Biography Of Nigerian Comedian & Actor Okey Bakassi

The first son in a family of five children, Okey Bakassi was born on 23, October 1969 to Mr. Livinus Onyegbule, a retired military personnel and Mrs. Felicia Onyegbule, a nurse. He had his primary education at the Alvan Ikoku Demonstration School, Owerri before proceeding to Mbaise Secondary School where he stayed briefly before moving to Federal Government College, Port Harcourt. After secondary education, the Imo State -born artiste got admitted into the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Port Harcourt where he studied agricultural engineering for five years, graduate in 1992 and got deployed to Lagos for the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Programme.
Very few people know that his real name is Okechukwu Anthony Onyebgbule and yet many more do not know how he got his other names. Smiling and gesticulating as he often does while on stage, he explains

‘I was born Okechukwu Anthony Onyegbule but today, my friends know me as Okey Bakassi. I did not choose the ‘Bakassi'; my friends in the entertainment business gave me the name. Then one thing most people don’t know is that the Mc Anthony is my own coinage. The real name is Anthony but while in school, because I started stand-up comedy while in the university, the name they used to call me then was MC Okey”. So, when he left school, and wanted to start the entertainment business afresh as a professional, choosing a name by which he would be known posed problem for awhile before he finally came up with one. “I was looking at a name that would be catchy and easy for my fans to pick irrespective of their tribe or wherever they are from. That was how the coinage of Okey Mc Anthony came up. This is the first time I am telling anybody. Okey is the short for Okechukwu, Anthony is my real name but I borrowed the MC from my University days and added it to the Anthony. That is how I came up with Mc Anthony. So, Okey Mc Anthony is an actor, a movie producer and a director. Okechukwu Onyegbule is a family man, while Okey Bakassi is a comedian.”