Nollywood actress, Mercy Aigbe, has revealed that for a long time, she had a crush on popular Nigerian singer, 2baba (formerly 2face Idibia).

Aigbe stated this during the week as a guest on Gbenga Adeyinka’s Instagram Live chat. After Adeyinka played ‘African Queen’ while on the video call, Aigbe said with a broad smile,

Don’t tell anybody o. For a very long time, I had a crush on 2baba.

The fashionable role interpreter also stated that before she got into the industry, she admired Liz Benson and Sola Sobowale. She said,

Coming into the industry, there were two people I admired a lot— Liz Benson and Sola Sobowale. Liz Benson was just so beautiful and she still is. I absolutely loved her back then. I also loved the way Sola Sobowale interpreted her roles. She inspires me whenever I see her on a movie set.

Recounting the first encounter she had with Sobowale, Aigbe said, “Before I got into the industry, I admired Sola Sobowale because she knows her onions. One day, I got a call to come on set for a movie titled, ‘Ohun Oko So Mi Da’.

The movie was produced by Aunty Sola and I was shivering when I got to the set. I asked myself, ‘Would I be able to act in the presence of my role model?’ I went to a corner and prayed to God and told myself, ‘This is my opportunity. I shouldn’t allow Aunty Sola overshadow me. I should let my star shine.’

Unfortunately for me, in that particular scene, I wasn’t meant to talk at all. I acted the role of her husband’s secretary and was dating her husband. She came to my character’s house to warn her. I was not supposed to say anything but I thought that as an up-and-coming actress, she would just kill my ‘star’ if I didn’t say anything. Guess what I did. I gave myself lines. As she was ranting, I was reacting to her rants. When she held me, I put my hands inside her brassiere. She just told the director to end the scene at that point, asking where they found ‘this kind of girl’.

The ‘77 Bullets’ actress also maintained that she learnt consistency and doggedness from her mother. She added,

I learnt being dogged from my mum. She is a very strong woman, who never gives up. She is very consistent and hardworking. I believe that whatever one wants to do, one has to keep at it until one succeeds.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.