It’s By The Grace Of God That I’m Alive Today – Zack Orji

Veteran Nollywood actor, Zack Orji has come out to share the details of his medical emergency that made him undergo two critical brain surgeries in Nigeria.

He recently had his say during an interview with Channels TV, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, he collapsed in his bathroom in December 2023 and lost consciousness for over five hours before he was discovered and rushed to the hospital.

Orji added that it is simply by the grace of God Almighty that is still alive today.

His words, “I slumped in the bathroom, and I can only say that it’s by the grace of God that I’m alive today because I passed out. I was out for like five and a half hours before help came.

Benedict Johnson rushed to the house, and I was there on the floor, incoherent. I couldn’t even stand because when he raised me, I slumped again, and he had to call another colleague whom we call Labista. So the two of them lifted me on their shoulders from the second floor to the ground floor and took me to the National Hospital.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.