Why I quit my marriage – Onyeka Onwenu

Veteran Nigerian singer and actress Onyeka Onwenu has opened up on why she left her marriage after facing some difficulties.

The ‘One Love’ crooner made this known during a chat with Kikilomo Atanda-Owo on her show “Real Talk with Kike.”

According to the her, she tried her best to make her marriage work until she could no longer manage the situation.

“I went through it. It was difficult because I really didn’t want my marriage to end but I could not take it anymore. It would have killed me. I always say and that is the truth,” she said.

She also revealed that she singlehandedly raised her children from nursery school till they bagged their masters degree.

“And it was not good for the children to live in that kind of environment where the mother is depressed, the mother is carrying the weight of the whole family. I raised my children from kindergarten to Masters Degree,” she added.

The is not the first time Onwenu will be talking about her failed marriage.

In an interview #with Jude, she said her marriage to her ex-husband would have almost killed her if not for her brother who saved her.

“I don’t like talking about it but because you raised it and because I’d written about it, I have to expatiate.”

She continued: “The marriage was incredible, but sometimes, when things happen to people, they change. My husband, I pray for him on a daily basis…”

Onwenu also talked about turning down Music legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti who approached her for marriage in the eighties.

“Fela is a trickster. He knew I’d say no,” she said of Fela’s marriage proposal.

“I think it was his way of thanking me for coming out in support of him when he was jailed,” the singer added.

Onwenu is a Nigerian singer/songwriter, actress, human rights activist, social activist, journalist and politician.

She recently released her book ‘My Father’s Daughter’ which highlights her successful music career.

As an employee of the NTA, Onwenu made an impact as a newsreader and reporter. In 1984, she wrote and presented the internationally acclaimed BBC/NTA documentary Nigeria, A Squandering of Riches which became the definitive film about corruption in Nigeria as well as the intractable Niger Delta agitation for resource control and campaign against environmental degradation in the oil rich region of Nigeria.

A former member on the board of the NTA, she has also worked as a TV presenter, hosting the shows Contact (1988) and Who’s On? (1993) both on NTA Network