Today I want to talk about somebody very special, a very amazing person that has grown to become a force to reckon with in the Nigerian creative space. For the sake of this piece, I would love to call him The Creative Tiger.
I honestly cannot place or remember how we met, but one thing is for sure; in the few years I and Dada Temitope Dabest have been friends, he has been nothing short of phenomenal. We grew up in the same environment, Ojodu Berger, and met on the streets, chasing purpose and building dreams. As at the time I met him, he was the leader of the Media team of the defunct MINE Teens Ministry. I guess, this was one cord that brought us together. I was a young budding media enthusiasts, and we were able to relate on that level.
Most of us in that set and from that area were all young guys with like minds pushing the boundaries of greatness. Most of us didn’t come from wealthy families or family money, but we all knew the power of capacity and skills. And so, we chased capacity development hungrily. You would see us at every teen and youth programme in the area; broke boys, yet real hunger for success shone brightly in our eyes. All we wanted to do was achieve our dreams and live a life of purpose.
When you put that image in perspective with what we have turned out to be today, you can’t just help but smile. It's beautiful, because what you will see is it is a growth process that is enviable.
For Dabest, as he is popularly called, he rose from being just a random regular guy, to, I can beat my chest and say this confidently, one of the most sought after creative in Nigeria right now. Whatever you see Dabest enjoying today, he worked for it, and only few people who are close to him or who grew up with him can tell you the story. I have pictures of him, which if I show you today, you would not believe that this is the same fine boy we all see today.
For most of us, this is our story. Ojodu boys, touring the streets of Saabo, Yakoyo, Grammar School, Oremeta and the likes; trekking from place to place. Memories, mehn. Those of us who had these experiences can completely relate to the story, because it's just beautiful.
Back to Dabest. This young man is indeed a wonderful soul, an amazing person. One thing I can say about the best is that he doesn't like to talk. He's somebody who is a genius when he’s at the back of the camera, but put him in front of the camera, you will see a very quiet and calm man.
Dabest is truly a man of very few words. I mean very, very few words. But he will do magic when he's the one creating the magic. And yes, he does create beautiful magic. His videos are nothing short of exceptional and would get you blushing and screaming with excitement at the same time.
I remember when I was to celebrate my 25th birthday. We had not even become so close as at then. We just knew each other. As at that time, he was still into photography. By the way. He did a very major career switch from photography to cinematography. I'll come back to that story in a while.
When I was to be 25, I called him and I said ‘guy, how far can you help me handle my birthday shoot?’ He was like, ‘okay, fine’. My birthday is on the 25th of December and I was to be 25 that year, so it was a landmark event for me and that was going to be my first ever birthday photoshoot. I wanted some very quality jpegs. I kept asking this young man how much he would charge and he never responded to it. You remember, he doesn’t talk much. Lol.
But, he came through. In fact, he was having a program he was at a camp that period. But, he left the camp, came down to where I was to take my pictures and refused to take a dime.
The next year, I didn’t call him back. I really wasn’t comfortable calling him again, because I knew he wouldn’t want to collect a fee. I have this weird way of feeling like when people do things for me for free, I kind of owe them something in return, and this knowledge wrecks me.
So, for 26, I had someone else handle the shot. It is safe to say, I didn’t like the output. For 27, I also went for someone else too. But, crazy story, the photographer stood me up. I had already made plans with him, fixed everything, but, alas, the dude disappointed me big time.
As at 24th of December, I didn't have any pictures. So, I was like ‘well, I can’t kill myself, this is the one year that I won't do any photoshoot, we would all be fine.’
I woke up the next morning and Baba sent me a happy birthday text and was asking for my pictures. I told him I didn’t have any, as the photographer I got disappointed me. He asked me if I could meet him up at a particular place, and I did. He was going to pick up some equipment for an event the next day, but ladies and gentlemen, this dude took some hours of his busy schedule to give me some of the best images ever.
One of the images he took was a face portrait; that picture became my official portrait for every of my project. I call it an iconic photo. It was so powerful an image. When I contested for office in 2019, I even used it on my fliers and posters. It is still the profile picture on my LinkedIn account till today. Still yet, Dabest didn’t take money from me.
Amazing guy.
Dabest is not just your ordinary guy. He is a very, very determined, focused and highly ambitious person. One look at him, and you might be tempted to thinking he is just an ordinary guy. This is because, like I like to say, the level of ambition that Dabest has can be very antithetical to his personality. He has this very unassuming persona. He looks like somebody who does not even know what he wants to do in life, or who does not have the guts to push for great things. But you need to be in the brain of this young man, you would be amazed.
The way he grew and developed in his career would show you clearly the level of direction and clarity this guy possesses. I remember some years back, I contracted him to design a flier for a yearly teens programme I usually organized. This was a paid job though (lol, he finally learnt how to charge me). He told me after the job, that that was the last time he would be doing Graphics Design. He wanted to focus fully on Photography. After a few years, in another conversation again, he told me he was moving away from Photography and wanted to concentrate fully on Cinematography. I didn’t understand why he was doing that, because that was when photography was becoming a big thing and it was really booming. He said, he knows that his heart is in cinematography. I didn't fully understand why he was taking that move, but I felt that if he was this passionate about it, then he must have a plan. And trust me, I think he had a strong plan because we can all see the evidence today.
I remember some years back, we tried to form a group. It failed though, but I am very sure, one day, we will still go to go back to that project. I had conceived the project and shared with one of my friends, Joy Solomon, who was (I think she still is) one of the leaders at Starhub. I had wanted to do wanted to bring together a group of inspiring young people in this our Ojodu Berger area for a beautiful media campaign. The goal was to create something that would inspire the young ones and show them that they could live and lead a clean life and yet make something out of it, not necessarily having to engage in yahoo yahoo. It was a beautiful concept but I think it was too early to market so in died in natural way. If we had probably waited a few more years, we would have been able to achieve it.
I remember some great names from the pioneering team; names like Deborah Chibueze of Deb Afrique, the great Journalist, Bolu Akindele, Ayobamiji ‘Erin’ Komolafe, Olu Coonlay. Dabest came around to our first meeting to the very talented Tobi Toun. That was when I met him.
It was at these meetings; I began to clearly see what was burning in the heart of Dabest. He wanted to create a very strong community of creatives, especially Christian creatives. I saw that burning clearly. With few years gone past, if you look at things right now, you can say he has done just that. He has, whether consciously or unconsciously become a major role model in the Christian creative space. This is a person that inspires a lot of younger Christian creatives.
He is a titan; one you can’t easily just put aside.
There was an event I once organized. It was a training for undergraduates during one of the ASUU strikes. I just felt like they had been staying at home for too long and needed them to learn some stuff; and so I organized some classes on digital marketing. Dabest was actually supposed to come as a speaker. He not only came around, but also covered the whole event for me. He came with his camera and took pictures of the event.
If there's one thing I've been blessed with is the level of friends, I have; the power and solidity of my circle. I don’t take anyone of my guys for granted. I am glad to be able to say I know Dabest.
His birthday was yesterday, and all I can say is that his growth is phenomenal, and he has just started. Don’t say I was just ranting, experience his greatness for yourself. Take a peep at his INSTAGRAM account.
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Akan Imoh
Dabest! His photography made me actively follow him, all those weddingsbydt😍😍😍
Too selfless a man