Teju Babyface, the Nigerian comedian, has revealed the crisis he faced after moving his family to the United States, describing it as one of the most difficult chapters of his life.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Babyface reflected that what he initially believed was a strategic career move quickly spiralled into a period of deep uncertainty and regret, compounded by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He described America as possessing a brutal and unique set of difficulties, which were magnified by the global lockdown.
The comedian also illustrated his sense of disorientation by referencing the lyrics of Sunny Ade’s classic song Esubiribiri Ebomi.
When we were leaving Nigeria, I knew without a shadow of doubt that it was the necessary next step in my career evolution and for us as a family, a unit. But when we got here and challenges started, especially when you consider that Covid-19 started a few months after we arrived, I was convinced that I had made the biggest mistake of my life, he said.
That I had shot myself in the foot, I had scored an own goal. As they say in the Yoruba movies, I had become the harbinger of my own misfortune. For the first time, I could understand what King Sunny Ade meant when he sang Esubiribiri Ebomi.
Because I never understood what he meant and I had been singing that song all of my life but for the first time, I understood his sentiments. He was saying that he had come to a place, a juncture in his life where he had no idea where his life was going or what his life was about.
Just a place of complete disorientation as to location and direction and I lived in that place for years. America has its own unique set of difficulties, when you add Covid to that, it was brutal. For about three years, I was convinced that I had made the biggest mistake of my life.
