I respected her (my wife) and there was no need making noise about this. It did not work, it did not work. You don’t have to make it a public show.
Tell us more about the TV series, the Digidigi’s. What should people be expecting?
With the series, l only wanted to encourage single fathers and mothers because no matter what life throws at you, you must learn to be strong and pull through. People used to call me to give them advice. I just wanted to encourage people that if l can do this, you also can do it. Life is hard, but you have to make something out of it. That bad boy image people saw in me made them to say, if this guy can do this; what of me?
A lot of people have been learning from me that’s why l want this to go global. We have done 10 episodes of the Digidigi’s, season one, ‘the life of a single dad’, the struggle and other things about the life of a single dad. The season one is ready. We will continue shooting season after season, but we are looking for sponsors that can put it on TV because it’s a good thing that needs to be celebrated. A lot of men are around that can do this.
When you talk about single parenting people only think about the women. There are lots of men going through the same experience like me: being a mother, father, nanny and all that, but it’s just that women get the attention because they open up more. Women seem to generate that pity they get the attention more than men.
Have you been approaching corporate bodies for sponsorship?
That is the next step l want to take to approach these corporate entities. I financed it with my personal money, out of my savings. I shot over the years for about five to six years, so you will see the changes in the children. In some episodes, you will notice that the picture qualities are different. It went through stages and phases.
Is Digidigi your real name or stage name?
Digidigi Dunhill is all I have been known with all my life. It was my uncle that gave me the name Dunhill.
Is that the name your parents gave you at birth?
My American uncle named me Dunhill; Digidigi means heavy man, just like my grandfather was called Akatakpo. So you see the name blended well. The only name my parents used to call me is Ogechi and if you come to my village and say you are looking for Ogechi, nobody will know who you are talking about. If you move around my childhood friends and say you are looking for Ogechi, they will say what are you talking about but once you mention Digi, they already know.
You have carved for yourself, the image of bad boy in Nollywood because of the roles you play. You have other guys who have that same image of bad boys in movies like: Charles Okocha, late Ernest Azuzu and others. Incidentally, you and these guys have become close friends on and off set. What’s significant about them and your friendship?
When we started this movie thing there was nothing like Actors Guild of Nigeria, it was just a clique of like minded friends that had interest in entertainment and music. There is Labista that’s Emmanuel, Ernest Azuzu, Charles Okocha, and a lot of them. These were guys that liked action movies and these are things we know we could do. It’s just a clique of young guys that shared common interest with like minds and knew that this is what we could do.
It was Teco Benson that took advantage of that because he was the only director that took interest in action films. Most directors and producers, I believe they thought they could not handle it and focused on drama, but Teco Benson single handedly pickled us up and we made all the movies that gave Teco Benson his name. So, after then every other movie we made, we were seen from that angle and you know directors can stereotype type you. Once the see you’re good in this, that is it.
For instance, if you give Sylvester Mmadu a role where he would play the bad guy, he will tell you to go and bring Dunhill, if Dunhill will not be in the movie, he will leave it. He will read a script and will insist and tell the producer that the only person he knows that can interpret this role well is Dunhill and they will start looking for me. Some will be like, can we pay Dunhill? It’s just manner of approach. Sometimes you do it for passion because the industry has to change and you need to be master of your craft. The boys are grown, so I want to launch back because movies don’t have age barriers. There’s a character for every age, so am looking forward to making a comeback.
Have producers been reaching out to you?
The issue is that most of them don’t know how to get me. I have done some movies. There is one they released now that I saw on AfricaMagic, ‘Do Me I Do You’,
What of your movies?
That is Cash Bag and Prodigal Dad, that is the one I have produced and it featured Charles Okocha and Chiwetalu Agu. It’s about one lgbo billionaire that did not go to school, but has a literate father that is wayward. His father was played by Chiwetalu Agu; it’s a father and son that don’t agree with each others views. It’s a comic action movie.
You remind me of the comic role of the illiterate rich guy you played in the TV series My Neighbors Wife…
I love that character of Choppinson. Even the director and the crew were all shocked at the way l interpreted that role. They were like, is this not the same guy that plays serious roles. Producers and most times stereotype you; they don’t want to try you in other roles.
