Veteran actress, Sola Sobowale, has cleared the air about her 12-year stay in the United Kingdom, where she worked as care giver, and also managed to obtain professional qualification on the job.
The 58-year-old actress spoke in an interview on the ‘Teju Baby Face Show’ on Tuesday.
She said she left Nigeria in 2004 and returned 12 years after for the audition of Wedding Guests movie.
When Teju asked why she referred to herself as ‘elevated omo odo,’ literally meaning ‘a glorified servant,’ the talented actress gave the narration in the form of a person who, after facing the struggles of life in many forms, was then fortunate to have conquered all obstacles.
She said, “Oh yes. It was after Toyin Tomato – Super Story that I left for London. I left Nigeria totally in 2004 and I didn’t come back until I came for the audition of the Wedding Party in 2016.
After featuring in the popular television drama series, Toyin Tomato in the early 2000s, the popular actress took some time off the screen and decided to work in an unrelated role in London.
“When I started work in that office, there were Nigerians, Jamaicans, Ghanaians, and all of them know Sola Sobowale. But it was confusing because my tag read ‘Olu,’ and not ‘Olusola’.”
She recalled how a Nigerian man (Seye Fadipe) had walked up to her and said she looked familiar, but she refuted it. However, at a later time, the man advised her to return to acting after she had admitted that she was the same ‘Sola Sobowale’ he used to see on the TV.
Sobowale said, at that time, she worked as a caregiver, saying she would “wash, carry, clean… You’ll do everything. That was what I was doing.” She later obtained her National Vocational Qualification certificate levels 2, 3 and 4, up to the level of a team lead.
Speaking further, the veteran actress noted that “there’ll be a time that the noise, the energy that Sola Sobowale has will be no more.
The actress stated, “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 a team leader.
“I believe in dignity in labour. There’s no job I won’t do to put food on my table, to provide for my children, except prostitution and fraud.”
When further asked how she managed to conceive and implement an upcoming movie project in the Indian movie industry – Bollywood, she said, “It’s the grace of God. When you’ve grace, you have everything, and that’s what has been working for me.”
She recalled that she struck up a movie project with an Indian lady (Amsha) when the popular movie streaming platform, Netflix, first came to Nigeria.
