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I grew up in an average home in Ibadan, but the truth is, there was a time we used to be stupendously rich. My family suffered a setback due to the crash in the economy at some point in time and so we became like the average family. I grew up in Ibadan from Primary school to University and then I went for NYSC.
After my NYSC, I worked very briefly at National Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) but while I was there I already figured that that line of work wasn’t my calling. Up until this time, I was already acting, taking on a few roles here and there but nothing major. I knew what I wanted to be in life – I wanted to be a star and I knew that there was a possibility that it might not happen; that fear alone was a problem for me. The fear that I may not be all I wanted to be in life was a psychological struggle and that, perhaps, explains why some people felt like I wasn’t going through a hard time. Once I was convinced that acting was where my heart was, I left Ibadan in search of greener pastures was September 2013.
I had always been a Lagos person even before September 2013. I had an uncle who once lived in Lagos and so his home was a holiday destination spot for me growing up. The only thing was I never saw Lagos as home. Once I decided to give my acting career a shot, I made Lagos my home.
Interestingly, I never had any Welcome-to-Lagos moment. I have never taken one chance in Lagos, I have never been robbed. I don’t take it for granted. I acknowledge that it is just God’s grace. No one has ever tried to pull a fast one on me except the normal madness that every regular Lagosian face and that’s why I hate danfo buses – I can tell you categorically that I can count the number of times I ever took a danfo in Lagos.
Let me share two examples of the two times I took danfo in Lagos. The first time, ehn, the conductor said the bus was going to Ojota from Berger. Now, you know Lagos well, the bus was supposed to descend the bridge before dropping us. Instead, this guy stopped on the bridge and said we all should come down. I didn’t have a choice, I had to get down and then trek to the real Ojota.
Another experience was the day I was heading to the location of a film and all of a sudden, the driver and conductor stopped the ride simply because they got into a fight with an agbero. There I was rushing to be at a crucial work appointment. Let me just say I thank God for everything. That was when I made up my mind that I’d rather just take a cab than hop on a danfo because I cherish my peace so much.
Today, I live in both Nigeria and the United States. 
Living outside the country had never been in my plan at all. I always saw traveling as a vacation thing – not making abroad a domicile. But you know what they say that life is what happens when you are making your own plans.
I met my girl on Facebook through mutual friends and we struck a conversation. She was in the US and I was in Nigeria but we were always in touch – messages, phone calls, everything. We started dating but for me I never thought that I was going to marry. She came home to Nigeria, we met physically and saw that we were compatible. She returned to the US and the relationship continued. Then I started liking her more and more and more.
The relationship took a more serious turn and I began to nurture the idea of marriage. In 2015, she invited me to come visit her in the US. I thought about it and so I did. I returned to Nigeria and I had a couple more visits after that. In 2017, we got married.
The only logical thing to do after we got married was to be with my family. While it was realistic to leave my family in the US and I stayed here, I didn’t think it was going to be fair on my wife. My wife and I came to a mutual agreement on how we could make things work: for a certain period of the year, I’ll be in the US and then the other part of the year I will be in Nigeria considering the industry in which I flourished. In 2017, I relocated fully to the US. That was how I ended in the United States.
I live in Staten Island, New York – Staten Island isn’t as busy as Queens or Manhattan, it is more laid back. You can easily drive anywhere you want to go without having to worry over where you’re going to park your car and so I rarely use the public transport. Wherever I want to go, I drive. From my house, across the Hudson River, I can see Manhattan but I hardly go into the heart of city. I may not go to Manhattan for six months. If I don’t have a business there, I don’t go there.
Right now, I am tired of New York, it is pretty much like Nigeria. It is rough and they also have bad roads. New York roads have potholes but maybe not as big as some of the ones we see in Nigeria but still, you will feel it when you drive on those roads. Here’s the thing, when you go to the US and you go to New York for the first time, you’ll be excited about the city and the State. By the time you begin to go to other states in America, you would lose every fascination you hold for New York.
If you go to Texas, Texas is freaking beautiful – you can drive through a long stretch of road and you will see no pothole. I love the serene lifestyle of Texas. I love the big houses and the flex. I don’t like the hustle and bustle. Naturally, I have so much ginger in me and so I love environments that make me chill.
I love peace, I love quiet. When I tell people I want to move from New York to Texas, the look at me like, “are you okay?” It’s like saying you want to move from Lagos to Ijebu Remo, not even Ijebu Ode. However for me, as an Ibadan boy, Texas does it for me.
