Femi Ogunrombi, Trained Nurse Turned Entertainer Who Stood In For Papa Ajasco’s Character, Dies At 65

SarahJanuary 16, 2023

3 minutes read

Femi Ogunrombi, the Nigerian music composer, pianist, actor and dramatist, best known for his role in the sitcom series by Wale Adenuga production, ‘Papa Ajasco and Company’ has passed on. He was 65.

Femi Ogunrombi

The art consultant and actor was said to have died on Saturday, January 14, 2023.

A culture critic, Hussein Shaibu, announced Ogunrombi’s death on social media on Sunday, January 15, 2023.

“I have just been reliably informed that the ethnomusicologist, former Music instructor with National Troupe, and one-time stand-in for the ‘Papa Ajasco’ character on the popular Wale Adenuga produced comic series ‘Papa Ajasco’ Mr. Femi Ogunrombi is dead! Journey well, sir.”

Although Netng is yet to be able to speak with family sources as details about his death remain sketchy, some of his former students at the Pencil Film and Television Institute (PEFTI) owned by Wale Adenuga, have taken to social media to share fond memories and pay tributes to Femi Ogunrombi.

Ogunrombi, a registered nurse, who transitioned from the nursing profession to drama and music, was a prolific artist. In 2006, he took on the role of the main character Papa Ajasco on Papa Ajasco and Company, the Nigerian popular TV show which started off as a magazine in the 1980s and was converted to a sitcom series in the 1990s.

“I broke in accidentally,” he said in an interview while narrating how he became Papa Ajasco. “So, I asked what happened that they wanted to give me the role and they said he (the first Papa Ajasco character) breached the arrangement and that they had to ask him to go.”

“Although, Abiodun Ayoyinka (the first papa Ajasco) later came back due to popular demand because he was funnier and could play the role better,” one of Ogunrombi’s students said.

Beyond the character, Ogunrombi said Abiodun Ayoyinka was like a brother to him, who he had worked with as a consultant to the then Director of Culture Lagos State Council of Arts and Culture, Idowu Shonubi.

Born on October 20, 1957, Ogunrombi was first a registered nurse before returning to school to study music and drama at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

“I was born to a very strict Christian family. Grew up among the missionaries, the white people and trained by them, went to the same secondary school. I somehow discovered that Arts was special to me but my father would not allow anything like that. So, he mobilised my training to be a medical nurse. I completed my training and served a little bit. But the desire to be what I believe God really wanted me to be kept showing even while practising,” Ogunrombi said in a 2009 interview. “So, I went back to the University of Ife (OAU) to study Music and Drama.”

In a career spanning more than two decades as a multi-instrumentalist and ethnomusicologist, Ogunrombi worked as a music director at the National Troupe, and as the Coordinator of Studies at the Pencil Film and Television Institute, Lagos.

Aside from music production and directing, Ogunrombi is also a movie producer. In 2011, Aramotu, a Yoruba film he produced, won the 2011 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) for Best Nigerian Film and Best Costume Design.

Francis Ogwo, a content producer and a student of Ogunrombi described him as a “guru, a pioneer of Acapella music in Nigeria, and a renowned theatre arts practitioner.”

In a tribute to the ethnomusicologist on his social media page, he said, “This man is simply an unsung genius in the arts. I can boldly say my first mastery of musical notes started from him in the late 90s and early 2000. Having led different choirs and musical groups of the Seventh Day Adventist Church for decades. He was a guru.”