Nollywood actor Deyemi Okanlawon has opened up about a painful chapter of his life, revealing how he once slept in a friend’s parlour and broke down crying on a flooded Lagos street after a car splashed dirty water on him.
The actor, known for top-rated movies and TV shows such as “Blood Sisters,” “King of Boys: The Return of the King,” and “Omo Ghetto: The Saga,” shared his story on LinkedIn.
“In 2007 my life collapsed,” he wrote.
He said he had quit the family business and moved out of home. “No safety net, no guarantees, no clear future. Just conviction + stubborn faith.”
For 18 months, he slept in his friend Chaz’s parlour in Bajulaiye, Shomolu. “So broke I often had to choose between food and bus,” he said. Most days he walked to an office on Akinhanmi Street in Surulere. Halfway through the walk was a church where he often stopped for AC and water.
“Sometimes I just needed to sit somewhere that felt hopeful before continuing,” he wrote.
One day, it rained heavily. “The kind of rain that turns Lagos roads into rivers, cars into boats and our people to biblical water-walking pedestrians,” he said. By the time he got past Jibowu crossing near Empire, the roads were flooded.
“And as if I wasn’t already soaked enough, a car sped past me not just splashing water but raising a proper Lagos tsunami wave. I was completely drenched in dirty flood water from head to toe.”
He said the moment broke him completely. “IT BROKE ME!”
“I started crying. Deep, uncontrollable crying, as if every frustration, disappointment, anger, uncertainty, fear, humiliation, exhaustion, and silent prayer stored in my body had suddenly found an exit.”
Then something unexpected happened. “Suddenly I began thanking God, worshipping & singing. Then just as sudden I started laughing. ‘Abi I don dey craze?’, I thought. From crying to praising God to laughing then crying again, I continued walking in the rain.”
When he finally got to the office, nobody was around. “I took off my clothes, stood there in my briefs in front of a fan, drying myself. And in that empty office I remember thanking God for a future that did not yet exist physically, but one I had already written down by faith – the evidence of my hope.”
He admitted he had no roadmap and no connections to explain what he believed was coming. “But somehow, I knew.”
He described that moment as the lowest point of his life. “But sometimes the lowest point is not where your life ends, it is where the old version of you finally breaks apart enough for the next version to emerge. And sometimes while you are still standing in the rain your breakthrough is already close.”
He said that a few months later, everything changed. “Opportunities came! Doors opened!” He became Head of Marketing at Proshare, then owner of Sales Target C, then Category Manager at Dealfish NG, then Marketing Manager at OLX NG.
“The same Lagos that once watched me walk through floodwater began to watch me rise,” he said.
He added that whenever he is driving in the rain and sees pedestrians by the roadside, he slows down carefully. “Because I remember what it feels like to be the man standing in the flood while life speeds past.”
He urged people to be kind to others. “Never forget you have no idea what battle someone is fighting. Sometimes kindness is simply refusing to add to someone else’s suffering.”
He also revealed that he recently lost a friend. “Nigerians had hurt him so badly he must have no longer trusted even his closest friends with the worst moment of his life. Rest bro we’ll keep spreading the love-filled memories you left behind.”
