Chief Olalere Osunpaimo, aka “Eda Onile Ola” one of Yoruba’s foremost film actors and cultural icons is dead.
The veteran Yoruba actor simply known as Lere Paimo and stage name as Eda Onile Ola, passed away at 86 years in his Ogbomosho town in Oyo state.
Details of his death have yet to be made public but the foremost veteran actor has been bedridden for over three months on accounts of old age related ailments.
Information said that he finally succumbed to death late night of November 28.
Olalere Osunpaimo was during his life time, a National Awards holder of Member of the Federal Republic MFR conferred on during by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
While acting, featured in many prominent Yoruba films with his roles and experience making him one of the biggest figures in the industry.
Chief Lere Paimo, MFR was born on November 19, 1939, in Ile Ikoyi Odan, Osupa, Ogbomosho, a city in Oyo State southwestern Nigeria. His father was said to be a tobacco and yam farmer, the leader of the local farmers’ organization. His mother was a trader.
Chief Lere Paimo was sent to primary school in Ogbomoso, but then left for the Gold Coast (current day Ghana) where he continued his education up to teacher training college where he obtained Teacher’s Grade two certificate. He eventually returned back to Nigeria and decided to stay in Osogbo where he worked as a class-room teacher in a Baptist Missionary School.
In 2005, in recognition of his immense contributions to the Nigerian film industry, he was bestowed a National award of Member of the Federal Republic alongside Zeb Ejiro by Olusegun Obasanjo the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In April 2014, he won a N1,000,000 cash prize in a Nigerian game show, Who Wants to be a MIllionaire.
In May 2013, it was reported that he had a partial stroke, an attack he survived but kept him out of public glare for sometimes.
During one of his interviews in the media, he gave an insight into how he suddenly became “Eda Onile Ola”
“When I was with my boss, the late Chief Duro Ladipo, in Osogbo, the duo of Ulli Beier and Susan Wengar, the Adunni Olorisa, brought a job to us. The script was entitled: “Every Man” and was written by someone in Wenger’s country, Germany. The script was written in English and our job was to translate it to Yoruba Language.
“By our translation, we referred to “Every Man” as “Eda”. The role of “Every Man” or “Eda” was played by me. He was a wealthy man and also hardworking and industrious.
“That role from the scrip gave me the sobriquet and since then, many people came to know me as “Eda”. It has become so popular that some people don’t even know my real names and many people know me only as “Eda Onile Ola”, he said then.