Yesterday (Tuesday, April 13, 2021) was a sad day in Nigeria’s filmmaking industry, as actress Rachel Bakam passed away.

The film star died at the age of 39 after battling with anaemia.

While the film industry is still mourning the actress’s demise, Newsrand presents below five things its readers should know about her:

She grew up in Kaduna

Bakam was born and raised in Kaduna State where she had her primary, secondary, and tertiary education. She studied English and Theatre Arts at Ahmadu Bello University and Digital Filmmaking at New York Film Academy.

She was a brilliant student

Bakam was the best graduating female student and best graduating student of the Faculty of Arts in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. During her secondary school days at Kaduna Capital School, she was President of the Literary and Debating Club and also the Head Girl.

She once worked as a salesgirl

Her father died when she was 12 years old. At the age of 16, she started working, first as a salesgirl in a supermarket, later in a recording studio.

Bakam fought against human trafficking

Bakam was an anti-human trafficking ambassador. She joined the non-government organizations ― Devatop Centre for Africa Development ― in campaigning against sex trafficking and other forms of modern slavery in Nigeria.
After the Southern Kaduna crisis, where many people were killed, Rachel Bakam and John Fashanu joined Big Church Foundation to support the victims with relief materials.

Aside from being an actress, she was a media personality

She hosted ‘Trends & Rachel’ ― a popular television show that airs on some Nigerian television stations. She also produced and presented her show, Rachel the PIPER, and its Hausa version ‘RACHEL MAI KAKAAKI’ ― an entertaining, yet highly humanitarian television programme.

Nollywood veteran actor, Jide Kosoko has revealed how he ended up marrying four wives, saying it was never what he envisaged.

Speaking with Vanguard, Kosoko explained that though he’s a product of a polygamous marriage, being a polygamist was what his parents kicked against.

According to him, he married a second wife due to his craving for being married to someone who’s also an actor.

“I never envisaged being a polygamist though I am a product of one. My parents didn’t support it either. My first wife was a businesswoman. I craved for somebody who was in the same field as me,” he said.

Continuing, he added that he lost both women in an interval of 11 months.

“In those days, the best advice you can get is from your better half and that was how the second woman came to be. Along the line, I lost the two to childbirths within 11 months interval. I had seven children at that time, so I didn’t plan to remarry or to have more children again.

“But after much persuasion from my doctor and relatives, I decided to have a woman with the agreement of not having more children but a complete African woman will not agree to that. One thing led to the other and I got two women again. So being a polygamist is not intentional but God’s design which I do not have a right over,” he was further quoted as saying.

Alterplate record label founder, Harrysong has revealed that he deliberately snubbed Lagos for his wedding to avoid too much media frenzy.

Speaking with Punch barely a week after his wedding ceremony which held in Warri, a city in Delta, the music star explained that marriage is something personal to him, and he wanted it private.

“Being married is good. I feel complete. Now, I have a companion. I have someone that sincerely has my back and I am building my life with.  A lot of people were hoping or thinking that I would have a big Lagos wedding but I did not want too much media frenzy around us. Marriage is something very personal and serious to me, so I wanted it to be as private as possible. If I wanted to do a society wedding for status sakes, it would have held in Lagos and it would have been a funfair. But I chose to go to my home town in Warri to do it right and well.

“I don’t want to talk about my marriage too much because people become inquisitive and I don’t want to put our homes in the public sphere. That brings problems. I love to keep my home private. Once you bring your marriage on social media, it could breed unexpected things,” he was quoted as saying.

Harrysong, however, advised eligible bachelors to stay off social media in their search of a life partner.

“My first advice to any eligible bachelor is― get off social media when you want to be serious in the search for a life partner. Social media has destroyed homes and made it seem like there are no good people except homosexuals, homewreckers or people with questionable characters. Just be real and true with yourself, there are good men and women; not everyone is bad. Social media has cast a lot of people in a bad light,” the new groom added.