A Star in the Midst

Eric Obuh is a music artiste born in Ajegunle and experiencing the hard life right from his childhood. The gifted young Nigerian was nicknamed ‘vocal slender’ because of his slim stature, but his vocal prominence is taking him to high life from the ghetto to fame and new path to freedom.

Writes Aito Ireho

‘The local church and its members became afraid of vocal slender’s plight, especially his deteriorating condition hampered by his skinny stature and decided to chase them out of the premises. They thought he was going to die and were not ready to take the blame. It was more of ‘love thy neighbour’ hit the rock moment for the church, as it was difficult for the Christian faithful to keep to the biblical doctrine!’

He is the special one. In fact, Eric Obuh popularly called ‘vocal slender is a star in the midst. Surviving in Ajegunle truly goes beyond just being a man, candidly speaking; it takes more than a man to survive in Ajegunle city, a prominent ghetto in Nigeria that is known for its notorious nature and violent street culture. Ajegunle city or AJ city, as it is fondly called, is one of the most dangerous ghettos on the continent of Africa, still bubbling with its traditional life and culture that is celebrated on weird and wild manner.

An encounter with Eric Obuh is a different one, as it really revealed a man who is educationally endowed with the street talent and education that flows spiritually for everyone. Eric reads and reads big. His encounter with an ‘Eckanker’ book entitled “The Float of God” changed his perception of life. The lyricist and performer talks philosophy and politics easily. He debates on international and global issues effortlessly that one wonders how he got the wide cerebral knowledge from, yet just being half-educated. His persona remains astonishing!

Eric Obuh was born on the 1st of December, 1982 at 4, Braimoh Street, Olodi-Apapa in Ajegunle. Eric is a native of Agbor, Delta State. He later moved with his father to 24, Ora Street, Olodi-Apapa, still in Ajegunle. As he would recall, “I don’t really have parents. I never got to know my mother until when I went for the burial of my father. My father was a polygamist. We were five from my mother and I happened to be the second child.”

In a not too good experience for the music artiste, life was never a bed of roses for the family. Eric and his siblings never experienced the beautiful side of childhood as they became victims of life too quickly. “I grew up seeing my father living with another woman, my step-mother who never wanted us around. So we were abandoned on the street to fend for ourselves. The last of my siblings was just three months old when my parents got separated, he would explain.

Living on the Frontline.

The terrifically talented artiste would not condemn his destined fate, rather, he sees it as a journey, well designed for him to go through and become an accomplish person. Regrets are far away from him, as he believes, his life is a mirror for others to look at, to place positivity of purpose on their minds, if only they surely believe everything comes for its own purpose. He denounces the impression people still continue to have about ghetto, “ghetto means a place where God gathers humans to come and learn about creation and how to love one another. It is a place people learn to be one another brother’s keeper. Everything in life happens for a purpose. Some people are giving birth in opulence today, yet some are doing the same child-bearing at the dumpsite. While some people are giving birth in war-torn areas of the world such as DRC, Sudan, Ukraine, some are giving birth in Ebola ravaged Liberia. Even terrorised places like Maiduguri and Potiskum in Nigeria are still recording massive child-birth. God is a not a partial creator. Those children being born in Ajegunle and other ghettos have purpose just as those being born in opulence.

Street culture and poverty usually characterise ghetto life all over the world, despite the enormous talents within and it is also the same in the city of Ajegunle. A densely populated coven with mostly half- educated inhabitants but graciously talented people. The talents abound from music to art, from science to literature, technology to medicine, yet always so difficult to be discovered, except by divine mercy.

Appreciating the power of education is nothing to write about in Ajegunle, due to the high poverty rate and depression on the street that beckons for street initiation to ‘chaotic madness’ that is seen as the high point of relevance and dominion for any Ajegunle wannabe celebrity. Eric Obuh automatically got initiated to higher madness quickly, as he recounts, “I had my secondary school education to my intermediary level and had to withdraw due to lack of finance and a near-death accident that I had about that time.

Eric’s father, just like a typical ghetto parent had abandoned his children in a local church to survive on their own, while he went ahead frolicking with the other woman in his life. “We actually had nowhere to stay and lay our heads for shelter, our father couldn’t pay the house rent and he dumped us in a local church in Ajegunle. It got to a grieving moment, when I had a very terrible accident on my way from school. I was knocked down by a high speed driver and couldn’t walk for a long time. I started walking around in clutches and it was like a no hope situation for me again. Going to school became a difficult one for me to do and at a time, I pondered about the whole essence of school by the way, as I was going through pains. I had the accident just as I was about having my intermediary examinations.”

local church and its members became afraid of vocal slender’s plight, especially his deteriorating condition hampered by his skinny stature and decided to chase them out of the premises. They thought he was going to die and were not ready to take the blame. It was more of ‘love thy neighbour’ hit the rock moment for the church, as it was difficult for the Christian faithful to keep to the biblical doctrine!

Eric Obuh later found himself on the street of Ajegunle, too quickly to grow into a man faster than he could ever imagine in his life. “I was a young boy, almost dying from a terrible accident, I needed the best possible attention and assistant I could get from people, especially the church. I was disturbed for a long time that the church and the so called ‘messengers of God’ could turn their back on me!”

Street Life; the good, the bad and the ugly.

Hard core life and style started beckoning at Eric and his brother in Ajegunle. They found themselves wading through the notorious enclave culture so fast and survival became a compulsory mission to accomplish every day. Everything on the streets of Ajegunle happen so fast in a formula one motion! There is always no time to look back and ask questions but to keep striving to survive. They were not the only one, as several other children have even started wandering on the streets before them. They had no choice but to be initiated so fast and they truly acclimatised well enough.

“Wilmer bus-stop in Ajegunle finally became our place of refuge. We were rushing to some our friends’ homes with a bit of shelter on their heads to have our bath daily. Though at times no hope for that. Other street lads have already occupied the famous bus-stop for shelter as well and we all became friends on the street, sleeping at the bus-stop.” Every night, the street lads alongside Eric would walk around occupied with crafted skills to engage in any menial jobs to survive. Some of them became bus conductors, scavengers, loaders, truck-pushers, garage errands and more. ‘Vocal slender’ decided to become a scavenger. “The first day, I was not cool with the job, scavenging for scraps to sell for recycling, but I was young and no other option for me to survive than to go through the wild. I just wanted to eat and I chose scavenging, because I was my own boss, unlike the other jobs that have superiors at the helm. Moreover, I can alternate my days to suit my itinerary.”

Music is the Weapon.

The power of music rules the urbane culture. Most culturally rooted ghettos such as Ajegunle sing, dance, merry along with their poverty and impoverish conditions. This is a tag known as ‘suffering and smiling.’ The city of Ajegunle dances on poverty, banging and churning out tunes after tunes, making hits after hits in make shift or shack-like studios. Music as they believe, takes away their sorrow and they continue to give listening ears to the beat makers on the streets. Some of the talents are liquor inspired, especially, on local wine and gin, high-flying marijuana reigns supreme to make the talents revel more on their supreme consciousness.

Vocal Slender is a raw music talent that is still being underestimated. His purpose to live keeps driving him to his passion, making music. “What actually took me to the dump was music. I was actually looking for money to produce my songs. I have to pay for the studio time and other miscellaneous, yet it was proving so difficult for me. The money I get to realise after six months of scavenging goes a long way in paying for some of the expenses I have to do in the music studio. No one was ready to do things for free. It was taken me close to two years to produce just one song. Paying for everything then was like Thirty Thousand Naira. I would work at the dumpsite, save money, book studio session, pay the producer, back-up singers, mixing and mastering. Before you could come out, you discover again that the Nigerian contemporary music beat has come out with another different street beats. Today I have realised you only need to do a good song that will last the test of time” the massively talented singer laments.

His first solo was titled ‘Nigeria’ for the love of his country. Vocal Slender remains passionate about his country and he believes his unique talent and composition would go a long way in touching the lives of millions of people and the society at large.

His love for music drew him close to the BBC television team in the year 2010 and the documentary about Nigeria using him as one of the protagonists for the film catapulted Eric Obuh to global fame, though that never last, but full of mistrust and cheats. “The BBC team saw me doing music at the dump site at Ojota and decided to use me for their story and made their money, though it was free promotions for me and my art. Owoyapa was the song I composed at the dumpsite. If you are poor push your attention on riches. If you are sick put your attention on being healthy. I knew I would be rich and I started the songs to pray myself into wealth. It took me three months of savings to do the song.

I got the push in my career but I wasn’t prepared for it. I performed in selected shows in the UK four times. After the documentary, the powers that be chased me out of the dump site because of the popularity and rave reviews I was getting, as, I was granting interviews here and there. I decided to go back to Ajegunle.”

London Calling

The UK experience was full of mixed feelings for Vocal Slender. It was a blessing and at the same he learned never to trust anyone. Eric feels he was exploited because of being naive to what was at stake with such global appreciation. He performed alongside Nigerian born, UK based artist Tinie Temper at 02arena and even slept in one of the hotel rooms that accommodated the legendary songstress Celine Dion. “The UK experience actually opened my eyes to another life. Everything came and went like a bang. It started when the documentary was shown and I didn’t know anything about it. I wasn’t prepared for the fame and lack of exposure dealt a big blow on me. Big thanks to my friend and manager Ayo Badejoko, a brother indeed, who advised me not to sign any slave contract. I have been to London close to four times for shows, yet I was paid peanuts that I couldn’t even feed myself. They can take everything from you but not your imagination.”

One Love Rules the Ghetto

The up and coming artiste with his little success and sojourn abroad has been able to show the true essence of human existence, promoting one love legacy through his young, not-for-profit organisation known as “Ghetto Love Foundation.” The organisation has been able to catch the attention of the ghetto people and has been giving out clothing, food, educational assistance and scholarships to young and abandoned ghetto children. “When I first had my first trip to the UK, I received a lot of gifts and goodies that I started sharing among the people in the ghetto. This kept happening all the time and my manager now advised me to set up an NGO for the less privilege ones. And it was an awesome experience for me to be able to give back to people. I gave a school bag to a girl in JJS2. She was using polythene bag. A dancer with toothache was given money to remove her tooth at a time the doctors were on industrial strike action then in Lagos state. We are taking it to another level. Life needs you to be relevant. We are coming with a new program for the schools. We intend to go to various schools and pick the best students in each class and the not so brilliant ones, numbering about twenty students each and call on successful citizens and leaders to talk and mentor them. Great people and motivators would be invited to come around to lift their minds.

Time after Time

Desire is the biggest problem we have in life. Most of my friends have been killed from armed robbery related issues in Ajegunle. All of us were going through the same problems. Some of them even had parents and homes. The mind works through force that is good or bad. I chose to be good. Let us educate the mind, so that the man can work with the mind, seeking divine touch to achieve good things, Vocal Slender explains. He has also maintained that he is ready to walk this rough patch again, as he believes he is a conqueror. Having regrets on anything in life are not on the young, yet untapped artiste. He is ready to go through it again, if it is the wish of God. The parents should train their children in the way of the Lord. Most parents have forgotten the whole essence of training the child. The child now trains the parent. Child labour and abuse, slavery are rampant. Parents want success from their wards and children so early with no proper platform for them.

Currently Eric Obuh popularly known as ‘Vocal Slender’ is reading “The Art of War, as he admits every war fare has different strategy and approach in tackling it. He plans to pursue a degree in Philosophy.