The veteran broadcaster and actor Sadiq Daba is dead.
The artist passed on Wednesday evening, after having been poorly since 2017 from leukaemia and prostate cancer.
A top official of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), where Mr Daba retired, confirmed his passing.
When he relapsed in 2019 and called for help, Nigerians, including billionaire Femi Otedola rallied to his aid.
The 70-year-old had been carefully managing his health until his passing on Wednesday evening, eliciting Nigerians’ grief.
Filmmaker Kunle Afolayan, who featured him in ‘October 1st’, wrote on The Culture People, the WhatsApp platform of TCN: “Uncle S, as I call him, has gone to rest. May his soul rest in peace.”
The Chief Executive of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) also wrote on the platform, “Rest well, Uncle Sadiq. You are a superstar.”
Born in Sierra-Leone to a father from Kano, the late Daba didn’t come to Nigeria until his early 20s in 1968 and didn’t start out life in television.
His first job in Nigeria was with the Government Coastal Agency. Later, the Nigeria Customs, before a chance encounter with the late Alifah Baba Ahmed, changed his life course.
Ahmed, who had noticed his excellent diction, facilitated his audition and eventual employment at Radio Television Kaduna (RKTV) in 1973.
He transitioned from radio to TV after meeting a former DG of the NTA, Peter Igho, who introduced him to drama when he started ‘Cock Crow at Dawn.’
The late Daba played Bitrus in the popular series and featured in other productions, including ‘Masquerade’, ‘Moment of Truth’, ‘Soweto’ and ‘October 1st’, which earned him AMAA’s Best Actor Prize in 2015. He also started ‘AM Express’ on the NTA with the late Uncle Yinka Craig
A wife and four children survive Daba.
