Filmmaker Kunle Afolayan has described the late actor Sadiq Daba as a ‘struggle’.
Speaking about his memories of the deceased during an Arise TV show on Friday night, Kunle said Sadiq had his oxygen machine close when they were filming Citation in 2020.
“I think God gave him those last few years for him to reconnect with people and for people to reconnect with him. And so he can be documented properly. Before I found him, he wasn’t doing anything,” he explained.
“When we were prepping for the film, his name came to mind. I went online, looked for him, and saw an interview he did two years ago. I reached out to the journalist who wrote the article and she gave me his number.
“After that, he featured in a few other films. God brought him back after we did October 1 but I can tell that, even when we were shooting October 1, he was a struggle. Uncle S is fragile. Sometimes he’d be sick and we had to wait.
“But when we were doing Citation, if you check our videos, he had his oxygen machine under the table. When I was casting him, a lot of people had reservations like, ‘Look, Uncle S is not fit, what if he’s not able to finish?’
“I said, ‘I can’t go wrong. If this is the last film he’d do, I’ll do it.’ We brought him, when he is uncomfortable, I tell him let’s take time out. In all the clips where he’s dancing, I played the songs to put him in good mood.”
On how he met Sadiq, Kunle said the actor’s name culled up when he sought someone to fill a role for October 1.
Sadiq breathed his last at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) where he had been undergoing treatment. The actor battled with prostate cancer and leukaemia for years prior to his demise.
