Sometime in April this year when the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC aired the documentary, ‘Welcome to Lagos’ the message and true value of it was lost on many watchers. The documentary which highlights the plights of some Lagosians trying to make a honest living against all odds, generated some controversy. However, amidst all the insults heaped on BBC for the documentary, one young man, Eric Obuh stood out. Obuh, who goes by the alias, Vocal Slender, was one of more than 1000 scavengers filmed combing the Olusosun dumpsite in  Lagos for recyclable material. He had hoped to make some money to further his dream of becoming an accomplished musician.

As fate will have it, on a free day for Obuh, while entertaining his friends, the BBC crew came to the dumpsite and found him rapping like an accomplished hip hop star. The crew was impressed and he became the main star of the documentary in which he was shown singing his new song, Owo Yapa. That advertised his talent and redoubtable spirit.

“A lot of people who know me, including my friends and my family don’t know I work in the dumpsite. They believe I just do music. And I want to keep it that way, so I will have respect. One day I’m going to be more famous than Craig David,” he boasted in the documentary.

After the fascinating 3-part documentary was aired, Obuh’s  life changed for good. While officials of Lagos State government called it an insult to the city of Lagos, Obuh was spotted in the documentary by London-based music promoter, Ropo Akin of Cokobar.com who took him to the UK. There he headlined many sold out CokoBar.com-organised concerts, including one at the famous O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom, where he featured along with the best of Nigerian music industry.

Makin Soyinka, son of Nobel Prize Winner Wole Soyinka believes the BBC documentary was uplifting.  According to him, “it showed how resourceful, how honest the average Nigerian is as opposed to all these images of crime and corruption. It shows that the real majority of Nigerians eke out a living in very harsh and challenging circumstances, while being very creative and cheerful about it.  Those are people with absolutely no thought of crime or corruption, they just want to work hard and make a living and I believe that is the spirit of Lagos. I believe that is what came out through the documentary,” said Soyinka.

Already, Obuh’s debut album, Send Them Come is available on iTunes and many have purchased it via UK, US and Canada iTunes store, while a management deal in Nigeria is in the offing for the young man.

—Funsho Arogundade