For Evangelist Tope Alabi, life, no doubt, has different sides. While growing up, surviving was so tough that realising her childhood dream was almost a mirage. “The atmosphere around which I grew up was a very tense one. I could not afford to open my teeth to smile not to talk of laughing. When my host family were all on the dining table eating, I would be at the back of the kitchen to eat,” she recalled. Today, however, she is a celebrity. She told YEMISI OLUSINA how she rose from grass to grace.
It’s a surprise that you speak with this kind of a husky voice when you actually sing with an uncommon sonorous voice?
That is part of God’s wonderful acts. A lot of people have wondered this way before and I told them the same. Ask me to sing now and it will surprise you how easily I will do it. That’s why I said all glory be to His name.
Was it part of your dream as a child to become a gospel musician?
No, no, no. My childhood years were very peculiar. It never even gave chance for such fantasies. I never had a fun-filled childhood. My parents were paupers who could barely feed us three times a day. My mother used to make ogi (pap). After sieving the waste product called eeri, we would grind and eat it with ewedu or ila alasepo. We even had to beg the miller to grind it for us, because we couldn’t pay. It was that bad. And when mere feeding was that hard, you can only imagine what other aspects of life like schooling, clothing, health and others would be like. We were actually 11 children, but eight of us died and only three – two boys and a girl are remaining. At a point, they had to take me to Ibadan to live with my mother’s elder sister to afford me a fairer living but fate still did not allow me have it good. Her second child treated me as if I was brought there to be a maid. The feeling was bad enough that I was always wishing that a trailer should just come and crush everybody and end it all. The suffering was just too much. One day, I decided to run away from Ibadan since the trailer refused to come. I followed a train going to the North but when I got there, I could not come down, I had to go and hide myself in the toilet and later followed it back. The atmosphere around which I grew was a very tense one. I could not afford to open my teeth to smile not to talk of laughing. When my host family were all on the dining table eating, I would be at the back of the kitchen to eat. Because I did not rinse a cup well, I received 72 strokes of the cane. I thought of dying but God did not grant the wish.
Was that why you decided to go into acting?
Well, maybe and maybe not. My mother was once an actress, so, it had been a familiar terrain. For my own plight, I saw it as an avenue to achieve happiness. Whenever I saw them act on the television or heard them on the radio, I felt they were happy people. They were always happy, they never come across as being troubled, so, I thought I would be happy with them. This, again, I found out was still far away from what I thought.
Tell us about your experience in acting?
It was fun but my mother was opposed to it.
But why, you just said she once acted herself?
Yes. She did that when she was in school, but she believed it would distract me from my education and she did not want that. Besides, my parents were staunch Catholic faithful, most of my brothers and sisters are reverend fathers and sisters, and so, they saw that decision as very odd. They thought that something was wrong with me. I was in class three when I joined the Ishola Ogunshola Theatre Group, I was once with the Jesters International Group too.
Why the Jesters, were you a comedian or what would you have wanted with the Papilolos?
As I have said, I was looking for a way to ease the tension I was experiencing and the Jesters were just the drama group that came handy then. And I see no reason why I shouldn’t go for them, everyone loved them then and they really made people laugh, I mean they were good entertainers. Besides, I also have a good sense of humour as I later found out.
How has your childhood experience impacted on you?
I have learnt to be brave and courageous in the face of whatever hardship I face in life. Although it is bad to be maltreated, I have come to terms with standing upright all through it all and this I have vowed to give back to life. There are still lots of girls especially, wondering up and down for the same reason and my decision is to offer as much help as I can to them. You can see some girls around. None of them is a member of my family. But having had that kind of experience, I don’t want any girl to go through it. So, any one of them I see around, I ask them to come to me and tell me what they want to do. I later realised that it was not good for me to be running here and there, because I could not have saved myself. After all, I was not the only person being maltreated by a family. I remember a guy called Nurein, now Kunle. We were there together. He is now a big person. He also experienced the same and he never ran off, he faced the challenge and he is better off for it today. I am sure there were many others too who almost committed suicide for their bitter experience then and they are successful now.
What about your husband, he has been very supportive?
Oh yes, and that is part of the doings of God that is marvelous still in my eyes. We met on this job and honestly, I never thought we were going to be married. We were just working associates but as God would have it, we are husband and wife today and still working together. Like I said, this, as well was prompted by God just to make a success out of me. I give Him all the glory.
Where exactly are you from and how far were you able to go academically?
I am from Imeko Yewa, Ogun State and by the grace of God, I was able to extend my educational career to an appreciable level in life. Apart from my primary education, which I had in Lagos, my secondary and tertiary education were attained in Ibadan. I went to Oba Akinyele Memorial High School, Bashorun Anlugbua Ibadan, Oyo State and later went to The Polytechnic, Ibadan to study Mass Communication. I graduated in 1990. I had worked as a correspondent with Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), moved to NTA channel 7 Tejuosho, (now NTA channel 10, Lagos) before going to explore the advertising world. I was briefly with them at Centrespread Advertising Limited.
You are a soundtrack expert in the Yoruba movie sector. How did you journey into this and like how many sound tracks have you produced?
I am an inquisitive person and until I feel fulfilled, I don’t rest on my oars. In 1994, I went fully into theatre arts by joining the late Alade Aromire’s theatre group. It was in this group that I became exposed to the rudiments of drama and acting. It was while I was with him that I commenced singing and producing sound tracks. He was impressed with the first one I did for him and on his advice, I became focused and strengthened in the act and I thank God for where we are today. As for the second part of the question, I will say to the glory of God, I have produced not less than 400 sound-tracks so far. I have become an authority in this aspect in Nigeria today and I am grateful to God for that.
Talking about your ministry, when exactly were you called or is it just a thing of interest or a passion?
Like I said, my passion was really towards acting and not music. The revelation concerning my music ministry first came to my mother when I was still a child and in 1988, a man of God also delivered this same message to me that God wanted me as an instrument to win souls for Him through music. I did not know how this would be achieved but I was ready to be used of Him. As God would have it, I met my husband, Soji Alabi at the studio in 1994 and we kicked off a platonic relationship. He was the one that led me to Christ and opened my eyes to see the gift of God in me which I later on developed and invested in God’s project. We started dating in 1998 and later got married on November 16, 2000.
Which of your efforts brought you much fame and success? Gospel or secular soundtrack?
I might have been into sound-tracking before venturing into gospel music, but I must make it clear here that it is gospel music that made me popular. Gospel music gave me a face and made me what I am today. And when it comes to reward, it has rewarded me greatly and in all ramifications. I really can’t be saying everything here. I appreciate God for counting me worthy of entrusting such a gift in my care and I pray that He would not allow me to be moved from His presence. He is the reason why I exist. Because of my ministration, and because it touches people’s lives, I keep receiving invitations from various churches owned by renowned men of God. My prayer is that God’s message through me and my husband will spread all over the universe.
What have you to say to gospel artistes who sing people’s praise?
It is wrong and ungodly for a gospel artiste to sing praise of individuals while singing gospel. We are called to praise God only and to lead the people likewise. We must exercise strong faith in God because He is able to provide for us. Whatever gift God gives a man, if well used, will make way for him. Whether or not you use it well, you must give account of it in heaven. We must all bear this in mind so as not to be misled by our personal desire. No one is perfect, but we must be conscious of the judgment day which is the day of reckoning. It will come one day and like we have it in the Bible, the owner of those gifts we have in our possession will ask us how we have made used of them. If we want to sing people’s praise, then we must not parade ourselves as gospel singers and vice versa. The Yoruba people will say To ba fe je osakala, josakala, to ba fe je osokolo, josokolo, ewo ni osakalasokolo? (Meaning, it is bad to be neither here nor there).
What would you attribute your success to?
Who else? God almighty has been very faithful. He has been good to me. Were it not for Him, I wouldn’t have even been alive least of all making any good impact.
What message do you have for your fans and youths in general?
I enjoin them to stay focused and dedicated to God. He is the only one who is always there in time of needs. I also want to encourage everyone passing through any challenge to realise that the situation is only for a particular time and purpose. It is a phase that will pass soon, so, do not give up. You will soon have a new song. Besides, every challenge or situation brings with it a lesson of life.
