How Nigerian Artiste Became ‘Segun Arinze’

Segun Arinze, a seasoned Nollywood actor, has disclosed that Segun Aina was his birth name. He goes on to explain how he got to be known as Arinze.

The 58-year-old actor said that he used the name Segun Arinze while pursuing a musical career in a recent interview with Biola Bayo on the “TalktoB” podcast.

He claims that while his real name was Segun Aina, the stage name “Segun Arinze” remained with him after he was unintentionally presented by that name in 1991.

He said: “I was also singing. In 1991, I was told someone wanted to sign me. ‘We are going to sign you on’. He came from Sony Music. So he called me and I signed the contract. He signed. And then he said ‘Okay we are going to start recording.’

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“Went to Ife to do Dramatic Arts. My dad did not like the idea because he wanted me to be a lawyer. At a point in time, I thought he was not going to pay my school fees to go and read drama.

“Then the National Theatre was running an open theatre then… ‘welcome new artiste Segun Arinze’. I said ‘excuse me sir what is this? I said why are you changing my name? The album came out – ‘Dreams’. Everywhere was ‘Segun Arinze, Segun Arinze. That was how the name got changed from Segun Aina to Segun Arinze in a nutshell.”

Speaking further, Arinze revealed how he met Soni Irabor and got paid N1,000 for his first job as a voice-over artiste in 1987.

“Soni Irabor walks in someday and he was looking for voice-over artiste. There was nobody around that day then he heard me speak,” he said.

“Then he said ‘You can do the voice’ Really? I cannot, he said ‘Yes, you can and I will see what you do’. And I did the voice-over. He paid me N1000. That was 1987. N1000 for just doing (voice-over). I said this is big. Coloured TV was N500 at that time,” Arinze narrated.