The Metamorphosis of a Child Prodigy - Emmanuel Edili/ Da Capo

The metamorphosis of a child prodigy - is an interview with Da Capo multi-talented, America-based STELLA AWARDS Nominee for Best Gospel Rap Album in 2007. It is an eye-opening interview touching on self-discovery, music entrepreneurship and youth empowerment ideas especially in the face of all-time, ever-increasing rate of massive exodus of Nigerian productive population being experienced currently. Emmanuel Edili resides in Bowie, Maryland, United States.

He possesses an extensive hands-on and in-depth experience in the architecture, migration, deployment, configuration, and support of enterprise-level infrastructure, software, and technology. Technical and proactive individual who takes charge and ownership of issues, with unparalleled technical abilities and an experienced technical liaison to executive-level clients and customers. 

Emmanuel Edili is the Chief Executive Officer at Chaingapp Inc where they are involved in:

·  Developing and implementing organizational strategy: instituting the vision, defining overall strategy from launch to scale and building cooperate culture. 

·       Establishing and overseeing the executive team 

·       Developing and executing scalable and efficient strategies to ensure consistent results and exponential growth. 

·      Communicating effectively and providing expert guidance to all stakeholders: relaying the core vision, mission, and values to all team members and departments including operations, sales, and product.

·     Building strategic partnerships and relationships to drive growth. 

In his Music Ministry - he was the Music Director at CHRIST EMBASSY CHURCH between Jan 2004 - Jan 2018 (14 years 1 month) where he was saddled with the responsibility of:

·  Directing a 40-man choir for each service at Christ Embassy, Largo 

·   Composing and Teaching songs in preparation for each service 

·  Planning and executing the order of songs for each service. 

·    Supervising leadership in the planning and execution of special programs 

·       Managing subgroups aimed at achieving set goals for the choir 

·    Hardware and Software installation and maintenance of computer and sound equipment.

·    Composing, Producing, and Directing 400-man choir for Love-world USA live TV presentations.

Education 

·       Jabi LEA Primary School.

·       Federal Government College, Kwali

·       Hebraic Institute Of Theology And School Of Ministry 

·   Bachelor's degree, Theology/Theological Studies 2021 - 2023 

·       Bachelors degree in Theology

·       Panam College of Music Ministry 

·       Bachelor of Arts - BA, Music 1999 - 2002 

·       Bachelor of Arts in Music Ministry and Music production

·       Panam College of Music Ministry 

·   Diploma, Music and Christian Worship Studies 1998 - 1999 

 

Honors & Awards

·   Outstanding Instructor - Calverton Elementary School - April, 2009

·  Extraordinary Student - Federal Government College, Kwali, Abuja Sep 1991, exceptional student in Music (xylophone) 

·     Most punctual worker - HOUSE ON THE ROCK Nov 2002 

·  Most Punctual worker - Christ Embassy Church Largo MD Nov 2008 

·    Stellar Awards Nominee - STELLAR AWARDS GOSPEL MUSIC ACADEMY NC Mar 2007 

·       Nominated for best Gospel rap album 2007 

·       Nominated for best event CD Album 2007

COUNTDOWN: It's good having you on Countdown, 23 years after. I'm holding the copy of the first edition of our Magazine where we featured you, we had Da Capo, on one of our pages here.

Da Capo: Wow

COUNTDOWN: Yeah that was July 2002

Da Capo: Wow. That's, a really long time.

COUNTDOWN: So going into the interview now, for the benefit of our Gen Zs and some of these people who were probably not born 23 years ago. Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself, your birth, early education, youthful life, and your parents?

Da Capo:I was born in Idah, Kogi state. And after that, we lived in Zaria till I was around, like four years or so, and then we all moved to New York, Brooklyn, where I did parts of my elementary school in PS 305, and I was there with my family, with my parents. And then we came back after that, with my brothers and sisters in 1983 straight to Abuja. We were one of the pioneer settlers in Abuja. And then I went to Jabi Primary School in Abuja. I also went to the prestigious Federal Government College Kwali, Abuja. That's where I did my high school. Then I attended a music school in Panam College of Music, before leaving back for the United States. But eventually, I did lose my dad when I was around 10 years old in a car accident, so that of affected us as a family. Growing up with others, really Of helped us as a family, especially in the places where we were, like in Abuja. I would say that  growing up in ECWA community kind of really helped us as a family. ECWA church in Wuse II, Abuja, we were the pioneers. We actually laid the first block of that church in Wuse II, the Church  previously, was in Garki village. We were sharing the church with the Hausa Section in Garki Village at that time. And then eventually we moved to Wuse II, but I'm just saying that the ECWA WUSE II was like a family that I had. I think that helped us going through those times that we had with losing our father, yeah.

COUNTDOWN : What about your siblings? Your brothers, your sisters, how many are you?

Da Capo:  We are five. I'm the second to the last born. The first born is Idra, and she was one of the lead singers with Panam Percy Paul. She was part of his second album, I think, when he released  the second album. And then my brother Steve, Watai, and then I have my immediate elder brother Joseph, myself, and then my younger sister, Aleo,  Esther. She's in New Jersey right now. So we're five. My father was,well engaged, he worked at Nitel. It was initially P and T, and then we relocated abroad, that's where he went to further his studies in the United States. And then we came back, and he was one of the senior staff in Abuja then, with Nitel.

COUNTDOWN:  Okay, you  just mentioned something about your elder sister being in the music industry too, with Panam. So you both took interest in music?

Da Capo:  Yeah. When I was a kid, I think, she helped hone my craft, because, most of the time she would tell me to sing, she could sing in parts. And then I was the only one who could stay in a part. I tried it. She used to try it with me and my brother, but I was the only one who could stay in a part. So she noticed that I had that music ability, and we always used to, just sing together.

COUNTDOWN: How about your mother and your growing up before and after you lost your dad?

Da Capo: Wow, my mother—I honestly don’t think I can ever fully put into words how much she means to me. She sacrificed incredibly to make sure we kids could still enjoy at least some part of the lifestyle we had before our dad passed away. She’s always been my inspiration. You know, one dream I’ve always carried was to succeed enough to take care of her the way she deserves. Today, I’m truly thankful because I’ve been able to do that. She’s been living with me here in the United States since around 2018, and every day, I remain grateful to the Almighty for making this dream come true—taking good care of her is honestly one of my greatest accomplishments, and it’s a dream I’m still living out even now.”

COUNTDOWN:   So we’re going on to ask how you came to music? Share with us various platforms that can be said to be your template; from childhood, neighborhood, your school, your church, platform?

Da Capo: That's a whole lot again, too. I'll say from childhood, I noticed that I had that desire to sing. I used to sing as a kid, four or five years old, I'd just hold the broomstick and just be singing. I remember that in Brooklyn, and I noticed that my sister, she used to sing also at that time, already in church, going places, before we came back. We came back to Nigeria, and I noticed that she started singing with Panam, she was the one who did that lead’s part, ‘I love you Lord, I love you Lord, Yes I love you, Lord.’ You know, she did that with Panam.

COUNTDOWN: That’s one of the classics of Panam.

Da Capo  Yeah, one of the classics, exactly. So for me, I just continued. In America, when I was eight, around eight or seven, my dad bought us a keyboard. Well, specifically it wasn’t for me, but he bought it for everybody to play, but nobody was interested in playing except me. So I just continued to play with it and that's how I taught myself, kind of, how to play the keyboard. And then, I met a few people who showed me a few things, like my aunt, and then I just took it from there, and that's how I began to play. I remember when I started, I was playing just with my fingers, and then my aunt, Hope Davis, she showed me some chords. And then from there I was playing. I just started playing for bands, I was around 10 years old, and so then going into school, into high school, that's when I met a teacher called Mr. Uko, our music Teacher in Kwali, who saw my qualities, and I never knew anything like that. I didn't know what a child prodigy was, but he just told me I was a child prodigy. I said, What's a child prodigy? I didn't know what it was, but he took me in and then showed me an instrument called the xylophone. I actually made one, but that was the first time I actually saw it. Yeah,I noticed that it had the same notes like a keyboard, and I was ready. I could play the keyboard already. So when I hit it, he was like, Okay, let me show you how to play. And after that, he showed me some things, from there we went national, onto international. We played for all the Ministers and played for the Military President of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, the President's wife, Miriam Babangida. We went everywhere. We won at all kinds of competitions, inter-collegiate and all, in Queens College. It was really great. So that's the area of music in school there. And then coming back to the neighborhood, I was already going into rap  music. So in the neighborhood, they started doing things, what they called rap attacks, and I won almost all the competitions. I was kind of known in Abuja at that time, I used to just hang out in studios, in  record places like Dona Lee, music studios then in Area 1, Garki, Abuja. It was very well known at that time. I used to just hang out there, until I got born again. So when I got born again, it wasn't like my music was toned down. That's when I started expressing it, that's when I moved to ECWA church again, and I got more serious. Before then, even though I grew up in the church, I wasn't serious. Then, when I got born again, came back, and  we started a group called Boys for Christ, where people like Bode, we used to call him BODMAS, and my brother and….

 

COUNTDOWN  That's Bode Adeniyi.

 

Da Capo  Yes ,Bode Adeniyi. And,  then the Agbanas, we were there, and we called the group Boys for Christ, because that was when Boys to Men was really coming up in the secular scene. So we started singing songs, and we made an impact in the church there. And then I started doing other things, like, producing people. So that's where the music continued to grow. Then I started meeting some certain pastors who kind of led me and helped me. I have to mention some of these names, like, Reverend Boye Alonge who took me in. And that's when I was playing the best keyboard in the whole city. At that time, he heard it, and that was the only thing that made me stay with him.I just wanted to play that keyboard, the M1 you know, I played that, and I became his music director. But he also helped me, with my being able to still rap and things like that. I'll also like to mention people like Reverend Shola Adesoye, who respected me. I wasn't known. It was really a hard place. Nobody knew rap, the way I was trying to bring it into the  ministry. But he respected me. I mean, at that time, when I was nobody. He would send a driver to pick me up, take me back. He treated me like a royalty. He treated me well. So I really give him that. And then also I have to mention, of course, Panam, who allowed me to produce in his studio. You know, I didn't really have that much money, but he just allowed me to finish up the album. I really appreciate that. And then Pastor Obi of House on the Rock, oh my goodness! Whenever they invited people, he still treated me the same way, like he was treating other artistes that they brought, even though I was in-house. So those are the people and those are the places and the platforms where  I was able to really express myself in music, to display my skills.

COUNTDOWN: How did you come about the name Da Capo?

Da Capo: “You know, the story behind ‘Da Capo’ is actually pretty layered—I’d say it unfolded in about three stages. It all started back at FGC Kwali, during my school days. I had a reputation for some legendary escapades—nothing serious, just typical youthful exuberance—that earned me the nickname ‘Captain Gwags.’ Not exactly proud of it now, but hey, that’s youth for you, right? Anyway, over time that name got shortened to ‘Capo,’ partly because I was really into Mafia movies, especially classics like ‘The Godfather.’ Funny enough, I even made a gospel track later called ‘God the Father,’ inspired by the same theme. Fast forward past secondary school, I had a major turning point—I got born again. Even though I was already pretty well-known in Abuja city as ‘Capo,’ I wasn’t keen on keeping the name because of what it used to represent. Then a close brother, Ochi Ogbuaku, suggested the name ‘Da Capo,’ a musical term meaning ‘from the beginning.’ It felt perfect, reflecting both my artistry and this fresh start in my life as a rededicated Christian. So, that’s how ‘Da Capo’ came to be.”

COUNTDOWN  Wow, that's a very good one. And quite revealing, I never knew this angle of you before. What do you think about music in Nigeria, in your perspective, before leaving the shores of Nigeria, and now that, you've seen the other side. What do you think is the difference? And what do you think we can do to improve the lots of our music talents budding all around the country here?

Da Capo  What I would say is, look, at my time, I was almost like a trailblazer. So I was doing things that nobody was doing. And so I was alone because I was, going into areas that nobody was going, so it was hard for me, but I had to clear the path. Now, others were coming and it was easier for them to go through that. So in terms of when we were doing it, it was really hard, trying to, let you, your art, your ministry, or what you have to spread. So that was before leaving the shores of Nigeria to America, and then I realized, first of all, that the music industry was just very much controlled, the whole music industry was controlled, whether it was gospel or not, everybody was still under the same banner of certain companies having smaller companies that they control. That's what I noticed. And it was quite like a hard place to break into, I would say, however, as it is right now, things are better than it was then, there was no streaming then,  we couldn't stream, we couldn't do anything, but now you can stream. Then it was hard to get your fan base, but now online, you can do that. Then it was hard to do that unless you're with a company, but now you can do it on your own, independently. You can just put out your music, have a fan base online, you could just grow,and you'll be heard without even getting signed. You can be an independent artiste without getting signed, and things like that, those are the differences that I see right now. Things are really moving fast. I'll really give credit to how the music industry…I think music is one of the major exporting properties that Nigeria has now. So I think that we've done a great, a great deal in music internationally. So I just feel that,if we put in more work, put more emphasis on that, we’ll be able to raise artistes so they can have better ways to hone their craft, like music schools.Also organizations need to do a better job, in terms of also streaming, so people, can really have more benefits or return on investment from the music that they put out. But I would say that right now, it's easy, because the whole world is a global place now. So it's really a whole lot better than it was then.

COUNTDOWN  You released an album titled, ‘God the Father’ before you left. That was an amazing title then.  How did it fare market wise? And have you done any other album since then?

Da Capo   Yes, I did release ‘God the Father’ here and then seven years after that release, when I went to the United States again, it was re-released there. I got nominated for Stella awards. I was nominated as one of the top four gospel rap albums in America. The two major awards in Gospel awards, or Christian awards, is the Dove and Stella awards. So for Stella awards, I was nominated. I actually performed at the pre-show. I performed with those at the VIP nominee reception. That was Kirk Franklin's nominee reception, I performed there. Everything was kind of picking up. It was being played in a few radio stations also around here. So it was a big thing for me to have released an album and seven years after it was still seen as one of the top charts because it was ‘Wow Gospel’, ‘Lecrae’, ‘The Truth’ and I. So those were the four finalists. And that year, it was ‘The Truth’ that won the award. I've had other albums, I just didn't release them because I'm just so much of a perfectionist, and I was also in a journey of my life, of beginning to rediscover myself. So I still have those albums, and probably one of these days I could just put them out there again. That's what it is right now.

COUNTDOWN  You mentioned about the influence of music and the output (export) of our youths and even majority of our citizenry. Do you think the music we are having here is reflecting any of their behaviour and attitudes towards the development of the country generally?

Da Capo  I would say that we can actually do better. But I would also say that the impact the music has had on the population right now is way more than what it was before. One of the reasons that I'll say this is because in our time, we knew of a lot of Nigerian artistes, but we all had all the hip hop and all the R and B and all the songs from America, so we kind of fashioned everything from there. But now the youth are listening to Nigerian artistes, and so the recognition that they have is way bigger than all the Nigerian artistes of our time and even those who came before us. So that's a major thing, and I think that can be used constructively to improve the youth. I think more can be done. There's definitely always youthful exuberance with kids, children, always wanting to express themselves in certain ways. However, I do believe that music is a tool to be used to guide, to lead the youth in the right direction. And I think a lot more can be done towards that now that they have the stage and the platform. More can be done to lead the youth towards that desired or intended direction.

COUNTDOWN  Closely linked to that, looking at the lyrics and marketability of our music these days in Nigeria, many of the lyrics of our young budding talents today seem to be very loose and lacking in morality. When you ask them, some of them argue that what the public wants to hear, is what they are singing, and they have to sing what the public wants to hear for them to ‘blow,’ in your words. Do you agree with that?

Da Capo  I won't necessarily, because it's all about the platform. If you have a platform, you can channel what you want to give to the community. So the platforms are the radio stations, the TV stations. If they agree to make sure that the preferred kind of music is put out there, then everybody actually conforms. And before you know it, nobody complains. Everybody enjoys music. You can enjoy music without having to have derogatory expressions within them. So I see that that's happening a lot more now than it was before, and the encouragement that I can give is that they should give the same platform, give the same energy, to those who want to release things that are fun, that you can dance to, but still doesn't really, put down or derogatory. I would say this is  still coming from the West. It's coming from other places, because that's common, even if I give the history of rap in America, it wasn't like that from the beginning. It was a means for people to express the ills of the society and just expressing the things that they're going through. Eventually, people took over, certain executives or people took over the industry, and then began to force the artistes to release certain things that were derogatory to women. So that's way more in terms of here, I don't think it's even as bad as that in Nigeria, however, it's still leaning, and it's beginning to yield towards that. I feel like there's a change that can be achieved if we arrange ourselves intentionally towards that sole purpose.

COUNTDOWN:  Looking at the marketability angle of it, if today you are given an opportunity to lead any sector of Nigerian economy and  work with young ones to have a marketable good music and discover talents, which sector do you think it will be and what would be your advisc? As you said earlier on, Nigeria has a lot to export in the music industry and if we are going to have something presentable to the world, in which aspects do you think Nigeria is lacking so much now, that if it is improved you can have a better output?

Da Capo: The thing about it is like we know that streaming is the major area from which artistes can make their return on investments. However, the platforms that they go on, are mostly foreign platforms so one of the things that can be done is that the platforms should be done from within, from within our community, from within Nigeria. We have the  population, we have the numbers, so if we do that and we are able to, as a people, also control the percentage that is being given to artistes, because when you go on some of these platforms, what they are getting is not really much. You have to really run millions and millions and millions of streams before you can even get anything and when that comes, a lot of portions go to the record company, before it gets to you. But if we have our own platforms, I know there are platforms already right now in Nigeria but I'm saying it could be done a lot more, where it focuses on the Nigerian community. Like I said, we have the numbers. This is what is done in China right now,  China builds things within their own plan because they have the numbers and you have artistes who are making music and enjoying even without being heard outside the country. So I think that's what should be done.

COUNTDOWN:  Do you think that can also go side by side with reflecting more of our cultural values ?

Da Capo:  That's very important and I totally agree, that needs to be marketed as well because the thing is, there's so much good in our culture that we can propagate, that we can push out there and we're losing that aspect. We need to bring that out and talk about it so that we can also sell to the people to see the richness of our culture in all different areas. One thing I'll tell you is, in the West Europe and America especially in all these places, their platforms are talking about how things are done, it's taken from probably the Greek and the Roman culture, their society is ‘low content’ code, it’s not in a derogatory term. What do I mean by low content? A low content focuses on the individual, your individual rights, but Nigeria is a high content culture because it's about the collective, it's not the individual, we all come from different tribes and it's a collective, we do things together. You have the same groups, the women groups, your children groups, there are young boys’ groups, there are elders groups, everything is done collectively you know.

COUNTDOWN:  I wanted to ask if you have any Nigerian artistes that you think is trying to catch up with this cultural content thing, projecting African culture to the world that you admire. Can you name one or two of them?

Da Capo:   Not really because I've gone so much into another field right now, so I haven't really been following these artistes.I would like to point out the  good in some of these artistes like Davido. When I look at Davido, what he says and what he does, there's one thing I have noticed. Whenever he comes amongst his elders he lies down. He still holds on to his culture whenever he meets people, no matter which  elderly person he sees he doesn't place himself as anything he always humbles himself in the presence of elderly people, that's culture and he's not afraid to do that, I like that in him. I think I like the way Flavor actually sticks to the high life version or aspect of his singing and the fact that he actually sings and he plays an instrument, so I like the way he still pushed the high life style, he didn't really change it that much although now I think he's doing a little bit of more.  There's a particular song I heard by Burna boy that I really like, I can’t really remember the name but it was a song that talked about not caring where you are, I mean and remembering where you came from and I really like that particular song and I think we should do more songs like that and it would really go far. I don't know most of these other artistes but those are the kind of things that I think can be propagated in terms of culture.

COUNTDOWN: You mentioned some of your platforms and obviously, the church actually played a critical role in your metamorphosis as a prodigy and as a younger person. Now today, do you think the church is utilizing its platforms maximally to raising talents for impact musically? Do you think the Church is doing enough, investment-wise on discovering and nurturing talents to stardom? Any experience to share? You gave us some experiences earlier on with Pastor Obi and the rest.

Da Capo: Pastor Obi encouraged me, he really gave me a platform on which to express myself and I'm grateful for that. Those are the kind of things that should be done. However, when you look at it, the major issue is the system and then the term, ‘church’ itself you know. I have a different perspective right now, that's probably a whole topic that we can talk about another time. The word Church comes from the Greek word  ‘Ecclesia’. Ecclesia means  the ‘Called Out’ or the ‘Assembly’. The Christians have a wrong interpretation of that meaning, so when you ask a Pastor they tell you it means to call out. And I said to call out from where? And they would say called out from sin, to call out from the world but that's not what the word ‘Church’ means. The real or proper translation will be ‘Assembly’, what it means is called out from the community. So in other words, it should be communal. So the assembly is not separate from the community, it is the community that assembles. I'll give you an example. In your village, you have a town crier, the person that says, ‘Hey everybody come together, there's an information that needs to be given out’ and then the whole community now gathers. That’s it's meaning, it means the gathering of the believers from where they live. So today you know you don't care what you do when you leave the Church or leave the gathering, you don't care what you do or where you live, it's up to you but once you come in. The school, the work, the job you do, everything is supposed to be still catered towards that same thing, like a tribe, that’s how it’s supposed to be. So when that happens, then the same assembly and then people who are being placed as leaders can also help to hone the craft and the artistry of these people and make their lives better, that is spirit, soul and body - total being. Secondly, looking at this systems and how they run, I don't understand why the people who are singers and instrumentalists, when you look at it from the context of the scriptures, those were Levites, they were the ones who dedicated their whole lives to making sure that the singing was constant in the temple and also amongst the people, so they continued to praise and continued to sing. That's their whole life and so whatever tithe that was given was to cater for these people too. So if you're collecting tithe, which I have my own perspective on that as well, but let's just say that you are collecting that tithe, then if the Pastor is looking good and everything is going well,then what about the singers? They should be coming every day to that gathering, honing their craft, singing so  that anytime you step in, you have wonderful music. People just singing and they should not be taken care of, they shouldn't be concerned and say go and look for your own job, go and find out how you're going to work by yourself, No! They should be taken care of by the same tithe and the offerings that is being given. They should also look good but I don’t see that happening, so that's a problem.

 

COUNTDOWN: Let's look at  what is obtainable right now, you don't see the welfare of the talent of musicians being well taken care of, you will agree with me that we have a lot of Idle youths that could have been engaged in sports, music or other extra curricular activities that could have turned us to the called out ones. We are looking at the area of music. At what point do you think this engagement needs to start and how should it be approached ?

Da Capo:  I said it's community-based. I'm going to give you examples even though I said I have my personal interpretations or reservations regarding the way these things are done, but I'm saying if you're going to hold on to that, what is PFN doing? What is CAN doing? I think that if there should be some kind of renumeration from all gatherings that can go back to the coffers of either PFN, a part of that should also be used to encourage any artiste that wants to do something within the community. There should be a way that they can receive some kind of  help from those organizations because they've given themselves also to the congregation, I don't know why that is not happening. And the reason why I mentioned music is simply because they are giving themselves to the congregation, then there should be some kind of body that helps no matter who you are but that's also why even me personally, I've been going into or I'm more into the business aspect right now, I'm an entrepreneur in the start up field. I’m into Fintech but not just Fintech, I'm also into anything tech, that comes into music tech and the platform that I've actually started  building, I'm almost done with it. We have a MVP, which is what we call The Minimum Viable Product that is already going through testing. It's a platform for musicians to be able to still make money. I'm just giving you the little tid bits. You'll hear about it real soon.  It’s a platform for people to express themselves, to play and compete with each other and also to make money, where you can make money as a teacher, you can also make money by winning competitions. It’s a really different platform, it’s quite unique, there’s nothing like it.  The name is called REPEAT but I  call it REEPEET. Like I said everything is still in-house right now. We're doing better testing and it's going to be released real soon and I'll let you know when they come out.

COUNTDOWN: I think I’ve even launched us into where we are going to now. This issue of Japa syndrome in Nigeria, I’m sure you know what is ‘Japa’?

Da Capo : Yeah, I know what it is.

COUNTDOWN: Nigeria is going through an all time ever increasing rate of massive exodus of her productive population for over a decade now, with the advantage of hindsight, what has the experience been like and what word of advice do you have for those contemplating to Japa in Nigeria, settlement-wise and the rest?

 

Da Capo: I really can’t give specifics in terms of ‘for’ or ‘against’ and the reason being what I'll have to tell you. I have seen people who have said, “I would never leave Nigeria”. I've  seen people who have told me personally that “we’re going to stay here in Nigeria.” We’re going to do things in Nigeria and they  spoke about the good things in Nigeria, but right now they're in Canada, United  States, in the UK. They left. That's how bad things are in Nigeria. How can I be living here in the United States and I'm telling somebody “don't leave”. I can't say that. I cannot say that because everybody has to, if they are trying to leave to better themselves, I can’t stop you from doing that. However, what I would say is, if Nigeria was viable in a sense, I can tell you categorically that over 50% that are in diaspora, who have been here even over 20 years, will pack their luggage and come back home. And that’s being generous. Over 50% of the diaspora that is in all other places, will pack their luggage and just go. So that still speaks about the fact that we need to get things going well in Nigeria because people want to come back. So, even though we're here, we're trying to make things better for our family back home so we can send for them. We're still not comfortable, not everybody's comfortable, we want to have an opportunity where we can be coming home and stay even for longer periods but the situation in the country just doesn't allow for that to happen, sadly so.

COUNTDOWN  Be that as it may, are there any ‘ABC’ somebody should bear in mind before deciding to come over?

Da Capo  I’ll say this, if you’re coming over, it's not going to be easy. That’s one thing I’ll just tell you. People think that you’ll just come, everything is nice and good, no it’s not. Once you come, there's a lot to bear in mind, United States is a leveller. No matter how big you think you are, once you come and you say you want to live here, it levels you  because it’s not a respecter of persons. The system is not a respecter of persons. And if you don’t have a means to work,  it becomes a problem. You need to be sure about where you're going to be, it's very important, the community that you’ll join yourself to. If you just come on your own, it's going to be a major problem. You have to know the people, the family, what kind of support system do you have when you come that you can lean on, it's very important. If you think that you can just do things on your own, no support system, I tell you, you’re in for a rude awakening. I think you have to be sure of your support system that can show you the ropes. That way, you won’t make the mistakes that those who came before you made, very important. You also have to know about, what you're going to do. If you really plan on coming, what are you going to do? You have to really plan about that before you come and listen to the support system that is telling you about things that you can do, that's very important as well. So I think those are the things that I believe, are very important that you would pay attention to if you are thinking about leaving Nigeria.

COUNTDOWN:  Right now in America, just like we have been  enjoying  our Renewed Hope agenda of Tinubu,for about two years now, America is  going through its own ‘America First’ apologist as the head of affairs now, Donald Trump. What can you see for America in the next 4 years, especially for colored people ?

Da Capo: What I would say is, we are at a precipice right now, where things can just go either way. I'll just say that right now as it is, there's a season of populism that is spreading and I think that's spreading everywhere in the world. Populism. My own, my own people. That’s what’s going on right now. Based on that, I think that it's affecting those who are foreigners who come to another land, especially in the United States, we can’t see the  immigration statistic yet.  We have none right now but we can see that there's already an effect of that even though they might not say it, we don't know how it's going to eventually level up, only time will tell but even as it is right now we can already begin to feel it in terms of  the immigrants who come to do menial jobs that is necessary to the community are no more there. So price of  some of the little things like fruits and even food is beginning to go up because there's nobody to pick the oranges in the farms, nobody to pick the potatoes in the farms. So that's a kind of an effect of that, but look they're not relenting. So populism is out there and I think that people need to be very careful about that. 

However, when you look at Donald Trump, I will say that there is good and there is bad. I’ll say that there are things that I agree with, things that I feel like,  it might affect the economy and we have to just wait and see.  In terms of standing on gender issues and all those things, I for one agree with him totally, I hold on to that as well, as somebody who is cultural and also somebody who goes through the Torah. When I say Torah, I mean the Scriptures and I agree with that, so I like those kind of stands being taken and all those in that region.

When it has to do with some of the things that affect us as a people, when it comes to racial and ethnic stance and that's also an issue. For instance, I just feel that you can't run away from the past, you can't run away from the things that happened to us, so if you're trying to say let's not talk about what happened in slavery, there’s nothing you can do. We are still talking about the holocausts that happened  and rightfully so. Even the American Indians, they still talk about what happened when they came to them and they still have the motivations today but at least, they are taking care of them. So nothing can be held back, you still need to talk about it. I think they’re trying to erase those because they feel like we need to just hold on and cater for the American mindset, well the American agenda. So those are the things that I think need to be better addressed. I think time will tell, four years to come, what is going to happen. I think we are at a crossroad right now and it can go either way.

COUNTDOWN  Okay, thank you so much. On a final note, the last question now. Do you mind telling us your hobbies and social life, work life and most importantly, your life convictions?

Da Capo Okay, well, my hobby is  my work, my music has always been what I love, so that's part of it. I still have a studio even though I haven't done a lot of work recently but yeah I mean I still do, here and there and I produce some people, mix their work here and there at times and music never dies for me, so I'm still going to come out and make more music. Sports is still something I love to do as well, I played basketball to the point of playing Division 2 in Nigeria before I left. So basketball is still what I do and  soccer. My social life, I really don’t have any specific social edges.  I'm just at home especially as an entrepreneur, you have to put all your time to try to get things out and get work done, that's what I focus on.  My two startups that I'm working on, that's what I really do. Now as a person, these are my convictions. When you say convictions, there is a whole lot of things that we can talk about, that I feel we can even take a whole time to express. My convictions are  where I am right now, I am more honed towards my belief in my desire to see a community of people, not an assembly who are like minded and who come together and worship the Most High lives according to the Scriptures, that's my desire, that's what I believe. Such as those referred to in the Scriptures as ‘the Followers of the way.’ If you look into the historical records, those are the people I'm fashioning after because I realized that, as a system, if we look at the churches today, it has a lot of syncretism with Roman culture, with Greek or Roman pagan culture. They've actually synced a lot. Having understood that, I want to really align myself with the example of the followers of the way. As we see in the Scriptures.

COUNTDOWN Do you have any scriptures to back this up?

 Da Capo  I can probably try to look at it right now but if you go to Acts See Act 9:1-2, Act 19:9, Acts 19:23, Acts 22:4, Acts 24:14, Acts 24:22  where they were asking Paul and there they were accusing him and he was saying, no, he was telling them who he was and he said, ‘I am part of those who are the followers of the way’. It was called the way and that's what he was saying.  They lived according to the Scriptures but they were also believers of Yeshua (Jesus Christ) and they did not discard the Old Testament, so they held on to it but they also believed in Yeshua. Two things, two criteria, the believers who overcame, he says and those who keep the commandments of God. We keep the commandments of the Most High and have the faith of Yeshua so  it's both. Yeshua himself said ‘I did not come to abolish the law, I didn't come to end it, I  came to fulfill it. And fulfilling doesn’t mean ending it. Fulfilling means to be the prototype of it, so that we can follow in his steps. So there's a lot that needs to be talked about, I don't want to go too much into that. These are my convictions.

COUNTDOWN  Thank you so much for your time.  This has been a wonderful time. I believe this will give our readers an insight into what we ought to do and we’re all dreaming to achieve as a community of followers of the Way.

Da Capo  Thank you very much.

By:Countdown