I played Music in Church, Ran a Laundry Service to Fund My Education- Femi Jacobs
Ahead of the formal release of his inspirational book, Rise, Nigerian actor, Femi Jacobs has told of how he had to work several jobs before he could fund his university education. In an exclusive interview with eelive.ng, Jacobs, who is an award-winning actor, explained that after leaving Osogbo, Osun State, where he had his secondary education, he had at various times, played music in church and operated local laundry and delivery services in Lagos where he had relocated in search of opportunities.
The actor said in the interview: “When I got into secondary school, I began to sing Fuji with my friends. I remember one guy called Rasheed. I was the drummer and the singer so after school, we would entertain ourselves with fuji music and of course we would sing ‘pump up the volume’ too. It was very popular then.”
After completing his secondary education, the Osun State born actor said he could not raise enough money to immediately proceed with his education and this brought about the need for him to move down to Lagos in search of a job to fend for himself.
On arrival in Lagos, his musical skills which developed since he joined the choir in his mother’s church at Ife as a child and got further honed by the fun fuji experience and playing music in his church in Osogbo, would come in handy as he landed a job as music director with a popular church. From this church, he moved to another church and the ability to sing, write music and teach others to sing brought him a lot of favour from which he was to train himself through university and even travel out to South Africa for a professional course in flying.
He explained: I ran a laundry service and I was being paid a stipend because I really wanted to go back to school. God saw me through. I joined another church and able to go to school. I graduated and then proceeded to South Africa to seek a bit more exposure. That was where I got involved with and had my Pilot training. Then I returned to work to raise more money to finish commercial certification…”
It was while doing a variety of jobs one of which was with one of Nigeria’s leading banks that Jacobs stumbled on an opportunity to act, got noticed, fell in love with it and has stayed put until date.
On how acting started, Jacobs said: “This is the only way I can explain how acting came into the mix. I was invited by my church group to play lead in their faith-based productions. The confidence people say I project onscreen however was learned as a performing musician.
One demand led to another and doors began to open for TV series like Tinsel and then ultimately to my first starring role in a blockbuster cinematic film like The Meeting. Soon after, validation started to come, and I began to win national, continental and neo-global nominations and awards.”
And then, enter Femi Jacobs, the writer! eelive.ng asked how the versatile artiste happened on the business of writing and he had this response: “I guess writing is an offshoot of this sort of learning and practice. Since 2008, I began to consistently share my ideas of success, wisdom and spirituality on social media. This has won me a lot of audience who probably don’t find it too strange that I wrote a book.”
Now, Rise, Jacobs’ treatise on how people can make the best of their lives is ready for release and while hoping that everyone who lays hands on the book finds it worthy of their investments, he explained that Rise is “a more grounded perspective on how to execute personal success stories and make more” of the life of every single citizen of the African continent!
Read full interview HERE
