Nollywood actress Sola Sobowale recently spoke out about her experience of starting over in the UK as a caregiver after becoming renowned in Nigeria.
On the most recent episode of Teju Babyface’s King of Talks podcast, the actress explained why she left Nigeria between 2004 and 2016 after becoming well-known as Toyin Tomato on the show Super Story.
She said, “When I started this ‘elevated omo odo’ thing, I started from the grassroots. Then, I went to the college. I got my NVQ 2,3,4, to become a team leader. When I started work in that office, there were Nigerians, Jamaicans and Ghanaians, and all of them knew Sola Sobowale. But it was confusing because my tag read ‘Olu,’ and not Olusola,”
The actress emphasised that she was a firm believer in labour dignity at the time and would go to any length to provide for her children and pay her debts.
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The actress remembered being spotted by a Nigerian coworker named Seye Fadipe, who questioned her decision to leave fame for a new life.
“Fadipe looked at me and said ‘Are you crazy?’ I said I was not crazy. He asked, ‘What are you doing? You are up there in Nigeria,’. But there was something better than that. My future. My children are my future. There will be a time when the energy will no longer be there. Then, it is what you sow that you reap.”
