Lolade Sowoolu

He quit a well paying and promising banking career to tow an uncertain, ill-defined path- music. Although with a retired broadcaster and classical music composer for a father, his father will not hear of any of his children not plying a professional's route since he studied music in school himself. Armed with a degree in Agricultural Extension from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Obiora Nwokolobia left Enugu to serve in Lagos at the Fidelity Bank. But his calling, music, will not let him be. Upon releasing a chart-buster for an album, out of which came the single, Onyinye, the young officer turned singer knew it was music or nothing else. Enjoy the rest of the story as Obiora Obiwon takes us through his transition.

How long have you been playing music ?

I will say I started professionally in 2005.

Why would you leave certainty for uncertainty?

I wasn't happy. I felt I was wasting my biggest talent. I released my first album in July 2006 and resigned my job later in December same year. I had already worked for three years.

How did you manage the popularity when customers came into the banking hall and found you were the cashier?

It was crazy during the time because even in 2005, I had released a couple of singles. I released Onyinye's video in October 2006.

How did you get the bank job? Was it part of fulfilling ambitions?

I just happened to get a job in the bank. When I entered the bank, my idea was that I didn't want to end up a banker because my first love had always been music.

How long did it take you before you found the courage to leave banking?

I got to a point that I soon realised that I would not be able to take my music to where it should be if I didn't quit. Many times I had to sleep over in the studio and then go to work from there in the morning. My weekends were always fixed for recording and that was Saturdays when I wasn't working at the office.

I got to a point where I wasn't going anywhere fast. I got frustrated being in the bank. I mean, I wasn't the most commercially successful artiste and still not, but I could say 'my music was and is still impacting people's lives'. Again, I felt like if I didn't move at that point I wouldn't be able to because I found myself sucking more into the job, thinking, probably, that the next day, I would get a promotion and everyday, it was becoming more impossible to quit the job, whereas I knew my first love was music.