Folklore music legend Mike Ejeagha dies at 95.

Reports that reached Umuaka Times last weekend had it that Igbo folklorist and highlife musician popularly known as Gentleman Mike Ejeagha has passed on. Reports Umuaka Times gathered last week from Imezi Owa of Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, the hometown of the legend, confirmed that Pa Mike Ejeagha had his last breath on Friday night around 8 p.m. at 32 Garrison Hospital Enugu.

Last week, the new generation of Nigeria music and musicians and the entire entertainment industry were thrown off-balance when the news of the demise of the legend hit the airwaves and the information super highway.

From some reports Umuaka Times monitored on the internet, Ejeagha was born on 4 April 1930 and he passed on to the world beyond on 6 June 2025. Ejeagha during his lifetime was a Nigerian folklorist, songwriter and guitarist. His birthplace is Imezi Owa, now in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State. He grew up in Coal Camp in a family headed by his father who was a civil servant. He worked with the Ministry of Health in Enugu, Enugu State. He attended St. Patrick’s Primary School, Ogbete still in Enugu.

Ejeagha started his music career in the mid-20th century and went by the name, Gentleman Mike Ejeagha. For over 6 decades, Gentleman Mike Ejeagha commanded a lot of influence in Igbo highlife music and entertainment sphere. His first hit was in 1960, the year of Nigeria’s independence.

Recently the gentleman was in the news as his song released in 1986 titled Gwo Gwo Gwo Ngwo resurrected from the ashes of music and became a number 1 hit when a social media influencer used it to do a skit. Reacting to his demise, a social media activist Charles Ogbu wrote: “My greatest joy is that the Music icon TRULY LIVED. He not only lived to the ripe age of 95 in good health with his indelible mark on the sand of cultural preservation through storytelling and folklore touching an entire three generations, he thoroughly enjoyed his UWA MGBEDE to the fullest before finally bowing out like the true legend he remains at 8pm last night surrounded by his family, friends and loved ones.”

The family is yet to announce the burial plans for the patriarch of the Ejeagha family but the man dropped a message during his lifetime that he should be buried the moment he dies.