‘I started acting four years before Pete Edochie’ — Lere Paimo counters actor’s seniority claim

Veteran Yoruba actor Lere Paimo has countered Pete Edochie’s recent claim about his seniority in Nigeria’s acting industry, saying he began acting four years before the “Things Fall Apart” star.

The 86-year-old actor said he started acting in 1958, while Edochie recently traced the beginning of his career to 1962, when he was 15.

The question of who began acting earlier has resurfaced among some of Nigeria’s veteran actors. Edochie recently challenged actors who claim to have started their careers before him to come forward and prove it.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that during an appearance on “Curiosity Made Me Ask”, Edochie cited his performance in William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” in 1962 as evidence of how far back his acting career dates.

The 79-year-old said his career began on stage years before Nollywood’s emergence and challenged contemporaries who claimed professional seniority over him.

Paimo has now responded, placing the beginning of his own career in 1958, four years before Edochie’s stated debut.

‘I started acting in 1958’

Speaking during an interview with actor Kunle Afod, which was posted on YouTube on Monday, Paimo said he had already been acting when Edochie began his career in 1962.

“I started acting in 1958, and it was in 1962 that Pete Edochie started acting. I met Hubert Ogunde, who was senior to me and others, and there were big movies produced back then,” he said.

Paimo also challenged the broader suggestion that Edochie belonged to the earliest generation of Nigerian actors, pointing to the late theatre legend Hubert Ogunde and the Yoruba performance tradition that preceded both men.

According to him, Ogunde was the foremost actor he knew growing up, long before English-language productions became prominent.

“I heard from history that when he (Hubert Ogunde) started in the ’40s, there was nobody before him, and we never heard from history that the English industry, or any movie done in the English language, started before him.

“Since we didn’t hear or read that in any history books or documentation, I believe the Yoruba industry started first.

“There was nothing like English-speaking movie production then; Ogunde started by producing movies in the Yoruba language, which he used to educate everyone who watched those movies back then. We never heard about English-speaking movies until now, when, with civilisation, we started hearing and seeing that there are English-speaking movies,” he said.

Ogunde’s place

The “Ogbori Elemosho” actor also addressed claims about whether other theatre practitioners might have preceded Ogunde.

He said he could not establish whether Baba Olumegbon began acting before Ogunde but maintained that Ogunde was already an established practitioner by the time he entered the industry.

“I don’t know if Baba Olumegbon started before Ogunde, but all I know is that Ogunde was the person I knew who started acting first. Although I have been hearing about him for a long time, I can’t say he was senior to Ogunde,” Paimo said.

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Paimo began his career in the Yoruba travelling-theatre tradition, working with the Oyin Adejobi Theatre Group, founded by veteran theatre practitioner Oyin Adejobi.

He later joined Duro Ladipo’s Theatre Group, where he played Chief Basa in the stage production Obamoro.

He went on to become one of the prominent figures of Yoruba theatre and film and gained wider recognition for portraying Soun Ogunola in the epic “Ogbori Elemosho.”

Paimo’s intervention adds another dimension to the continuing debate over seniority among Nigeria’s veteran actors, particularly as the careers being compared span the country’s travelling-theatre, stage, television and later film eras.