You know we always wanted to do this but you’ve been missing out. Glad you’re finally here today. E be my work challey. I no dey get time. If I tell you how I mana reach here. E go surprise you. But you have a nice studio here.

“Thanks big man!. That’s your seat there.!. Nice suit”

Thank you. This suit is a global one. I just removed the tag on it. It has an embedded AC in it. I feel like I’ve arrived challey. This seat is comfy. Joel! This is a global Sofa i swear.

“You are funny guy!”

99% of my life is fun. I’m trying to win the feeling, but I just can’t. I’ll always have something crazy to say! I think it’s because of where I grew up.

“Who’s GBOLO ? How would you describe yourself to a stranger in just one minute?

Laughs.. But do I even know myself?. I think I’m still finding me and every time a different version appears to me. GBOLO is a professional NURSE. Someone whose best expression is to write. A Bussiness man and a billionaire and someone who appreciates the things of God and the universe. GBOLO is that young lad who’s unfazed about the hurdles and life’s uncertainties. GBOLO is inspired by LIFE. Yes! Life inspires me.

“Is that a scar on top of lips? And just below your eyebrows?”

I have so many scars. The one below my eyebrows happened in primary 2. The one one my lips was a bottle fight in the hood.

“And the eyebrows?!”

Shoutouts to Sonia. She’s the reason for that scar. I spoke to her even recently.

“Would you describe yourself as a stubborn person?!”

That would be relative. But I don’t think I’m stubborn if you’re asking the question because of those scars. I think I was just being everything the environment I grew up was. And those scars happened to be some of the results. And I said it’s relative because once someone acts a certain way or differently from what the society he was birthed and nurtured in, we turn to call him or her stubborn.

“Mmm! That’s deep.! How was life like in growing up in AFLAO?”

AFLAO is like a fast moving train. That place is like a jungle. Everyone is looking and chasing something. You eat or get eaten. The place inspires you to chase something because everyone is chasing. The fast life. The girls and the flashy lifestyles. AFLAO never sleeps. The town is always woke.

“Did it ever occur to you’ll ever become a professional NURSE?”

I’m a sharp head so that should be obvious. I had dreams growing up. I only wanted to be a footballer. But when I began playing football and I found my way in the best team Diamond Babies, my coach made me believe I could be a footballer at the same time a doctor. He always gave the Brazilian footballer Socrates as an example. Even though a lot was happening around me, I knew is either I become a professional footballer or maybe something better in education. I always held on to education as my plan B. So that was when my opportunity of making big as a professional footballer slipped, I quickly had to start focusing on my education. The plan B is who you’re talking to today.

“Did you ever regret not becoming a footballer?!”

Regrets? I don’t think have that but the pain sometimes for not BECOMING because I had all the potential to be. Because sometimes you’re watching football match and you hear people mention the money they used to buy some of these players playing nonsense and you’ll start cursing. It got to a time I stopped watching football because the pain was getting deeper and deeper. But I had to redirect the pain. I needed to turn the pain into passion. Maybe I could read and enjoy reading now because I had a better and positive redirection.

“What’s reading to a street boy like you. What is it about reading that you can’t let go off?”

You see, I wanted to be always smart. Even back in the street, we were all about being smart. Someone was always trying to outsmart the next person. But I wanted my smartness to be appealing. Something the next kid from the block would love to do.

You know if you can take money from someone’s pocket without the person knowing, that’s a great skill. Imagine you’re taking all those risks only to be stealing 50 cedis and you get caught in the process? You’re going to jail for just stealing 50cedis? No that’s not smartness. That’s foolishness.

That skill you have could make you a lot of money as a banker. Imagine you’re working in a bank as the bank manager and your bank is in the news for being robbed and the exact amount of the money wasn’t said in the news.

You know it’s cool and smart to add additional money to yourself as the bank manager because you are the bank manager. You’re not stealing in that context; you’re just being smart. You can’t only be street and have this opportunity. So, you need to first go to school. You need education. You need to go to school. You need to self-educate yourself. And books are the only way.

I remembered one of my big brothers used paper as money to one of our brothers in a Game center when we were playing La liga. He rolled the paper in his hands. Showing only the tip to him. Because he claimed it was a higher denomination so there was no change so the other guy betting with him thinking the money he was having was a real one.

You see that calendar when the new cedis newly came in the system. ? He cut the size of the 50 cedis note from that. Those things live with me forever. I’m always thinking like if someone could think like that, imagine what he would done with a little touch of education and schooling.

I used a 10 cedis counterfeit in a Game centre too. The time he realized it was a counterfeit was when he used the money to buy in zorokpome(There was some popular wakye joint there) and they wanted to beat him when he was begging the people he didn’t know it was a counterfeit.

“Hahaha! That was wild!! Did he come back to take his money?”

No! You can’t ask me for that money again. It’s your loss. All these are part of the game. So you need to be smart.

I remembered we were bringing our WASSCE results for everyone in the street to see. So again even on the street, education and school was something we had always seen as a priority.

“Is it true that AFLAO boys brag?!”.

I don’t think we brag. It’s the lifestyle and the environment we grew up in. And most of the times, we walk the talk too. Plus you need to have a sharp mouth. To win you first need to have a sharp mouth. You needed to always talk some crazy stuff about someone to feel like you’re winning. Someone without a bicycle tyre could say the craziest stuff about someone driving Range and he wouldn’t be bothered about anything. It’s crazy there.

“I can say you have somethings for yourself that you can equally brag about . You have your shop selling drinks and other businesses you have but you don’t seem to brag. What made the difference for you?!”

No matter how you see it, nobody can attain satisfaction once it’s material things. I saw and realized these things early. I want to brag, but I want to be that boy who’s bragging about knowing stuffs. I want my point of bragging be about things that’ll uplift you from all the shallowness. There’s something the edge to know and know more does to you. It makes you humbled. So sometimes you’re seeing all these people bragging about having all these stuffs and you’re still looking at them like what the fuck is this? Because the money he has, you’re touching that money too, so what becomes the gap between you and this person? It’s the knowledge that you are touching all the same amount of money but you’re still low key with it.

“How do you feel when you see people wear your name?”.

It’s not necessarily the wearing. It’s them buying. Because I could give it out free shirts just for people to promote you know. But these people are buying. They’re spending their money purchasing me. How I feel sometimes is beyond loved.

In another vein too, i feel like they’re giving me responsibilities. Because some of these people are people from the same place i come from. And for them to wear that is only the prove of them trusting me. They’re telling me “GBOLO! We’re with you regardless.!”. To know that I have this backing is only a reminder to continue the good work and not derail from the trajectory.

“Don’t you see people jealous or envy you?”

Jealousy? Envy?. I see it. Once you’re not like the people you started life with, you see it. They display it in all forms. Why should GBOLO become this? We were all the same in the hood. We grew up eating in the same bowl. These are things that happen everywhere. Even at workplace.

I remembered when someone said “So we’re all here and GBOLO is having all these things to himself ?!”. He thought he was joking but it was what it is.

Folks would just begin seeing you weird because you’re not the same person, they knew you to be. My mind is a very powerful tool for me. What I believe works truly for me. Even though I see it, I just choose not to believe someone hates me. Because I become paranoid with this thought around people. Paranoia is a form of a sickness you know. Those jealousy or envy from people I believe develop in immature minds. First, you need to understand that you can’t be GBOLO, and GBOLO can never be you. Because GBOLO can’t be like anything you, that should be your victory.

You see, I grew up playing football among one of the most talented crops of people. So many talented kids. There’s example I always make…

I know Isaac. He was our crazy left winger. He was the guy always dribbling. Anytime we went playing football match, Isaac was the player everyone was gifting money. Crazy crazy talent. But I realized one thing, without my role Isaac was sometimes frustrated. I remembered times he and Bashengey would be begging me for passes. Because the more I passed them the ball as the midfielder the more they get chances to dribble, the more they get the attention and the money.

So early on in life I knew I had a role to play. And my role is what distinguishes me from everyone else. Even though I might not get all the attention, I knew I had a role. Pastor as our defender had his role. Puyol also had his role. Alberto had his role too. And because everyone had their roles, being responsible only as an individual and playing their parts only made our team the best juvenile team it was. These early exposure also made me realize the beauty in diversity. The beauty when people realize the roles they play….

“Mmmm!! Is there something you’re scared of now? I mean your greatest fear?”

My greatest fear now is not becoming my full potential. That thought is the only thing that scares me. I’m not scared because it can’t be realized but I’m scared of not working hard enough to attain that.

“How did you get in a video with Demzy?”

Lol… But I’m GBOLO. I wouldn’t have missed that wedding for anything. A big shoutouts to man like Quashie. He’s a real one. I think I owe him a lot. I chose attending that wedding over my Queen’s mother invitation to her festival. That was how special that wedding was to me. Quashie has always been holding me down since college.

But that video made me ruminative. Looking back at the journey all through, I think God has blessed me so much. There’s something within some of us feel that separates from everyone else. The feeling that we’re BLESSED!!!. Everyone you saw in that video is a family. D19 is one big family. My badge is the only badge still together as a family. Long Live D19!

We heard you even had problem with your school. What really happened? Did you take your tutor’s girlfriend?.

His friend was laughing again. Joel was laughing.

“I didn’t have problem with anyone. They had problem with me. Looking back on some of these things is crazy. It’s crazy how I made it through. All these experiences made me precocious. It made me mature early. To be very young and went through all that shit was only preparing me to the broader world. I don’t know what I can’t accommodate mentally now. But sometimes I’m happy because of how everything transpired. They say what doesn’t kill you always makes you stronger. It’s very true. You know it’s beautiful. I wasn’t using machete or knife. I only wrote.!

” You mean you only wrote? What did you write that got you into trouble?.

I only wrote the way I felt . Coming from where I come from, I should have used a knife to fight you know. But knowing it was just pen, made me realize I was really about my mission. The fight hasn’t always need to be a knife or machete. That moment gave me a deeper look into everything. That saying they say the pen is mightier than the sword. It was evident ..!”

“You seem to have a lot to spill . I realized you had an image of a girl on the shirt during your second outfit for the shoot? Is that your girlfriend?!”

She’s the girl they took from me because my friend SALU couldn’t do correct BETWEENER work for me. He would only be hyping me on his status that I’m Spencer James in the movie ALL AMERICANS. Interestingly he couldn’t help me fight to win my OLIVIA.

“I guess your friend SALU no force give you!”

He no try at all. But on a more serious note, the girl I’m wearing isn’t just a girl. Her father was one of the heroes from where I come from.
His father gave his school for us to be educated without taking a penny because of the talents he saw in us when we were playing football from AFLAO. Anyone who comes from knows UNCLE. He was a disciplinarian.

A lover of education and a kind person at heart. These were principles that made RHO and everyone else who held UNCLE’s principles dear their hearts and put them in practice. I could wear UNCLE’s age as well. But the end game of UNCLE’s teachings, values, and principles are my celebrations.

I’m celebrating the things his values had made because our heroes wouldn’t always be with us forever. But the things they taught us while they were with us are the things that would make them immortal in our minds.

And RHO became the end game. Plus, I’m telling the young girls from where I come from to always aspire to something bigger. There are no limitations because if RHO did it, all of them can do it too. RHO’s success story is a personal story because I saw it all from the beginning. RHO is a girl I would end up writing a book if I’d want to talk about her. Get closer and look at her lips on my shirt, who wouldn’t want to kiss that?

“What’s that one thing that would make you want to go through life regardless of what it’ll cost you ?

Destiny first. Will Power second. The fact that the only voice that was supposed to in my life was laissez-faire. Every decision I made it because that was what I wanted for myself. I wanted to go to school because I wanted. And the fact I’m from where I come from.
I live with scars. The memories these scars bring haunt me and yet give me hope. It’s like me having PTSD. AFLAO has given me something to clutch to. It’s not that I’m not scared. AFLAO has given so much to make me feel the way i feel. I’m unfazed about life in general because of my experiences. I was once on the street with my boys and just some 100 meters walk from them, there was robbery behind me.

They robbed a mobile money vendor who was right opposite us. Around 8:30pm to 9pm. It was too early. When I turned because I heard the sound of the gunshots, the robbers held their guns high and disappeared into the surburbs . They were very young boys with masks on.

The second incident was one night when I was returning from work in the Diamond Cement company bus around 12:00 – 1:00am because our machine had a problem. They shot the thigh of this guy who I later knew to also be a Momo vendor. Those scenes never leave me. I could still walk on the streets where these things happened and still feel unperturbed around 12:00- 1:00am. Sometimes I look back and say, if I survived all these when the possibility of dying was 101% and i didn’t die as a 13 year old kid, then what’s the fear now?

“Why the earrings?!”

Why not the earrings? The earrings had always been there behaviorally. These were the things I took from the street. So I needed a full representation of everything i was. I didn’t want to pretend about anything. I can’t pretend I’m Jesus Christ coming to save everyone.

I could decide not to wear them and still make a mark but that wouldn’t feel real. Yes! I know kids from where I come from look up to me. I know. These earrings wouldn’t impact them in anyway negatively.

It’s rather an encouragement for them. Because no matter how you see it, you can’t take who we are or what people perceive about us from us. So why not make some of these conjectures and perceptions rather something cool?. You see, GBOLO is from Aflao, he wears earrings but he’s a professional NURSE too. So the next kid isn’t seeing wearing earrings or drawing tattoos as things wayward people do. He’s thinking about drawing tattoos on his body but again he’s thinking I need to be at the same peak as GBOLO for it to be accepted or seem cool. You see that?

“Don’t what people say bother you? For instance, you are a NURSE and you wear earrings.!”.

He heard his friend in the studio giggle. Joel screamed! Fofovi!.

You saw my friend’s reaction right. He knows me. It doesn’t bother me at all. It’s just our society. I wear earrings because I want to wear earrings. I used to trim SAKORA when I was in college. Could you imagine people were saying because I was using juju that was the reason for my haircut ? It’s just people. Whether you do or not, people will still talk.

It doesn’t take away my professionalism. I know to some extent I’m good at my job. That always gives me the confidence to be whoever i wanted to be always without any limitations. And on the flip side, I always take some of these things as a challenge to my self too. Reason I don’t joke with my books and knowledge. When everyone is asleep I’m reading. I’m reading to know things that will keep me sharp at work. I’m reading the slightest moment. I’m always reading something. Always reading.

“Who’s JOEL that you kept mentioning?”

That’s my brother. I mean my bloodline. That’s the only person I know to a greater extent that I can call friend. I have JOEL’s contact off head. Apart from my mother, the only person I have real squabbles with is JOEL. That’s the person who showed me how it is to be truly there for someone when the person’s world is falling apart.

JOEL won’t only go to war with you, JOEL is holding your hands and telling you, come and let’s fight. We deserve to win this fight. A very selfless human being and someone who’ll fight with his everything once he knows he’s doing the right. JOEL and I will always fight. The slightest thing we’re having an argument. But you know all this back and forth is us trying to have a common ground where nobody seems to be too far from doing the right thing. I have a picture with JOEL with picture shot by Jeez in college. That picture always keeps me humbled and tells me no matter what, I have someone in the world somewhere who complements my courage and fearlessness.

You know sometimes EGO sets in. You’re like I’m GBOLO, so fuck you!. But you know you see through the journey with JOEL, something beyond you is telling you this is JOEL your friend. The one you can tell everything. The one who knows you from inside and outside. This is JOEL your friend. This is JOEL you can sit on bed around 1:00am and talk things beyond what your peers would ever think about. No matter what, I just want to stay true my words. That JOEL will always be my friend and I don’t care who’s his best friend.

“How do people know you from where you come from without having to associate yourself with anything negative. Because you know they say NEGATIVITY sells ?.”.

He laughed adjusting his bow tie.

“Aflao is home. But is it true that negativity sells?. I don’t believe that. We decide to make it sell. Same way you realized I’m from the same place and still being recognized is a big case study itself that tells we intentionally sell what we want to sell. We can sell the positive too if we’re intentional about it. But I think what makes people know me is that. You would get at least a head from almost the hoods in AFLAO that fucks with GBOLO. In Zorokpome, you’ll see a Tsatsa partner that knows me because I was a chronic gambler who would walk from AVEGATO to Zorokpome or Netsime just to gamble.

In AGORKPANU, you’ll see a childhood player who knows me because I was a good footballer too. At Border or 37, you’ll see a classmate from school who knows I was a smart kid in class too. The hood girls in AVEGATO because I used to sell for my mum too. There’s always someone who knows me for something.

“Most people say you’re LOYAL to Edem the godfather.“

He would laugh and take on with smile. “I think people don’t understand LOYALTY or the tenets on which it builds. They equate LOYALTY to the physicality of the human. Or the things the person has.

But LOYALTY to me has never been about that. It’s about values, principles the claimed person holds and how consistent the person has been with it. That’s what I’m looking at. There are people I’ve helped in a way who had their breakthrough but I still told them fuck you simply because they didn’t hold to the principles I thought they had. I could pretend and still be with them.

I’m looking at what you’re saying and what you’re doing. Are they in line?. If you tell me go to school, what are you doing yourself with your deeds?. I’m not saying Edem is perfect , but here’s someone who’s been real and consistent with it from day 1. Edem is that person I could remember what he said a decade ago and still living with the same principles and values…..

“But can we say you supported the TV3 Mentor winner BYNO AYONI because you’re loyal to Edem?”.

No! I supported BYNO because BYNO is my hood boy. I knew about his relationship with godfather later. There are stories behind most of the things I do. The reasons why I hold where I come from dearly to me is only known to me.

You see, let me tell you a story. I once went from my hood to go play PES with someone older than me in another hood. I was the best PES player those days in my hood. That night i was sent by my father to go buy mosquito coil. The change that was left from the money was what I used to bet. I think it was only 7 cedis I had as the change at the time.

We played and I was winning this guy’s money. I won him till he has to start betting with his CFA. Then when it was around 12:00am and I opted to quit and go because my father might be wanting the mosquito coil, he insisted I can’t leave because I needed to keep playing the game until all his money in the house is finished. That was impossible because the guy has money and the tips of my fingers were paining me. And when I decided to finally leave the game centre, he held my arms, twisted it and took all the money from me. Both the cedis and the CFA.

I didn’t go back to my father’s residence. I went back to the hood around 12:30am that time because I knew they’d be there playing games too. I went to lodge my complaints and everyone from the hood followed me. They took all my money for in seconds.

This is something I always feel I owe where I come from for. This place taught me how to be behind your brother regardless and especially if he has something at stake he has to be supported to win. It’s not about loyalty to someone. It’s just the things I grew up with from where I come from.

“Share one of your greatest moments with us”

It was somewhere last year when I got to meet the King of the AFLAO land. I used to only see him in his palanquin when I was a kid attending our festival accompanied by those masquerades from Benin.

A very powerful man. I had a story I wouldn’t want to share here. Many indigenes don’t know this story, it’s something that I never forget. But one day maybe it’ll take a form of a fiction. I was nervous when I got to the palace. Then before I would even sit, he yelled my name. And then he said “Ajah!”. Then we all began laughing. My nervousness left me. In my mind i was like Torgbui Fiti is the coolest person.

He said he’s heard a lot of great things about me. It was a chatty conversation. An eye opening one that even gave me different perspectives of the journey. Sitting with the strongest voice of the land with him sharing some statistics with me about the future of the kids and the youth of where I come from because he sees the same problems meant a lot to me.

Who the fuck am I ? I’m from AVEGATO, I’m not supposed to be anywhere the King, but here I am. I think I have an article in my archives titled “When I met the King.”

He gave me some contacts of big names to call on anytime I encounter any form of problem. What I’ll never forget is the blessings he bestowed on me. I really left the palace feeling powerful.

“Your lowest moments!”

The things about my lowest moments is that that’s where the courage and the willpower to do stems from.

“When did you finally realize that you were going to use and own your name despite the venom it carries?!”

I think I finally realized that when I was in college. A big shouts to man like Quashie forever. That brother will scream my name anywhere. During presentation in class. Me playing football on the field during SRC games. Anywhere Quashie sees me. He’s always screaming my name. I think I did my first customized cap with my name on it in college.

However, school was worst bearing my name. You know because of how my mates would tease me, I felt shy of my name.

It was moments i look back at and laugh at myself. I think there’s a certain happiness and mockery to oneself when you finally have that awareness. That consciousness of knowing your true self and owning to it

I remembered this particular guy in my primary days who would pull my legs till I would be shedding tears.

Sometimes the only way I clapped back was to call him blockheaded because I was a smart kid in class and he was not. But that didn’t equate the hurt.

The shame of bearing my name was to the extent of using another surname when I was playing football for my childhood team.

I think the calling to take ownership was beckoning when I was in J.S.S. I missed the first opportunity to represent the under 12 district team that was going to be held in Kedjebi that year.

I was selected in my childhood team in our justifications and they were tracing the names of people selected in schools for confirmation.

The “JUSTIFY” team came and they mentioned the name I used in my childhood team and our PE teacher said there was no name like that. But he knew my first name and the team I played and the man ahead of the justify team confirmed i was the one.

My PE teacher then, Mr Dabi gave me six lashes on the spot. Even though the man knew I was the one, I was disqualified that year to represent Ketu South District for the competition.

Now telling these stories only make me realized something deeper. The opportunity I missed because I wasn’t bold enough to embrace what was mine. My name. It’s a revelation for me.

I think I’m the most excited person on earth about the new record by godfather Edem and the goddess Enam Music titled VOLTA VI that talks about these things so the generations after me would not repeat the same mistakes. Because no matter how you see it, there’s a blessing that comes with owning up and embracing who we truly are.

“And now everywhere you go it’s GBOLO!”.

It feels surreal sometimes. But I love the feeling sometimes because everything about the person and what he stands for is REAL. I feel fulfilled because I’m not faking anything. The GBOLO you know is the GBOLO everyone knows.

“Before we go tell us about soGBOLO!”

SoGBOLO is just an awareness i wanted to create about our health in general. Especially for us YOUTHS. I began this awareness even in my early days in college about drug use and abuse to my folks because of where I come from.

I was struck seeing an 18 year old being diagnosed with stroke. So in my mind I was thinking of something that could sell like medicine which needed to take a natural form. And plus the hibiscus plant has so many health benefits. The anti hypertensive properties piqued my interest more because hypertension sets the tone usually for CVA or stroke mostly. I was just looking for a medium that could be business and at the same create awareness about health. That’s why it isn’t made to be that sugary. I wanted something that you could drink and still feel like this is medicine I’m taking. Very soon it’ll hit some major hotels and my store in BEAT 9 border will start selling.

Congratulations on your journey. It’s an honor talking and having this conversation with you. We wish everything you have achieved for yourself so far shall only be the stepping stones for your greatness.

Thank you. The pleasure is mine. Thank you for having me. I pray you also grow bigger and have me again when I finally appear on the FORBES list.