My family lived in a face-me-I-face you house, and the poverty was so strong that our next-door neighbours were pigs. Primary school was tough. I lost my dad at some point and my mum had to manage to push us through. It was tough when my dad was alive. When he died; it became worse. 

My mum had to do some crazy businesses to keep us afloat. After primary school, the norm in my family was that we were sent to live with an uncle to learn how to ‘trade’. So most of us had to stop schooling at the primary level. I became a servant in my uncle’s house. 

Apart from the everyday work in the house, he was beating everything out of me and I remember at some point while still staying with him, I almost committed suicide. I managed to go through secondary school because I really wanted to be educated but after junior secondary school I left his house.

I had to start sorting myself out from SS1. I did all sorts. I hawked all sorts. My siblings and I would walk around Nasarawa village selling banana, coconut, garden eggs, groundnuts, zobo and the like. And most times because I loved football, I would drop the things I was selling and go play ball. By the time I got back, my goods would have been stolen. I was also a conductor for a while when my dad was alive. My dad was a driver and I was his conductor.

I always had something inside of me that made me feel there was so much more. A part of me thought it was football and so I developed my love for football. I played in Pepsi Academy and I played the Kaduna’s Cup Under 13. I was doing very well with football and I even paid some of my secondary school fees with my earnings.

Poverty, if you’re not careful, builds and shapes you so I started fighting for my life by myself. I got into Lagos on a Thursday in the middle of the night from Nasarawa and I didn’t have anywhere to go to nor the contacts of my brother who already resided there. My first house in Lagos was Oshodi, under the bridge, which was where I passed the night because there was no means of reaching my brothef. There were no cell phones so I couldn’t call. I didn’t even know where to find him. 

In the morning, some people helped me look for my brother’s shop, in the same Oshodi. We went around asking people if they knew him until we eventually found him.

I started to work around getting my studies right. I wrote JAMB again and got admission into the University of Lagos (UNILAG), but I had to leave UNILAG too because I had issues with a cultist who warned me never to step foot into the university or I would die. I wrote JAMB again and got admission into University of Benin (UNIBEN) and wanted to study Business Admin but I got Religious Studies. I stayed for 2 years but I wasn’t feeling the course, so I packed my bags and left. I came back to Lagos and just shut down the idea of school.

Before this, I had gotten into music a bit in Kaduna from my home church in Nasarawa. I had my first recording when I was still in primary school with the choir. We went to a studio in Zaria to record but before that, I was known to always mess up my house using our plates and spoons as drums. I remember I played my first instrument, which was the guitar, at my uncle’s house. This was while I was in secondary school (remember I lived with him for 3 years). He had a guitar in his house and I would play tunes that made no sense, even though he warned me never to touch it. 

At a point, I told him to teach me how to play but for even asking, he beat me up! So, I decided to keep learning on my own. He had a spot where he kept the guitar and he marked it in a funny way which I never knew. I would take the guitar, play a bit and then drop it away from the exact spot. So, he always knew that I played the guitar and he would beat me. He would take off my clothes and mercilessly beat me with a wire. Those memories shaped my life both negatively and positively. I remember vowing never to let my kids go through any of that.

I managed to go to church all the time and I would hear people play from my seat in the audience. Each time I heard a tune, I would memorise it in my head, go back home to search out the sound on my uncle’s guitar but I never got it. I’d go back to church the next Sundayand try to figure out how the instrumentalists were achieving the tunes. I’d go back home and try again (even though I was beaten). That’s how I learnt to play instruments. I can play the guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboard and mouth organ – about 6 instruments without having gone to a music school. 

I joined my uncle’s church choir and interestingly a year after, I dethroned him (lol), as they insisted I become the music director. I was just in SS1 at the time and I’d left my uncle’s house. That was how I got into music gradually in Kaduna, though it wasn’t my favourite thing to do. Football was, at the time. 

As the music director of the church, I started to learn and make my music better. People were always amazed at what I did. I was like the talk of Oshodi back then as far as music was concerned. My choir was literally the best. People were inviting us to minister and we did loads of concerts. While there, I became music director of another church too, as news was spreading fast about a young boy in Oshodi. I was paid 3000 Naira monthly also, so altogether I was now earning 6000 Naira monthly.

While music was bringing in cash little by little, I was not satisfied, as I wanted to further my education. I decided to do a part time program so I would have time for music. I took up admission in Lagos State University (LASU), got in and started attending lectures. During lectures, I would try to concentrate, but my mind was always drifting towards music. I left in my second year because I wasn’t concentrating and I thought to myself there was no point wasting time. If you remember earlier, I said I was in ABU, then Madonna, UNILAG, UNIBEN and now LASU, making it 5 universities and I never finished from one!

I decided to focus on music and the urge to set up a group ran through my mind. In 2004, ‘XTREME’ was set up. I gathered some of the choir members of the churches I directed in Oshodi. At this time, I had worked with different churches as music director.

Xtreme started, and glory to God; we began really well and very fast. In fact, we started as singers, dancers and actors having created different expressions of the group; we had Xtreme Steppers, Xtreme Theatre and Xtreme Singers. 

We grew and had our first concert in February 15, 2004 and it was beautiful. There was a zeal and desire to do more, to be all God had called us to be. I wrote songs and we started to shoot videos, and because everything we did at the time was new and fresh, we had a lot of acceptance. My desires birthed something bigger which we still do till date – Broadway type shows – having rebranded them as Musical “EWURO”. We have been running for four years now.

I am happy where I am today. People know Tim Godfrey all over the world. I’ve travelled to different places to minister, gotten over 300 nominations and won awards. Sometimes I hear I’m nominated in India, Scotland etc. I’ve won awards in UK, US, here in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. I’ve ministered alongside people I never thought I would, like Marvin Sapp, Tye Tribbet and others who were my musical influences. In fact, we were graced to bring Marvin Sapp last year for our FEARLESS Concert. It looked and felt financially impossible but God came through and we were able to. 

I tell people I am FEARLESS and I serve a God who has got me all the way. I want to encourage everyone that there is nothing impossible for you to do. You just need to believe strongly and work towards it. I need young people to know that there are some things you might need to sacrifice in your life at the moment for the future you want to have – “Delayed Gratification”. I did a lot of that and God has been very merciful. 

You can never use poverty or not having an education as an excuse. In fact, you have no excuse not to achieve what God has ordained for you. Pray more but then get to work. God will not bless emptiness. What’s that thing he has put in your hands? He has given all of us different talents. Harness them and stay consistent.

Whoever you are, there is so much embedded in you. I encourage everyone reading this, “NEVER GIVE UP on yourself, no matter your age.” I believe we will all make the necessary impact we need to make in our time.