(Part 1/2) Growing up was quite interesting. I grew up in a family of 6; 2 boys, 2 girls and my parents. I’m the last child. I went to nursery and primary school in Ibadan. Then I went to secondary school (Loyola) for a term after which I left for London to complete my secondary school education. My siblings were already in London at the time.
When I got there, I made crazy and bad friends, so I got into a lot of stuff. By the time I was going to my year 2 in secondary school I was already in gangs and telling people where they could get cocaine and stuff like that. It got really bad. By my year 3, I could have people beaten up. My brother was the best student of the school and he didn’t have a clue about what was going on. He didn’t have an idea of how bad I had gotten.
One day, an incident happened. I beat up a Pakistani boy who happened to be the son of the Mayor of our area and I didn’t know. I was in year 3 going to year 4 to start exams for the last year.
The police just showed up at our door and everyone was wondering who they were looking for. They came fully loaded as if they were coming to arrest a terrorist. My brother was so shocked. Thanks to God I wasn’t an illegal immigrant or anything. We went to the police station and there was plenty drama. When we got out of the station my siblings called my parents. My parents said I probably needed a vacation. So, they allowed the wind to blow over the situation and after a few months, they said I should come for holiday in Nigeria since I hadn’t been home in like 5 years.
They hooked me up to a holiday to Paris, then about 2 other places before I came to Nigeria. The holiday in Nigeria lasted 19 years *laughs*. I got home and that was it. They said they were not sending me back to London. I still ended up with a lot of bad gangs. I started drinking and smoking. I lived in Ibadan but almost every Friday night I would come to Fela’s shrine in Lagos, and do all sorts of stuff. But in the midst of all that, God kept me.
(Part 2/2) Somehow, I ended up in Prophet S.K Abiara’s house. He said something quite significant that I can’t forget, and anytime I see him I always remind him about it. He said there will come a day when he will invite me to come to sing in his church and I won’t be able to come because I’d be too busy. I won’t be busy doing any other thing but God’s work. I just said, “Wow, okay, so I’ll actually become a serious born again Christian?” But he was sure that the future he saw was the future of someone who would have positive influence over his environment and his generation. But it didn’t look like that at all.
Somehow, I ended up with Bishop Wale Oke. My mum knew I liked the way he talked and so she took me to see him. I was led to Christ and became born again there. But I didn’t lose all my habits. Yes, I loved God and I gave my life to Jesus, but I still had some habits to deal with.
My turning point really came when I was schooling in Ilorin Polytechnic. I met Pastor Sam Ore at a Redeemed church in Ilorin where I became a worker. He was the one who settled down to fan me into shape. I would lead praise and worship in church and still go and drink my Star (beer), but after like 6 months with him I just stopped. Nobody told me to stop drinking or smoking, I just stopped. I started to love Jesus more, and the journey started from there. I haven’t taken a beer since 1996 and any smell of cigarette irritates me now.
God has been kind with the music. It’s all I do basically. Some people wonder why I put so much energy into doing the music brand or doing the entertainment brand or ministry brand. But I learnt from some of my mentors like Wale Adenuga and Muyiwa my elder brother that even though you’ll have other streams of income, make sure there is one brand that is strong enough to control other streams of income. I do gospel music and I have a feeling if I do anything not gospel, I won’t stay true to the nature of Jesus. I’m married to one wife and we’ve been married for 11 years now. I have 2 kids, a girl and a boy.