The veteran musician popularly known as “Guitar boy”, a Music Meastro, Sculptor, Philosopher, Prof. Victor Uwaifo Efosa has passed on at the age of 80 years.
Though details of his death were sketchy as at press time, the music icon, whose tracks ‘Joromi’ and ‘Mammy water’ were single hits till his demise. He was a multi-instrumentalist, great lyricist, melody maker and a renowned virtual artist.
The late Sir Uwaifo started his education at the Holy Cross Primary School, proceeded to the Benin Baptist Primary School, Benin City; the western Boys High School, Benin City and St. Gregory’s College, Lagos before proceeding to the Yaba College of Technology where he obtained the National Diploma in graphics with distinction.
To the enlargement of his knowledge to be an added advantage to others, he moved to the University of Benin (UNIBEN) where he obtained a First Class Degree in Applied Arts, a Master’s Degree in Sculpture and a Doctor of Philosophy in Architectural Sculpture, thereby setting a new record as the most educated performing music legend in the world, a feat he was very proud of in his lifetime. He was also an inventor with a Ph.D in Architectural Sculpture.
A reliable source has however, gathered that the celebrated musician-turned-university teacher and former Edo State Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism died yesterday in the course of a brief illness.
One of his children, Uwaifo Peter de rock, had broken the news of the demise of the professor of Visual Arts, University of Benin (UNIBEN) on his facebook page on saturday evening. Meanwhile, peter did not disclose the cause of the death of his father, he waxed elegy at the passing of the music star.
“daddy, why did you leave us now. Prof. Sir Victor Uwaifo has gone to rest. Black Saturday for me now,” the young lad typed this with 34 sad emojis. “One week now after now after collaborating with me,” the unhappy peter added.
Uwaifo joined the Octogenarian club earlier this year in the month of March 1, 2021.
This unique being is a man of several parts and one of the finest Nigerian music legends to have lived, as he has inexplicable energy driving so much dedication into this works and rode his way to stardom and greatness.
He was the first gold disc winner in Africa with ‘Joromi’, which was released in 1965.
He has also won seven other gold disc with Guitar boy, Arabade, Ekassa series and Akwete music.
In 1997, he was awarded the Certificate of Honor by the House of Representatives, Boston Massachusetts. Also, he is truly a man held in the best esteem as he is documented in the Groove Dictionary of Music and musicians Vol. 8, and documented in the Men and Women of Distinction in the Commonwealth 1983.
Uwaifo was born on March 1, 1941, recognized as the most educated performing music legend, musical instrument inventor and artiste worldwide with a B.A Honors (first class valedictorian), Masters degree and Ph.D in architectural Sculpture from the University of Benin, Nigeria.
The artiste while taking journalists on a voyage of his career during the National Festival of Arts and Culture hosted in Benin in 2019, had declared his band as the highest paying because of his commitment to musicianship.
Recalling on his sojourn in music, the ‘guitar boy’ as he was fondly called in some interviews during his 80th birthday, said; “music runs in the blood and my family, my father had a gramophone. I made my first guitar at the age of 12. I used trap ropes for the pegs, and spokes for the belts.”
“I managed to produce some sound and I did it my own way until I tried it with some downtown guitarist — the palm wine bar. When I played my guitar, they couldn’t play their own too; there was a variance. Their own was conventional, a kind of training, while mine was only my own way, my own style. Only I can play it.”
He founded the Victor Revelation Tourist Palazzo, which stands out today as key to historical events across the world. Sir Uwaifo was a dynamic and versatile in terms of voice, sounds, matrixes, rhythm, performance, compositional techniques and musical instruments. He stood out as a pioneer of kinetic exploration in the field of Sculpture, and a pathfinder and trailblazer through his unequalled versatility.
Uwaifo invented the revolving magic guitar, a feat yet to be equaled. He propounded the theory of music colours and transposition of colours into sound and vice versa, thereby setting standards of several fields that will be hard to beat even in death.
