In a recent interview, you mentioned that you once sought to buy your own coffin. How did you end up taking that step?
I was frustrated. It was the highest level of frustration because imagine a young man of my age then; I was in my late 20s, and I could not even afford to eat once in a day. People kept saying all sorts: that guy is lazy, he doesn’t want to work, he left teaching service for something uncertain; leaving certainty for uncertainty. I was ferociously frustrated, and I thought the only thing I could do was to get rid of myself. That was the level of frustration then. But fortunately, Pa Olatunbosun Odunsi—he’s actually my boss; I trained under him—got to know about what I wanted to do, and he called me. He asked me to come. The man is still alive, so all I said in that interview can be verified. It is nothing but the truth. After narrating my frustration to him, he took me hunting at night. When we got to the bush, he sat me down and started counselling and encouraging me.
Apart from him talking to you and you making the decision to do better, what other steps brought you out of that phase?
What really got me angry was the fact that I had some series on television—at NTA 12—and I thought I could get the little money we were being paid. We were being paid N500 per episode. And I had over N6,500 with them because I was actually running a weekly programme with them. At the end of the day, they would be telling you no money, and they started paying in bits instead of the whole amount. Out of about 16 episodes, they could give you payment for just two. So, it got to a stage where I was seriously frustrated.
