Nollywood actor Amuda Eko has reflected on the difficult journey that shaped his acting career, revealing that he survived on menial jobs and endured harsh criticism from his grandmother before breaking into the movie industry.
Speaking on the AfricanAList podcast, Eko said he took up a porter’s job, offloading cartons of cigarettes, to earn money while chasing his dream of becoming an actor.
“I started a porter job, so I began to offload cigarettes, bringing in little money. The money wasn’t enough,” he said.
The actor also recounted an encounter with a commercial bus driver during his struggling days. He explained that he tried to board a bus without paying, believing the driver would recognise him as a transport worker.
When the driver refused, the disagreement escalated into a scuffle. According to Eko, the driver and conductor eventually contributed money for him after assuming he had been injured.
“That was how the driver and conductor gathered money for me to go treat myself,” he recalled.
“I saw the money and said, ‘This is money.’ I told them to go, put the money in my pocket and jumped into another bus.”
Eko said one of his biggest challenges came from his grandmother, who repeatedly questioned his decision to quit tailoring for acting.
He recalled proudly showing her the first film he featured in, where he played a policeman without any dialogue, only to be met with disappointment.
“The first film I was in, I played a policeman. I even showed my grandma,” he said.
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“She said, ‘Is this the rubbish and unfortunate thing that made you leave your tailoring shop? Look at this unfortunate boy. You only acted as a policeman, and you didn’t even say a word. Is this what you’ve been doing?’”
Determined to change her perception, Eko said he begged producers to let him speak in his next movie and was eventually given a single line.
“The next movie I appeared in, they still didn’t want me to talk, so I begged them, ‘Please allow me to talk.’
“When they agreed, they told me to say just one word, which was ‘Goodnight’.
After purchasing the film, he watched it with his grandmother, hoping she would finally acknowledge his progress.
“I kept waiting for her to say something. Then I asked, ‘Alhaja, didn’t you see me?’ She replied, ‘Where? I didn’t see you?’
“So, I rewound the CD and said, ‘That’s me. That’s where I said ‘Goodnight’.
“She asked, ‘So this is the movie you acted in? You are the one that said ‘Goodnight?’ Is that why you abandoned your shop for months just to say one word? Goodnight? What exactly can you show for it?
“Then she said, ‘We’ll both wait and see.’”
Despite the discouragement, Eko said he remained committed to his dream, believing persistence would eventually bring success.
“I was beginning to get tired, wondering what I really wanted to do. But my mind became hardened,” he said.
“I told myself I would keep going. If this job is making other people money, it will also make money for me. If it brings wealth to others, it will bring wealth to me too.
“So, I buckled up, became consistent and kept pushing.”