THE STORY OF PRINCE NICO MBARGA, a boy who made a living by playing music every Sunday night at Onitsha Plaza Hotel, is one you may not have encountered in history. There is probably no street or building named after him. And when Nigerians list the legends of this country, Nico’s name doesn’t make the cut. But on the board of the most sold singles in the world (1998) – where Elton John’s Candle In The Wind, Celine Dion’s My Heart Goes On, etc., were captured – only one African, with over 13 million copies sold, made the list. His name was Nico Mbarga.
You see, Nico was the child of a Cameroonian father and a Nigerian woman from Mbembe (Obubra LGA, Cross Rivers State.)
He was born and raised in Ikom – present-day Cross River State. He started fishing as a boy, and his father, who sawed timber, was a nice man. He bought his boy a secondhand Philip Radio, and the boy became addicted to highlife music. He couldn’t stop listening to Bobby Benson’s ‘Taxi Driver.’ But the death of his father when he was still too tender made his mother, a peasant farmer, the sole breadwinner.
The mother suffered a lot, but the boy wasn’t a prodigal. He moved from one bar to the other doing what he loved - singing. Sometimes he got a little pay, others didn’t pay at all. At his 17th year, the Nigerian – Biafra war broke out. And while his mother stayed back in Nigeria, Nico found his way to Mamfe – Cameroon. That’s where he met Lucy. The article said that both lovers were so poor they couldn’t afford a pot of boiling water. But Lucy married Nico anyways.
It’s 1970. The Biafran War comes to an end, and Nico and Lucy - without a penny to their names, or passports - traverse “the bush way” to make it back to Nigeria, settling in Onitsha, a trading down on the Niger River. And oh, what a town Onitsha would be for them.
Onitsha was booming, literally. And it was there that God blessed Nico. He became a darling of the town. He built a band named Rocafil Jazz.
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