Actress Ibinabo Fiberesima Talks About Her Health Challenges And Career

The veteran Actress who is currently in the UK was recently a guest on City People TV Instagram Live Chat conducted by City People Publisher, Seye Kehinde.

How has it been since the beginning of the lockdown, how have you been coping?


I went to England before the whole pandemic started, I had health challenges. I had to do a surgery. I was here (in England) trying to recuperate to get my health back. So, I have been in England. And it has not been easy because, with my health challenges and the pressure of the pandemic, I started feeling somehow, and I collapsed twice during this pandemic. It was quite scary and the ambulance came, rushed me to the hospital. 

They were trying to check if it was Covid-19 or not. They later discovered that it was not Covid-19, just my mental state. Everything crashed at a point, but thank God, I started picking up myself. I started looking forward to something. I wasn’t panicking anymore. I lost quite a few persons close to me here in England to the Covid-19, and that really broke me and then again, my friends in Nigeria, I lost a few, not to Covid-19 this time round, but other things and they were close to me. So, I think all that badly affected me. But thank God I am picking up again.



I was going to ask what happened to your acting career?


You know how it is in Nigeria, there is this mentality of belonging to a certain group of people and I don’t believe in that. I have shot a movie which should have been released by now but because of the pandemic, I am hoping next year, it would be released. I have been more involved. I set up my production house before I became ill. I will be doing a lot of productions now. Probably, I will be acting once in a while, but I think I direct better because I did my master’s in Audio Visual Management and I learnt directing. So, I will be doing that a lot when I get back. So, I am still acting, I am still producing and I will be directing more in the coming years.




At the time you started, who were the people you started with?

It was just Regina Askia, and then we had Dolly Nnachukwu, Funsho and, of course, we had our sweetheart, Genevieve Nnaji, Ramsey Noah, Bob Manuel Udokwu, Fred Amata etc.



How have you been able to sustain your interest in the industry?


You know, I became the President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria at the time when I was going through my challenges and I told myself, “listen, this is what you want to do, go and do it”. I am very spiritual, I pray quite a lot and my instinct are quite strong.


I told myself, “don’t put your head down” so, I went with all my heart and I won. It just drew me closer to Nollywood because at that time I was in touch with everybody in Nollywood. I knew everybody especially the elders and I wanted to look after them. I introduced Health Insurance for them, which a lot of them benefitted from. Even till now, I still get messages from them




Let’s talk about you. You have always been very beautiful and you have maintained it. What has been the secret?


There is no secret, I am just contented with who I am. I don’t live a fake life. I don’t know how to be who I am not. I am just who I am.



So, what is your message to your fans?

The advice I would give is to be true to yourself. Don’t listen to what people say. They will always say, even if you succeed or fail. What is important is you, yourself. As long as you believe in yourself and you live by what you can live on, the rest doesn’t matter, no matter how you try to please anybody, it just comes back to you. You can please somebody and not be happy. So, let them say. That is how I have lived my life. Before, if I read anything about me on social media, I would nearly remove my page.


Just be true to yourself and be kind and have the fear of God. God saves me that problem I was in some years ago. God lifted me. I would have taken my own life at that time, but God lifted me. I thank Him. 

From citypeopleonline