Enugu celebrity twins, Chidiebere and Chidinma Aneke are no
strangers to movie buffs in Nigeria . The pretty actresses cum producers
who were the brains behind such wave-making movies as ’Compulsory
Risk “, ‘Ujuaka”and many others have continued to enlarge their profile
against all odds in the industry. They were in Saturday Vanguard
office last Monday to share their moving story with the team.
Hear their story…
BENJAMIN NJOKU& FLORENCE AMAGIYA
It is not always common to see twins who would want to take the same path in life?
We both went into acting because we loved and wanted to act. Before this time, we sat and talked about it. We knew what we were good at doing and it has being fun. At the moment, we are still on top of our games. Acting is our dream and we are happy doing what we enjoy doing. So, most times, we act twin roles and twin characters. Nigeria has not really reached the stage where one actor can really act twin roles successfully hence, identical twins in that kind of production saves the day.
Have you in the course of acting done twin roles?
Yes, we have done a lot of twin characters and they were great movies.
Tell us a little about the movies you have done together?
We have done Crazy Twins, Jealous Friends, Desperate Twins, Lagos Girls, Broken Ambition, Revenge of the gods and many others.
What do you think can divide the two of you?
Marriage can divide the two of us. But we have prayed to marry twin brothers and that our marriages should take place on the same day. But we say this because we are just humans. God’s will definitely grant us all of our wishes.
You have been praying to marry twins as you said. Have you ever dated any?
We haven’t seen a reason to date any perhaps because the ones we have met so far have questionable characters. Sometimes, we noticed that the twin brothers would prefer just one of us. We cannot obviously allow that to happen. We love ourselves so much that we cannot allow men to tear us apart. At the moment, we are waiting for God’s guidance.
We have seen situations where identical twins hate each other to the extent of one taking the life of the other. What do you think is binding two of you together?
Love is the factor and we cannot imagine death of either of us. The other thing that binds us together is majorly the grace of God.
Have you girls ever switched lovers before?
No! We haven’t . But we have experienced something like that while we were growing up. At that time, the guy asked Chidinma out but she wasn’t interested in him, we wanted to play games with him, by going for his money. So, l was always at the guy’s house pretending to be Chidinma while extorting money from him. This went on until l was nearly raped by the guy in question. But we had to call off the game after that incident.
From then on, we have lived with the principle of not eating what we are not interested in from the beginning.
What happens in a situation where both of you are lucky in terms of meeting Mr. right. May be,Chidebere is lucky, and Chidinma is not?
My sister knows what’s good for me and likewise, I know what’s good for her. So, if we unfortunately meet two brothers who wish to date us and one of them misbehaves then, we’ll have to call off the relationship with the two brothers. Chidiebere and I were born on the same day. We are identical twins. So we intend to get married on the same day. I do not want to get married while my twin sister is unmarried. We must get married on the same day.
What if you meet two guys, who are not twins, yet they are responsible and wish to marry you and your twin sister on the same day?
When that happens then, we ‘ll study them and talk to God about them. If it is the will of God, why not?
Is that why you are not married yet?
Yes
Are you saying if you do not get men who would marry both of you on the same day, you wouldn’t marry at all?
What we are trying to explain is this: Our dowry can be paid separately, but when it comes to traditional marriage and the church wedding, we plan to do it on the same day. That’s not too much to ask!
How can a date differentiate you since you are so identical?
You have to call Chidinma or Chidiebere on phone if you are having difficulty telling us apart. Gone are those days when we play pranks on our dates.
How far has this getting married on the same day prayer worked?
All we know is that we have prayed and we believe. But only God knows when our prayers will be answered.
Two of you came into limelight in 1999, after your first movie Ebuka’”and laterdisappeared into the thin air. What happen?
We left the industry that same year because we had to go back to school to complete our educational pursuit. We came back in 2003 and are here to stay. Actually, my mum found out that all we do is to go to movie locations and we were neglecting our studies. So she forced us to go back to school first before allowing us go back to acting. Our dad also died that same year. So we were left with our mum and our other siblings.
Why didn’t you girls go into modelling, you have the height?
We were introduced into acting when we visited our elder sister on location at Enugu Presidential Hotel. When we got there, we were auditioned and that was it. We want to live exemplary lives in all that we do. We also want to touch other lives in our own little ways and we think we can do that through acting.
You said you tsage a comeback to the industry in 2003. You fans haven’t actually felt you people’s impact like before?
Actually, we went to Bible school for two months. It was a Winners’ Chapel discipleship project known as WOFB. We did the first lap and are through with the second phase already.
Meanwhile, we have been doing movies but it’s either some of them are not out yet or that some came out lately. Sometimes, we stay at the home front to be domesticated because fame and wealth are not the only ingredients a woman needs to make her life beautiful. We are preparing ourselves for teh challenges of becoming complete women.
Tell us about your new production. We learnt you produce movies too
We have started our own production. We both prayed about it and we were directed into it. The finance would have been a major problem,but God took charge after WOFB.
What happened was that during a special church programme, my sister and I miraculously picked ‘financial favour from a stranger’ in our church’s Miracle basket program and God proved Himself in our lives. He provided the money through a stranger.
How much was the gift from that stranger?
I cannot actually remember, but it was up to five million naira (5,000,000,00) and we kicked off with it. We are growing by the day.
We had that your childhood was not rosy, how did you cope?
That online gist wasn’t true! Our childhood was rosy, our dad was very wealthy.
He was a philantropist. Although he was married to three wives, the three wives cooked inside one pot. We lived like princes and princesses. My father was indeed wealthy. The problem we had after our dad’s death was that our uncles took everything from us and we started life all over again.
But when our father was alive, we lived in a very big house when we were growing up and dad didn’t forget to spoil us with twin clothings all the time. He is the reason we still wear the same kind of dress till date.
What happened after your father’s death?
Life became very difficult when dad died. We went into petty trading; we sold pure water, bread and ‘akara’. We hawked on the streets to survive.
Didn’t you get harrassed by men while hawking on the streets?
Men being who they are, some claimed they would help us. But we discovered that they wanted to mess us up and we immediately placed them where they belonged.
Having experinced difficult times in life, have you people made any effort to give back to society?
Yes, we have been having programs to help people using our church as a medium. But we did a major one this year on the 14th of February; We hosted the disabled people in Enugu and it was televised. Already, we are building an NGO known as GB foundation to help out with these plans.
Tell us about your love life
I was once in a relationship but Chidinma didn’t approve of it and she gave me reasons. I studied the guy in question and noticed she was right.
I also do that to her sometimes. We are not jealous of each other. We only complement each other.
What kind of reactions do you get from your fans whenever they meet you outside?
Our fans, especially the children do not want to believe that the characters we play in movies are not real. So they see us and run away thinking we are real killers.It became worse when we acted in the movie titled Jealous Friend.
In that movie, l played a character where my twin sister was killed and l took revenge on the killers. In fact just recently, I met a Police Commissioner who also called me a killer because of the role I played in a movie!
Hear their story…
BENJAMIN NJOKU& FLORENCE AMAGIYA
It is not always common to see twins who would want to take the same path in life?
We both went into acting because we loved and wanted to act. Before this time, we sat and talked about it. We knew what we were good at doing and it has being fun. At the moment, we are still on top of our games. Acting is our dream and we are happy doing what we enjoy doing. So, most times, we act twin roles and twin characters. Nigeria has not really reached the stage where one actor can really act twin roles successfully hence, identical twins in that kind of production saves the day.
Have you in the course of acting done twin roles?
Yes, we have done a lot of twin characters and they were great movies.
Aneke twins
We have done Crazy Twins, Jealous Friends, Desperate Twins, Lagos Girls, Broken Ambition, Revenge of the gods and many others.
What do you think can divide the two of you?
Marriage can divide the two of us. But we have prayed to marry twin brothers and that our marriages should take place on the same day. But we say this because we are just humans. God’s will definitely grant us all of our wishes.
You have been praying to marry twins as you said. Have you ever dated any?
We haven’t seen a reason to date any perhaps because the ones we have met so far have questionable characters. Sometimes, we noticed that the twin brothers would prefer just one of us. We cannot obviously allow that to happen. We love ourselves so much that we cannot allow men to tear us apart. At the moment, we are waiting for God’s guidance.
We have seen situations where identical twins hate each other to the extent of one taking the life of the other. What do you think is binding two of you together?
Love is the factor and we cannot imagine death of either of us. The other thing that binds us together is majorly the grace of God.
Have you girls ever switched lovers before?
No! We haven’t . But we have experienced something like that while we were growing up. At that time, the guy asked Chidinma out but she wasn’t interested in him, we wanted to play games with him, by going for his money. So, l was always at the guy’s house pretending to be Chidinma while extorting money from him. This went on until l was nearly raped by the guy in question. But we had to call off the game after that incident.
From then on, we have lived with the principle of not eating what we are not interested in from the beginning.
What happens in a situation where both of you are lucky in terms of meeting Mr. right. May be,Chidebere is lucky, and Chidinma is not?
My sister knows what’s good for me and likewise, I know what’s good for her. So, if we unfortunately meet two brothers who wish to date us and one of them misbehaves then, we’ll have to call off the relationship with the two brothers. Chidiebere and I were born on the same day. We are identical twins. So we intend to get married on the same day. I do not want to get married while my twin sister is unmarried. We must get married on the same day.
What if you meet two guys, who are not twins, yet they are responsible and wish to marry you and your twin sister on the same day?
When that happens then, we ‘ll study them and talk to God about them. If it is the will of God, why not?
Is that why you are not married yet?
Yes
Are you saying if you do not get men who would marry both of you on the same day, you wouldn’t marry at all?
What we are trying to explain is this: Our dowry can be paid separately, but when it comes to traditional marriage and the church wedding, we plan to do it on the same day. That’s not too much to ask!
How can a date differentiate you since you are so identical?
You have to call Chidinma or Chidiebere on phone if you are having difficulty telling us apart. Gone are those days when we play pranks on our dates.
How far has this getting married on the same day prayer worked?
All we know is that we have prayed and we believe. But only God knows when our prayers will be answered.
Two of you came into limelight in 1999, after your first movie Ebuka’”and laterdisappeared into the thin air. What happen?
We left the industry that same year because we had to go back to school to complete our educational pursuit. We came back in 2003 and are here to stay. Actually, my mum found out that all we do is to go to movie locations and we were neglecting our studies. So she forced us to go back to school first before allowing us go back to acting. Our dad also died that same year. So we were left with our mum and our other siblings.
Why didn’t you girls go into modelling, you have the height?
We were introduced into acting when we visited our elder sister on location at Enugu Presidential Hotel. When we got there, we were auditioned and that was it. We want to live exemplary lives in all that we do. We also want to touch other lives in our own little ways and we think we can do that through acting.
You said you tsage a comeback to the industry in 2003. You fans haven’t actually felt you people’s impact like before?
Actually, we went to Bible school for two months. It was a Winners’ Chapel discipleship project known as WOFB. We did the first lap and are through with the second phase already.
Meanwhile, we have been doing movies but it’s either some of them are not out yet or that some came out lately. Sometimes, we stay at the home front to be domesticated because fame and wealth are not the only ingredients a woman needs to make her life beautiful. We are preparing ourselves for teh challenges of becoming complete women.
Tell us about your new production. We learnt you produce movies too
We have started our own production. We both prayed about it and we were directed into it. The finance would have been a major problem,but God took charge after WOFB.
What happened was that during a special church programme, my sister and I miraculously picked ‘financial favour from a stranger’ in our church’s Miracle basket program and God proved Himself in our lives. He provided the money through a stranger.
How much was the gift from that stranger?
I cannot actually remember, but it was up to five million naira (5,000,000,00) and we kicked off with it. We are growing by the day.
We had that your childhood was not rosy, how did you cope?
That online gist wasn’t true! Our childhood was rosy, our dad was very wealthy.
He was a philantropist. Although he was married to three wives, the three wives cooked inside one pot. We lived like princes and princesses. My father was indeed wealthy. The problem we had after our dad’s death was that our uncles took everything from us and we started life all over again.
But when our father was alive, we lived in a very big house when we were growing up and dad didn’t forget to spoil us with twin clothings all the time. He is the reason we still wear the same kind of dress till date.
What happened after your father’s death?
Life became very difficult when dad died. We went into petty trading; we sold pure water, bread and ‘akara’. We hawked on the streets to survive.
Didn’t you get harrassed by men while hawking on the streets?
Men being who they are, some claimed they would help us. But we discovered that they wanted to mess us up and we immediately placed them where they belonged.
Having experinced difficult times in life, have you people made any effort to give back to society?
Yes, we have been having programs to help people using our church as a medium. But we did a major one this year on the 14th of February; We hosted the disabled people in Enugu and it was televised. Already, we are building an NGO known as GB foundation to help out with these plans.
Tell us about your love life
I was once in a relationship but Chidinma didn’t approve of it and she gave me reasons. I studied the guy in question and noticed she was right.
I also do that to her sometimes. We are not jealous of each other. We only complement each other.
What kind of reactions do you get from your fans whenever they meet you outside?
Our fans, especially the children do not want to believe that the characters we play in movies are not real. So they see us and run away thinking we are real killers.It became worse when we acted in the movie titled Jealous Friend.
In that movie, l played a character where my twin sister was killed and l took revenge on the killers. In fact just recently, I met a Police Commissioner who also called me a killer because of the role I played in a movie!
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