Winner of the Big Brother Naija reality show, Shine ya eye edition, Hazel Oyeze Onou, otherwise known as Whitemoney, has revealed that he was once ask
Winner of the Big Brother Naija reality show, Shine ya eye edition, Hazel Oyeze Onou, otherwise known as Whitemoney, has revealed that he was once asked to smuggle drugs to make a living.
Whitemoney said this happened when he was passing through very hard times.
In a BBC Igbo where he recalled his early struggles, he said, “I auditioned for billboards. I got tired. I tried for BBNaija from the time of Efe until I got in. Someone tried to make me smuggle drugs. I wooed ladies; they rejected me for being poor. I worked as a driver, sold shoes,” he said.
“I was born with a silver spoon. That got taken from me at a tender age, leaving my brother and I on the streets to hustle. My brother wouldn’t allow me to do the hard jobs. He did bricklaying in Benin; we were paid with bread.
“All we were practically doing was begging. My father left us. We went to Kaduna and my brother found his calling in computers. I had a thing for singing. Years later, we found our dad and lived with him for a few months.
“We left to live with our mom and started cooking. My brother went to computer school. In SS3, I had no money to pay for my O Level exams. My uncle helped. Thereafter, my life changed. We entered the streets fully.
“While my mum cooked, I learned. We were serving double portions to attract customers. That was our only source of income. When she was sick, our cooking paid her medical bills.”
Whitemoney also touched on how he monetised his songwriting, relocated to Lagos where he lived under a bridge.
“A friend of mine came to serve in that village. I told her I could barb hair and that I also wrote songs. I wrote a full album and she took it to Lagos. She was to shoot a video for one of the songs and had me come to Lagos,” he added.
“I decided to stay back in Lagos. I sought work in a barbing saloon but got none. I was under pressure to move out from where I was squatting. My shop in Kaduna got burned so there was nothing to go back to.
“I started living under the bridge. We would defecate and dispose of it in plastic bags. We bathed in the public. But I didn’t lose focus. I met a lot of people, including those who did things to me. I went through a lot.
“In 2015, someone helped me with money and a vehicle but that was short-lived. I started from scratch, struggling. I sold jewelry, hawked fries on the streets, sold cream, barbed hair. I got rejected everywhere I sought work.”
But all that has changed today as he is the proud winner of the grand prize of N90 million.
The sum of N30 million was made available in cash while N60 million was to cover travel and other gifts.
