VIDEO: I’m senior to Pete Edochie in acting — Yemi Solade

July 24, 2025

Popular Nollywood actor, Yemi Solade, has disclosed that he started acting before veteran actor, Pete Edochie.

Solade said this while sharing experience and history on his journey in the Yoruba section of the industry after his episode on a show called ‘Father’s Path with Tope’.

“I’m senior to Pete Edochie, I started acting before him, though he’s older than me. I was 17 in 1977 when I represented Nigeria as the Youngest Actor, and I’ve done 48 years in the industry and still standing,” he said.

The actor explained how other sections within Nollywood had been documenting their works in cassettes and advertising them for other people to purchase.

While refuting claims that a section of the industry other than Yoruba started Nollywood, Solade said that the Yoruba industry did not start documentation earlier does not mean others should take credit for starting Nollywood.

He said, “The first Nigerian, Ade Ajiboye ‘Big Abass’, the first home video in this country. We’ve been doing it, there was film, the celluloid and everything. We had the likes of Ogundes, we had Baba Salas, we had Ade Afolayans, Kunle’s father; we had Dr Ola Balogun, who is still around, and so many other big names, most of them are gone now.

“Even when home video was starting, it was just an experiment that was carried out by the likes of Muyideen Alade Aromire. We were all doing this drama, and then they just brought this camcorder, let’s record what we are doin,g which was documented in a cassette and was arranged in bookshelves. So, you as a shop owner, would introduce the cassette for people to buy; it all started like that.”

He further explained that the failure of the Yoruba industry to document their works earlier made others think they’ve been in the game long before the actors of Yoruba extraction in the Nollywood industry.

“My people in the Yoruba setting didn’t document anything; that was why the other people in the industry just stepped in to say they started it. ‘Hey shut up’; when people like us are here, we will let you know you didn’t start anything.

“They could say that because they romance the media, but the Yoruba industry was just acting. Most of them weren’t schooled; they didn’t know anything about the media, and they enjoyed themselves. Adebayo Salami is alive; he will tell you a deeper story that I’m telling you, he’s older than me. Jide Kosoko is alive, we all work together.”