RICHARD MOFE-DAMIJO (RMD)
Once upon a time, before he crossed the Rubicon in January of 49BC, Julius Caesar famously uttered the Latin phrase commonly translated as “The die is cast”.
This expression, which has long since passed into figurative usage, does not mean that “fate” has been decided, nor does it mean that the entire structure of a person’s life or the outcome of all events has been mapped out. No, the famous figure who popularised it was never such a fatalist.
It does not necessarily even mean committing an irreversible act, as is popularly accepted. A better, more accurate translation would be “Let the die be cast”, or as a bestselling author phrased it, “Let the dice fly”.
Put this way, it indicates, in fact, an acceptance by the speaker that the approaching phase of life can turn out in any manner. You could say that it means, “Game on!”.
This concise expression encapsulates the lessons we can learn from one of the leading men in the Nigerian entertainment industry, in this year of his sixtieth birthday.
Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD) is more than just a giant in the eyes of many — he is a model. After all, not a great many Nigerians can lay claim to the same amount of success that he has had, both on and off the stage.
The lives of such icons can often seem picture-perfect, as though they were born with a beautifully crafted destiny set in stone, their paths utterly laid out for them to glide upon towards glory while their audience simply gaze on, awestruck.
The solid truth offers nothing close to this picturesque quality. A closer look reveals that successful figures like Richard Mofe-Damijo have on many different occasions been content to “Let the dice fly”.
In a career spanning over three decades, RMD has been heaped with praise while winning exciting awards, such as the Special Recognition Award at the Best of Nollywood Awards in 2012 and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 12th African Movie Academy Awards in 2016.
He has also been nominated for several others — Best Supporting Actor in both the 2015 African Magic Viewers Choice Awards and the 2017 Nigeria Entertainment Awards, and the Best Actor in Leading Role in the 2017 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards and the Africa Movie Academy Awards of the same year.
And he has gone on to establish a TV and film production company named RMD Productions Limited. In fact, many would tell you that his face is virtually synonymous with Nollywood.
But in the midst of this prominence, the icon has very frequently confessed that he is merely a “simple Warri boy that came to Lagos and found some fame.”
A closer look reveals that successful figures like Richard Mofe-Damijo have on many different occasions been content to “Let the dice fly”.
“All I wanted to do was act — that’s all,” he said in an interview with Chude Jideonwo. Act he certainly has. Yet there was no uniform desire to get to this point where his face has become paper art to design the bedsides of many young women.
The belief among many fatalists is akin to a Que sera, sera, which is satisfying and cheerful in itself, but a stance of “Whatever will be, will be” quickly falls into the dark abyss of underestimating the efforts of the man. At what point do you make a decision and pursue it with everything you have got, bearing in mind that the dice can turn up any figure? And at what point do you recline, confident that you are part of a never-fail system?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it can indeed prove insidious. How many other young men out there have been on an upward curve, their success palpable before them, only to be completely wrong-footed and then subsequently disappear into obscurity? We can count of many.
At what point do you make a decision and pursue it with everything you have got, bearing in mind that the dice can turn up any figure? And at what point do you recline, confident that you are part of a never-fail system?
Next to the fatalists is another curious group that holds up the virtues and personal excellence of a man and insists that “When you have all these, and do all these, you cannot but succeed”, or that “He saw his future and pursued what he wanted; nothing could have stopped him.”
Successful figures are remarkable people indeed, but they are hardly deities. And having foresight does not mean that one can do no wrong, nor does taking all the right steps mean that nothing can spin out of one’s control. Our sixty-year-old celebrity does admit that he had always wanted to be on television as a child, but besides that it was “game on” — nothing else. What being on television would lead to he had no idea. At a critical point in his life he took a “punt” which could easily have gone any way.
In the atmosphere surrounding his sixtieth birthday, Mofe-Damijo revealed that there was more to him turning sixty than just mere numbers. “None of my parents lived to be 60,” he said, “so life for me is just about to get started. There’s been a spectre of death around my life. That is what I have been dealing with … last year to this year [2020–2021]. When I turned 59, it was a big deal for me. My mum died at 59, my father died at 57–58. So it was, like, can I break it?
“When people see me go on a weight loss — it’s health. Both my parents were diabetic and hypertensive. I don’t want to be that. I want to be healthier, to give myself a fighting chance to change that cycle.”
“None of my parents lived to be 60, so life for me is just about to get started. … I want to be healthier, to give myself a fighting chance to change that cycle.”
The lesson is that despite adversity he has come out stronger and better (and more good-looking, some people might say). Yet if anyone looked at him today they would probably see only the smooth sides, the success, the finished skyscraper. The work — decades of work — that went into it is buried with the foundation, hidden behind the façade. It is hidden under the public achievements of the man.
It is easy to concentrate on his victories and ignore the inner workings of his mind. A bigger trap to fall into is to assume that once he set out, there was only ever going to be one destination. The inconvenient reality is that even the supermen, rather than just needing to put in the required work and get the expected result, often face a 50–50 game that could go either way.
With our popular hero now a sexagenarian, let us see what other dice he throws up.
This article was written in 2021 in commemoration of Nollywood actor Richard Mofe-Damijo’s sixtieth birthday.
