In the Yoruba move industry,the name Sanyeri is an household name at the moment, the same with his childhood friend, Golugo. Both of whom are comic actor, and wave makers in the industry. Sanyeri was taught how to sew shoes when he came to Lagos and trained under Seyi Adeoye. The journey for Sanyeri and Golugo was very rough as they both squatted under the staircase of the apartment of Golugo’s elder sister who was then living in a single room apartment with 4 children and her husband. in a chat Sanyeri had 2 years ago with one of the tabloids in Nigeria, he went down the memory lane, and talked about his pitiable predicament then, which he says he will never forget in his life. According to him ” My coming to Lagos with my friend Golugo was a shameless one, not because we didn’t know but we did that because our talents were driving us crazy. We had the planned to go and live with his elder’s sister, but the woman was living with her husband in a room with 4 children, we knew we were not suppose to go to the house but we had no choice and that is why I called the decision a shameless. When we came, we had nothing at hand, so, we were both
sleeping under the staircase. As time went on, we invited Bayo Tijani to join us,and we were all living under the staircase, before I was able to raise money from my shoe-making business in 1997 to rent a wooden room, and we were there for sometimes before Ibrahim Chatta came to join us- the 4 of us lived in the small apartment”. He added that:”Afeez Eniola would come and go because he was living with his parents then. We ate whatever we saw and did wash and wear. Sometimes, I would wash my clothes to wear in the afternoon and before long, Ibrahim would just come and wear it, we were fond of doing that and we never got angry over it because if you want to do so, they would quickly remind you that you did the same to another person just days ago. We all worked hard, but we never knew God would make us what we are today through this profession. But my saddest moment was in 2000 when the house got burnt. We parted ways again while I and Golugo resumed in our staircase bedroom. The area, Ijora got burnt and our apartment wasn’t spared. Myself, Esther Kalejaye, Bayo Tijani, Golugo and Kehinde Gbadamosi slept in the house, because we wanted to go for a rehearsal in the morning and before we returned,everything has gone up. People started giving us cloths again and all that, as time goes on,but thereafter, someone lease land for us to build a room with an agreement that we would reside in the room pending on the amount we used in developing the place, we started buying the blocks one after the other, while we go to the rivers around to pack sand since we can’t afford it and to God be the glory, we built the house and we lived there for long. We spent close to #30.000 to build it. We all left the house in 2007 when we were set to get married. One thing I am thanking God for today is that all of us who squatted in that single room apartment have our houses now, and we are big boys in the industry.
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