How Apostle Naomi Osagiede is giving hope and self-esteem to talented people, especially children from the underserved communities in the United States!
By Emman Okuns
Last year, the founder of Fire of Life, an evangelical Ministry, Apostle (Mrs.) Naomi Osagiede took some drastic steps to translate one of her visons into concrete reality – The African Hidden Talents, a talent-hunting show established to catch gifted children young especially those from the underserved communities was born.
It would signal a robust hope for those whose fine and creative inner qualities have been yearning for expression.
The show made its debut at the Best Western Plus New Englander in Woburn, Massachusetts United States of America on July 24, 2015, following a preliminary contest in June that paraded 40 contestants who underwent rigorous audition. The July 24 show was the semi-final where 29 out of 40 contestants were selected.
On Friday September 18, 2015, the first grand finale of the show was held at the Melrose Memorial Hall in Melrose, Massachusetts amidst fanfare and symbolism associated with great entertainment.
The show which provides opportunity for the young, the youths and children to showcase and develop their talents in different areas of human endeavors, such as singing, dancing, acting, etc. was watched by people cutting across ethnic, religions, social and racial background.
The finalists for the September event included the following singers: Nehizena Young Edo, Joey Banks, Esther Glitau, Carol Glitau, Courtney Igbinosa, Praise Edokpa, Janey David, Sharon Banks, Adenike Adeduwon, Osahenrhunmwen Osazuwa, Danielle Aiworo, Angel Aiworo and Jessica Eri Arhuidese.
Among those in the dancers’ category (heavenly dancers, as they were tagged) were:
Ashley Obarisiagbon, Freda Otaru, Danielle Aiworo, Angel Aiworo, Charisma Banks and the twins of the show, Osaru Evbenaye and Genesis Evbenaye.
The first position was won by Joey Banks with a cash prize of $3, 500, along with an opportunity for a music record deal, while the second position went to Janey David with a cash prize of $2,500.The third position was won by Danielle Aiworo who went away with a cash prize of $1,000.
Apostle Naomi Osagiede, who was one of the judges at the show, is not just an entrepreneur and President of Beyond Healthcare Franchise, but a humanitarian whose vison is driven by the belief that it is better to catch the talents and help them realize their potentials while they are still very young.
She has been involved in community service for a long time, including sponsoring various community development initiatives and providing support to people in the shelter.
In an interview with Alltimepost.com in October last year, Apostle Osagiede talked about her Talents show. She recalled watching helplessly, how adults who could not be discovered and helped when they were younger struggle in present time to express their inner qualities.
She also talked about her vision, the inspiration, the driving force and why it must be sustained, even after she is gone from this world.
Below is full text of the interview:
Q: You hosted the African Hidden Talents show between June and September 2015. What was the vision behind the show and how would you describe the outcome?
A: I think that overall, the event was successful. I did not think that it was going to be that big. But I am very grateful to God for the success of the program and the reason I say that is, I first of all had a dream.
I think it was late May or early June in 2015. In the dream, I was in a room. Before I entered the room, people in there did not want me to get in.
As I made an attempt to enter they would close the door and I tried to open it. They pushed back at the door preventing me from entering.
And I kept asking them what is going on, why don’t you want me to enter? These were people that I did not really know; so all I knew was that they were African people and I was wondering, ok what are these people doing there?
As I Was turning my back to leave, the door opened on its own and they were surprised, I was surprised. So, I got in. When I got in they all tried to cover the back of the door and I said: what are you doing there?
Only for me to get to the back of the door and see a lot of red wires put together and I was asking: what are you doing with all these? And I said: this is a dangerous thing to do.
Somebody said to me, “come here let me show you something.” As soon as I came out, there was a big stage; there were piano, bands microphones, all kinds of musical equipment.
I was like, this is what you need to be doing with your lives because you have so many talents. I started directing: You go and sing, you go and dance. I was directing them.
And they started singing and one of them held a microphone and said: “if not for this woman I would have not known that I have such a hidden talent.”
At that point I woke up and I said, wow! Two days later I had the same dream. I was in a room trying to talk to people about talents and one of them was giving testimony again and I said, wow!
And I said to myself: if I have this dream the third time and I don’t do anything about it, it would not be good. So I decided to act on it. After the audition when I wanted to stop the whole thing, I said: let us just have a small get-together and give the people a small gift, but in another dream I saw a big stage again.
So, at that point it was hard to stop. So I had to put everything together, working with the people; it was a challenging time for me and was funny that two days after the grand finale, (I had the grand finale on Friday) on Sunday night I had another dream.
In that dream, we had so many people, you know, children, youths, teenagers and adults; they were all lying down flat and lifeless. So I took on the children and was saying: wake up and they did not wake up.
So I put my mouth in their mouths and started giving breathes in the dream and they started waking up and they were singing, dancing and doing the same talent show. And I said: God!
After the whole grand finale I still wanted to say no, but that dream told me that you cannot stop. That is why I am grateful to God that even though I feel it is like an idea, is a vision, God keeps telling me that it is not about how I feel.
It is not about me, it is about the work that he wants me to do and if he has chosen me to do it I should just move ahead and continue.
That is my assignment and I cannot joke with it. So that is why I resolved in my heart that it is something I must do. Something that must move on, something that must continue and last even after I have gone from his world.
It is a ministry in itself. And it is not for a particular set of people. Although it is called African Hidden talents because the first dream I saw was all Africans and all that, but God is saying I cannot stop it, it has to continue. If you ask me personally it is not something I want to see myself doing. But I thank God I am grateful to him.
Q: So when is the next show coming?
A: The next show is coming next year 2016 by the grace of God. We are making the arrangement, putting all the contracts in place, looking for a venue. Eventually we do know that we would have the right location.
Q: Where is it going to hold, in Boston?
A: We don’t know yet.
Q: Which date?
A: The date is definitely from June ending and will be before the first week of September of 2016. The plan is to start auditioning in a couple of weekends before June 2016. So the audition should start between April and June.
Q: What is the process of registration?
A: Registration will be online. We are rebuilding the site where we are going to do it. The site is www.Africanhiddentalents.com.
Q: At about what time do you think people should start registering?
A: Any time. They can go on line and start registering. They should put their information there and we have staff that would be calling people. They are going to be calling them and getting them prepared and letting them know the location because it is going to be bigger this time around.
Q: Do you have a plan to sign winners for recording label so that the show doesn’t just end up with prize winning alone?
A: We already have that in place. We always had that in place. The winners already know that we are calling them for interviews to get a record label. The first winner of our show is a young singer, joey Banks. We actually have a couple of artists.
I thank God for his parents for their encouragement of the boy. It is what I actually say to all parents to please, encourage their children to discover their God-given talents.
Pastor Keith and Sogie Banks Obanor, the parents of Joey Banks gave everything up for their children to be part of this. They did a wonderful job. They gave their time and energy to make sure that their children met the demands of the show.
Every parent did. Most parents whose children were part of this were really involved. We also want to thank all other parents, I don’t know if I should mention all their names for their contributions, their support their time their energy. It is a life time experience for anyone. We are really grateful that they did a great job for doing that.
Q: You said it is a life time experience for anyone. What do you mean by that?
The children will never forget these memories. There is a lot of things that children forget but for the experience of being part of a team that actually helps develop their self-esteem is something that any growing person, even an adult can never forget. So it is very important that they see this as not just winning but as something to help their future.
What is your perception of public acceptance of the show, how would you describe it?
I think that is still in the works. I know that people get excited that it is a talent show. It is not something that people get every day. And Participating in something like this, especially from an African person like them at first, creates these doubts and it is just always normal to have that reaction, but I know that with time people are going to understand that there is more to it than just what they are thinking and that, in itself, is something I cannot control.
I don’t expect to be doing that, but my job is to stay focused, have faith in the dream, keep it organized as much as possible; that is my definition and be very consistent with being committed to the cause and also understand that it is something that requires a lot of steadfastness on my end.
I have to be steadfast in the calling in other word, be faithful to the cause. If we say we are going to do something we carry it out, we will stick with it, we do the research, we consult, follow the processes, be principled and I think that in the end God has a way of blessing diligence and he will do that.
So when we do our part, for me it is like covenant with God from the day I started. It does not mean I will not have drawback or shortcomings as a human being. I think it is normal. I know that in the end if we are still committed God will bless the work.
Q: The term public acceptance is really very broad, but if you look at the people from the communities that participated, they are part of the public. From that perspective how would you describe their reaction?
I think they were very supportive. There were those like Pastor Peter Osazuwa who were dropping their people day in day out. People came all the way from Andover, like Magnus Igbinosa and his wife, but they did it.
Parents were doing it from one to one and half hours drive, stock in traffic for two hours. I can’t mention how much support we got from the public. It was great. Every community was there represented. We had people from Nigeria, we had people from Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, everywhere, they all showed up.
We had people from Liberia. A Liberian won the second price. We had the Whites, the
Spanish, etc. They were all there to support the cause.
Some of our sponsors are white Americans and they all contributed to the success of the show. So we are very grateful to God.
Q: So when was the moment that you said to yourself: “I am happy, I did it?”
A: I still haven’t reached that moment yet. I think that overall there is that continuous contentment for every step we take. I think it is not something that I can take credit for ultimately to say this is it.
No, It is going to be something that I will be deceiving myself about because I know that it is bigger than me, but it is not bigger than God. Every year it is going to be bigger and greater, more wonderful than my mind can carry.
Q: So you mean in the midst of all this, from a vison to actualization, beginning from the first stage to the grand finale of the whole show, there was no moment you felt happy about your achievement?
A: For the first season, I can tell you that after the winner was announced I was broken because I did not put myself in the position of the winner. I put myself in the position of those who did not win: What did they feel? What are they going through?
It was very hard for me to connect to both sides at the same time. But all I kept saying is I thank you God because this is what you wanted to see. It is very hard to carry a dream; I don’t know if you understand where I am coming from. It is too emotional. It is only that I cannot really describe it with words.
Look at it this way; I just sat down there, saying yes you won; yes you lost. Some people were kicked out of the stage because they did not win. I was excited for the winners but cried for those that did not win and my heart was to all of them and I just loved them and that was why I said I would have lunch with all of them.
It was quite an experience for us all, but in the end and I think the moment I think I said I did it was when I went to my hotel room that night I screamed Hallelujah to God.
Nosakhare Okunmwendia Eseimude liked this on Facebook.