Veteran Yoruba actor Lere Paimo has challenged Pete Edochie’s account of when he began acting, saying his own career started in 1958, four years before the veteran Igbo actor’s stated starting point.
Paimo, 86, made the claim during an interview with actor Kunle Afod published on YouTube on Monday, amid a renewed debate over seniority among Nigeria’s veteran actors.
Edochie recently said his acting career dates back to 1962, when he was 15 years old. He cited his performance in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice that year as evidence of his early involvement in acting.
The debate intensified after Edochie challenged actors who claimed to have started their careers before him to come forward and substantiate their claims.
Paimo subsequently offered his own account, insisting that he was already involved in acting when Edochie began his career.
“I started acting in 1958. I met Hubert Ogunde, who was senior to me and others, and there were big movies produced back then,” Paimo said.
The actor also placed his career within the broader history of Nigeria’s indigenous travelling-theatre tradition, arguing that Yoruba theatre existed before the emergence of English-language film production in the country.
Paimo pointed to the late theatre legend Hubert Ogunde, whom he described as the earliest actor and theatre practitioner he personally knew from that period.
“I heard from history that when he (Hubert Ogunde) started in the ’40s, there was nobody before him,” Paimo said.
He argued that the absence of documented evidence of an earlier English-language movie industry supported his view that Yoruba theatre had an earlier beginning.
According to Paimo, Ogunde used Yoruba-language productions to educate audiences at a time when English-language movie production had not become established.
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“There was nothing like English-speaking movie production then; Ogunde started by producing movies in the Yoruba language, which he used to educate everyone who watched those movies back then,” he said.
Paimo, however, acknowledged that there could have been other theatre practitioners whose careers predated Ogunde’s, mentioning Baba Olumegbon in particular.
He said he could not personally confirm whether Olumegbon began acting before Ogunde.
“I don’t know if Baba Olumegbon started before Ogunde, but all I know is that Ogunde was the person I knew who started acting first,” Paimo said.
Paimo began his career through the Yoruba travelling-theatre tradition and later worked with the Oyin Adejobi Theatre Group, established by veteran theatre practitioner Oyin Adejobi.
He subsequently joined Duro Ladipo’s Theatre Group, where he portrayed Chief Basa in the stage production Obamoro.
His work in Yoruba theatre and film later earned him wider recognition, particularly for his portrayal of Soun Ogunola in the epic production Ogbori Elemosho.
The latest exchange has brought renewed attention to the history of Nigeria’s theatre and film industry, as veteran performers offer different accounts of the origins and evolution of their careers.