I started Nollywood before Pete Edochie – Bob Emmanuel

Actor Bob Manuel has stirred controversy by claiming that he began his Nollywood career before veteran actor Pete Edochie, challenging the widespread belief that Edochie is the industry’s oldest figure

In an interview with Gbam on Monday, Bob Manuel, speaking in Igbo, stated that although Pete Edochie is older in age, he started acting before Edochie became prominent in Nollywood.

“Pete Edochie is not the oldest in Nollywood. I started before him. He may be older than me, but he wasn’t part of the first Living in Bondage that kickstarted the industry. You can’t just claim you are the oldest,” Bob Manuel said.

He added, “Those claiming to be the oldest—where are your works? Who remembers them? Even now, some are planning to remake Things Fall Apart into a movie. Pete’s work was TV series. Neither the actors nor the financiers studied theatre arts at university. When I see these things, I just laugh.”

Pete Edochie, however, remains celebrated as a Nollywood pioneer, gaining fame with the 1980s TV adaptation of Things Fall Apart before the Nigerian film industry reached mainstream recognition in the 1990s.