Legendary musician Victor Uwaifo has been buried in his palatial residence at Victor Uwaifo Avenue off College/Ekenwan Road, Benin, Edo State.
A funeral mass was held earlier on Friday at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium.
In his homily, Catholic Archbishop of Benin Most Rev. Augustine Akubeze called on Nigerians to love their country and its progress.
“If we do the right things, Nigeria will survive. As individuals, we can change the image of Nigeria. Let us do good always and steer clear of sin, for Nigeria to witness the change we desire,” he said.
The cleric’s message was reminiscent of Uwaifo’s public image as the good that came out of Nigeria.
Fondly called the guitar boy, Uwaifo died at 80 on August 28 at the Edo government-owned Stella Obasanjo Specialist Hospital, Sapele Road, Benin
He remains the poster boy for the University of Benin (UNIBEN) where he bagged a first class degree in visual arts. Uwaifo’s time in politics saw him as Edo commissioner for arts and culture in the Lucky Igbinedion administration.
Speaking at the funeral, Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki said the newly-constructed Edo Creative Hub would be renamed after the iconic musician.
“As a mark of honour to this legend (Uwaifo), the government of Edo State has decided that our newly-constructed Edo State Creative Hub will be named after him,” he said.
“The Creative Hub, which is going to be inaugurated during the second week of November this year, has a multi-million dollar sound stage for production for artistes. It will promote creative arts in Edo State. It has an editing suite to filter contents, including animation. It will incubate state-based groups and artistes.
“It will be used for live shows and stage plays. It has studio spaces for artistes from Nollywood to come and rent spaces for their productions and there will be space for developing skills in the creative arts.
“That is the least we can do for a man who changed the face of music in Nigeria, for a man who composed the song, ‘Joromi’, that was the first song from Nigeria and Africa to win a golden label at the time it did.”
