Femi Adesina, President Buhari’s media aide, recently paid a courtesy visit to the family of late Nigerian music legend, Sunny Okosun, who died almost 10 years ago (May 2008).
Adesina who shared some photos from the visit wrote,
‘Oziddi King, Sonny Okosuns, was my good friend. I felt the loss keenly when he passed away 10 years ago. On a flying visit to Lagos, I stopped by to see the family of my late friend. I was warmly received by Omono, the widow, Charles and Iwa, the brothers. It was a poignant time, as they unfolded plans to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of the music maestro/evangelist. Sleep well, Sonny, till the day of the Great Awakening’.
Sunny Okosun was born Jan. 1, 1947, Enugu or Benin City, Nigeria and died May 24, 2008, Washington, D.C.). He composed songs advocating the Pan-African cause and supporting the reform of African social and political conditions. Okosuns (or Okosun), who sang both in English and in the Nigerian languages of Ishan and Ibo, created a unique musical style by combining various genres, including reggae, pop, rock, calypso, and Nigerian highlife dance music. As a youth, he taught himself guitar and played with several different bands before forming (1972) Paperback Ltd., which later became known as Ozziddi (“Message”). Although he produced dozens of albums, he first gained international acclaim with Fire in Soweto (1977). Okosuns played on the Artists Against Apartheid album Sun City (1985), and in 1994 he was invited to perform at the inauguration of South African Pres. Nelson Mandela. From the late 1980s Okosuns performed gospel music under the name Evangelist Sonny Okosuns; his gospel album Songs of Praise (1994) sold nearly a million copies. In 1998 he founded the House of Prayer Ministry in Ikeja.
In the 1980s, when Sunny Okosuns’s mainstream success started to fade, he switched his musical career to gospel songs and added the title “Evangelist” to his name to become Evangelist Sonny Okosun.
Sunny Okoson died when he was 61 years old of colon cancer on May 24, 2008 at Howard University Hospital, Washington DC.
