Joseph Benjamin, a Nollywood actor, model, and singer, has shared a heartfelt narrative of his experiences in the United States.
After moving to the US in 2016, the movie star described how he ended up working as a taxi driver.
In an interview with Teju Babyface Oyelakin, he confessed that he drove cabs to pay bills after failing to land movie roles.
Joseph Benjamin claims that he moved to the US in search of movie jobs after being offered them by someone who afterwards let him down.
The situation was made worse by the person telling him to start paying household costs as he had no money to travel back to Nigeria. He had no choice but to start driving for Uber as a result.
Joseph narrates his experience
“I got to America on a promise that I had some gigs waiting for me. So I thought I was going to have a soft landing there. I packed everything from Nigeria, bought a one-way ticket, and came to America.
“I was put in a well-furnished house and all of that. Then two days later, the person who I was supposed to book a deal with said to me, ‘Those our financiers have pulled out. They have an issue.’ So, I said, what do I do? He was like, ‘From next month on, you will have to start paying rent in this house.’ The amount of the one-month rent was equivalent to a one-year rent in Nigeria”.
On how he got the job as an Uber driver, he said, “I got connected to my church. And then someone gave me a car. I’m like, what do I do with the car? And they said Uber. I was driving for Uber and Lyft to pay my bills.”