Femi Adebayo, on Friday, 23 January, donated ₦1,000,000 to the Department of Dramatic Arts during the Student Association’s initiation proper and announced that the best male and female initiates would feature in his upcoming Seven Doors Season 2 project later this year.
The initiation proper, held at the department’s Pit Theatre, marked the conclusion of the three-day initiation exercise organised annually to formally welcome newly admitted Part I students into the association. The award-winning Nollywood actor and Nigerian celebrity, Femi Adebayo Salami, was present to grace the event as the initiation priest, mirroring an icon for the initiates to look up to.
During the event, he charged the new initiates to always uphold the prestige of the department, stating that being a student of Dramatic Arts is a feat that everyone should be proud of. He also reminded the students that he himself has a degree in law, but has decided to further his career in theatre arts because of how highly he holds the profession.
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Furthermore, the Nollywood star gifted the department a sum of One Million Naira, adding that the two best initiates from the day, one male and one female, will also feature in his upcoming project later in the year, ‘Seven doors, the series.’ In his words, ‘I promise to support this student association with the token of a million Naira, and of course, the best two students from those being initiated today, male and female, will be part of my next project this year, ‘Seven doors, the series,’ he said.
‘I am pleased to be the priest at this initiation today. Dr Ogundeji is someone I can’t deny her invitation to any event. I plead that you guys should be great ambassadors of this department. At no point in time should any of you bring down or disgrace the values of this great department. The theatrical culture in OAU is superb. It is very indigenous and genuine,’ he added.
The Head of the Department of Dramatic Arts, Dr Toyin Ogundeji, emphasised that Femi Adebayo’s presence was colossal for the initiation, adding that the meekness he displayed was also a behodable character for the students to emulate. She said, ‘Femi Adebayo coming here is monumental. I feel so happy I invited him here, and he accepted. I know he is very busy, but the student seeing him will be encouraged that there’s no height you can not get to. The kind of humility he also showed by taking his time to snap with basically everybody showed a good example for the new students in the department to emulate. I believe they’ve seen today that for you to be popular, you don’t have to be arrogant or out of reach.’
She also revealed that the number of initiates was over three hundred, noting that she was also very confident in all of the students’ capacities to thrive in the department. She added, ‘They are over 300 students being initiated here today, and I’m very sure they will uphold our culture in the department. That’s what they’ve been groomed with over the past couple of weeks. No person comes to Ife that won’t go out with a straightened head, and with the type of prayers the priest, Femi Adebayo, prayed for them today, I pray they will come out successfully well.’
Tolulope Elutilo, the Osao Director for the initiation, also said, ‘The initiates were not just rehearsed for performance, but refined through the process. I am convinced that they got beyond a blessing, but also the ability to be a blessing unto others. I am super proud of their sense of improvisation, spontaneity and recovery.’
One of the initiates, Sunday Ayomide, expressed how joyful he was to finally be an official member of the department, noting that the rehearsal process for the initiation was very hectic, but he was delighted with how successful the event was.
According to him, ‘I am very, very happy because I have been longing for this. This is like the twelfth week of rehearsal, and it is coming to an end today. I’m very happy. It’s been tough, and at the same time, enjoyable. I want to be a superstar, I want to be a very big actor, I want to be very popular, so I’m happy to be here,’ he affirmed.