By Peter Onyekachukwu 
By Peter Onyekachukwu
Nigeria’s music and cultural landscape lost a towering figure on Friday, June 6, 2025, with the passing of Chief Mike Ejeagha, the revered highlife musician and folklorist known for using melody to teach morals, preserve language, and inspire generations. He died at the age of 95 after a prolonged illness.
Chief Ejeagha breathed his last around 8 p.m. at the 32 Garrison Hospital in Enugu. His eldest son, Emma Ejeagha, confirmed the news in a phone conversation with journalists.
For many, Ejeagha was more than a musician he was a philosopher, cultural custodian, and oral historian whose music offered both entertainment and education. Songs like “Gwo Gwo Gwo Ngwo,” once a staple in southeastern homes, gained renewed fame in 2024 when comedian and skit maker Brain Jotter remixed it, reigniting public interest in the veteran’s work.
Born on April 4, 1930, in Enugu, Mike Ejeagha began his career in the 1950s and rose to national prominence in the 1970s as a guest presenter on the Nigerian Television Authority’s cultural programme Akuko N’Egwu (Stories in Music).
Through this platform, he used storytelling, native idioms, and highlife melodies to pass on indigenous knowledge, winning the hearts of Igbo-speaking communities and lovers of folk music nationwide.
“My father saw music not just as a way to entertain but as a vessel for preserving our values, our wisdom, and our language,” said Emma Ejeagha, speaking on behalf of the family. “He believed every proverb had a lesson, and every story a moral.”
Cultural enthusiasts and fellow musicians have since taken to social media and radio airwaves to express their grief and admiration. Azu Nwagbogu, a curator of Nigerian cultural heritage, noted: “Ejeagha gave dignity to our oral traditions. He sang with a message, and each lyric was a proverb wrapped in melody.”
For over six decades, Ejeagha remained committed to his craft, mentoring younger artistes and championing the survival of indigenous music in a fast-globalizing world. Even in his later years, he was regarded as a living archive of Igbo wisdom and philosophy.
He is survived by his wife, children, and grandchildren. Funeral arrangements will be announced by the family in the coming days.
As Nigeria bids farewell to a man whose songs were as instructive as they were enjoyable, the echoes of his wisdom set to the strumming of his guitar will continue to live on in the hearts of many.