First Village Headmaster, Ted Mukoro dies at 89
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we were used to seeing them come here and give him briefs to write. he would be up till 4 a.m. he had a great work ethics not a lazy man1 theodore mukoro 89 the pioneer headmaster and lead character in the now rested nta soap village headmaster is dead1 even when he had cataract surgery he came home the same day mrs angela ajetunmobi one of the two surviving children said1 she told the news agency of nigeria nan that late pa mukoro the first person to act the headmaster role in the popular but now rested soap had a brief illness that led to his death1 this illness before his death was very brief now i know what people mean when they say died after a brief illness1 he took ill on saturday was admitted in hospital on sunday and he gave up in the of wednesday march 7 in the arms of my sister-in-law the wife of my fathers only surviving son1 the doctors were wondering why and asking what was the relationship between uncle ted and his daughter-in -law1 they were very close and it was like he had waited for her to arrive in the hospital that morning. he was said to have held her hand and took his last breathe1 he just slipped away while we were planning his 90th birthday for october ajetunmobi told nan1 in terms of broadcasting the late ted mukoro was one of the first 10 people to appear on wntv screen as newscasters when it was set up by the late chief obafemi awolowo the premier of western region at the time she said of her fathers career1 uncle ted was the first person to play the role of the headmaster in the popular soap opera called the village headmaster usually transmitted on the nigerian television authority nta some years ago1 he was also one of the first persons to write scripts for the soap opera1 i recall that the first two or three scripts of the village headmaster series were written by him as well as produced a few episodes. he coined a few of the characters names such as jigabi and bassey okon1 he was very much involved with production of the now defunct household name opera1 ajetunmobi said that her late father also feature in dinner with the devil alongside popular actress omotola jolade ekeinde1 according to her uncle ted continued to work till the week before he died he was consulted widely for the advertising world when many advertising agencies were working on new projects1 my father late theodore mukoro was never ill to the extent of being on admission for once until the last one where he died on march 71 ajetunmobi said that in every job his father did while alive he always left his mark and was very famous. in advertising he retired as the first indigenous creative director of lintas communications nigeria ltd1 he worked for star beer where he coined the phrase shine shine bobo and black tin good o for guinness beer1 i remember patti boulaye obe who also featured in the lux soap advert he shot in miami florida in the us1 he had a lot of achievements in the advertising world. we including my late mother grew up in front of the television participating in adverts angela ajetunmobi told nan1 she added that her father was great with the pidgin language as a warri boy as well as the queens english1 he would get angry with corrupted pidgin english1 he was a typical warri boy and he also considered himself a typical lagos boy because he had lived and worked all his life in lagos she said1 ajetunmobi added that her parents were originally living in warri from where they moved to ibadan where she was born1 they finally moved to lagos ending up at the nigerian television then ntv where he was employed as a news caster1 my father was a very interesting person. he never stopped educating. that was something that i found very interesting about him1 whenever he was watching my interviews on the television he wasnt listening to the thrust of the conversation all he was listening to was how i was pronouncing my words the tenses and things like that1 those were the things he focused on. he was a perfectionist in that regard. he was a great wordsmith. words were his life1 he impressed that upon us. one of the things we his children are really good at is communicating with words1 ajetunmobi added that because of her fathers love for words the family house was and still is full of books. he was a books person he read until his last day1 before he died at 89 i was planning to set up a library in his honour and that of my mother who died in 2010. i would still do it in their honour1