Popular comedian, Okechukwu Onyegbule aka Okey Bakassi has recounted a time homelessness nearly led him to sleep under a Lagos bridge.
He said he had to share the experience to prove that successful people sometimes have humble beginnings.
Narrating the experience, Okey Bakassi said he had just come to Lagos for his national youth service programme at the time after graduating from a tertiary institution in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
According to him, after his mandatory three weeks orientation programme in Iyana Ipaja, where the Lagos State NYSC orientation camp is located, he could not find a place to stay.
He said that led him to consider sleeping under Mile 2 Bridge in Lagos.
Okey Bakassi recalled, “I had just finished at the orientation camp at Iyana Ipaja and was set to begin my primary assignment but I was having major accommodation issues.
“The people I intended to stay at their places disappointed me and I was faced with the harsh realities of life after exhausting every contact I had.
“That day it was already night and all I had was my travelling bag so I had to beg someone in a two-bedroom apartment which was already congested to allow me to stay in his place for a while.
“I ended up staying with few friends in different parts of Lagos before I eventually rented a room in a public compound in Palmgrove, Lagos.
“That was where I started my life in Lagos. I have had my own fair share of suffering. What you see is not readymade.”